Interview with Dr. James Emerson—Winner of the Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease Best PhD Thesis Award
We are pleased to announce that Dr. James Emerson has won the 2024 Best PhD Thesis Award. As the winner, he will receive CHF 500 and a free voucher for article processing fees valid for one year for the Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease (JCDD, IF: 2.3, ISSN: 2308-3425).
Dr. Emerson’s awarded thesis, titled “Post-transcriptional mechanisms regulate cardiac sex differences”, was under the direction of Dr. Frank Conlon. Dr. Emerson is now completing postdoctoral work at Duke University to continue studying cardiac disease.
The following is an interview with Dr. Emerson.
1. As the winner of this award, is there anything you would like to express?
I feel genuinely honored to receive this award and would like to thank my PhD mentor, Dr. Frank Conlon, for all the excellent mentorship he provided me over the course of my PhD, which led to this. I also want to thank JCDD for offering this award and all the other great mentors and teachers I had at the University of North Carolina.
2. Could you share how you first learned about this award?
I learned about the award from my PI, who saw it in a JCDD newsletter.
3. Could you introduce the core focus of your award-winning research? What do you believe the hot topic will be in your field of research in the next few years and why?
The core focus of my doctoral research was to understand the molecular drivers of sex differences in cardiac physiology and disease. We used an integrated approach where we were able to understand the protein-level differences that account for sex differences in physiology, as well as the molecular mechanisms that act upstream to drive predispositions to certain types of heart disease in one sex or the other. In the future, I think studying sex differences can be applied to provide precision medicine and improve cardiac disease outcomes. Baseline physiological differences between the sexes can protect each from developing certain types of cardiac diseases, especially cardiac arrhythmias. Understanding and applying these mechanisms of protection could improve patient outcomes.
4. What qualities do you think a young researcher needs?
Young researchers' good qualities include staying motivated when experiments fail and things aren't going well and being humble when success comes. I think it is also good to always keep the bigger picture in mind and remember the importance of your work for science.
5. How would you evaluate the process of manuscript publication in JCDD?
I am fortunate I was able to publish my first “first-author” paper in JCDD and appreciate all the journal has done for my scientific career. I have found the process of manuscript submission to your journal better than any others I have worked with. I really like how JCDD gives a template for initial submission to streamline the editing process in the future. With my paper, the review process was very efficient and provided thoughtful feedback for the paper.
I think the push for open access publishing is great and is something we should continue to encourage as scientists. Much of science is funded by the general public and they deserve to access the findings that their money was spent on. Science is a public good that should be accessible to all.