Kirsten Sadler, Associate Professor and Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at NYU Abu Dhabi, discusses various scientific and societal challenges, from working with a non-model organism in her lab to life as a female scientist in a Muslim country.

She vividly describes the challenges of working with octopus, from the basic question of how to handle the animal, why it’s important to distinguish males from females, to the fact that the only genome to date comes from a single organism and is not annotated. 

She also stresses that it is important to distinguish between real and perceived challenges when it comes to thinking about gender, particularly working in a Muslim country. 

Listen to Dr. Sadler’s insight and advice on how to combine a scientific career and family.