Susan Celniker, Ph.D.

Dr. Celniker graduated from Pitzer College with a B.A. in Biology and Anthropology, followed by two years at the City of Hope National Medical Center in the Department of Medical Genetics studying brain proteins from Huntington's patients. After completing her dissertation at Caltech, she received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She accepted an NIH Postdoctoral Service Award (1983-1986) to work with E.B. Lewis (Nobel Laureate, 1995) conducting a genetic analysis of the bithorax complex, homeotic gene, Abdominal-B. She continued to work with Dr. Lewis until 1996, when she was hired as a Staff Scientist at Berkeley Lab. In 2001, she was a co-recipient of the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize for "The Genome Sequence of Drosophila melanogaster.”

Currently the Deputy of Science in the Life Sciences Division at Berkeley Lab, she led the effort to characterize the Drosophila transcriptome for NHGRI’s modENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project. She is an advisor to FlyBase (2007-present), on the editorial boards of BMC Genomics (2009-present) and G3 (2011-present), and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

1. What inspires you to work in STEM?

I was drawn to the natural sciences when I was young by the excitement of discovery and the intrinsic beauty found in nature. I moved from biology to genetics to genomics because of my interest in the control of gene expression as it applied to the generation of diversity of form.

2. What excites you about your work at the Energy Department/Berkeley Lab?

I’m excited by collaborative Big Science programs that are unique to national laboratories. I’ve had the opportunity to work with engineers, mathematicians, and statisticians on projects that would be difficult to accomplish in a strictly university setting. I was part of the team that sequenced the Drosophila genome. It was the first metazoan to be sequenced using whole-genome sequencing that is now the standard in the field. We are continuing to explore the genome using cutting-edge technology.

3. How can our country engage more women, girls, and other underrepresented groups in STEM?

I believe it’s critical to get girls and women engaged in STEM as soon as possible. Primary education benefits by having scientists work in the classroom, come to give presentations, and act as judges at science fairs. The Berkeley Lab Internships for Precollegiate Scholars (BLIPS) program at the Lab was an especially great program for talented high school students to have the opportunity to participate in the scientific process in a vibrant lab setting. The National Science Bowl is another excellent program run by DOE that engages middle and high school students and tests students’ knowledge in all areas of science. I think it’s important that scientists participate in such programs and having done so, I know that it complements the work we do in the laboratory.

4. Do you have tips you would recommend for someone looking to enter your field of work?

Be persistent, be curious, be true to yourself, find out what questions intrigue you and figure out what tools you need to acquire to address those questions.

5. When you have free time, what are your hobbies?

Hiking, tennis, traveling.