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The field of mathematical oncology is a very active research field. What started with a handful of people in the late 1990s has grown to a major research area that spans members from all over the world. Researchers are working with medical scientists, biologists on real data to make sense out of cancer. They engage to understand this serious disease better with the goal of helping early diagnosis, testing treatments, predicting potential outcomes and optimizing treatment schedules for individual patients.

The ability to collect data has grown dramatically over the years. We now routinely gather cancer data at all conceivable levels, from proteomics and genomics, to cell and tissue characterizations, to organ and systemic data. Experts are needed to analyze these data in order to build mathematical models around them. Who is better qualified to do this than mathematicians, statisticians and computer scientists?

But who are these people? What motivates them to spend time and resources to research cancer? And why, of all things, do they use mathematics?

These are questions we all have heard or even asked ourselves. The new YouTube series “Math Oncology Interviews” intends to answer these questions. I invite colleagues in mathematical oncology to talk about their research, motivation, and their path into this scientific field.

The idea for this interview series came during a Thematic Program in Mathematical Oncology at the Fields Institute in the Fall of 2024. During the Thematic Program, experts were coming in and out at different times. While at an SMB meeting we often have more than 100 math oncologists together for a full week, here at Fields we had much smaller groups. It gave the unique opportunity to meet one-on-one with some of the field’s leaders. However, not everybody could benefit from it. So, the idea was born to approach those experts and interview them so that others can meet them virtually. The interviews open doors for younger scientists who are entering the field; to meet the faces of the leading researchers, and become inspired by their infectious motivations and stories of accomplishments. During each interview the researchers also provide advice for success in mathematical oncology, and STEM in general.

Beyond reaching the next generation of scientists, these interviews show that these researchers are people. People who have real concerns, mixed backgrounds, and who experience pressures and frustrations like everyone else. Facing many obstacles they still find the power and motivation to carry on their important work.

Another motivation for these interviews is the observed dissipation of contents from social media. I like social media and I use X, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook regularly. However, the amount of stupidity in most of the postings is staggering, and I am sure most of you share this view. This is where the idea of the interview series comes in: doing my part to contribute meaningful and interesting contents to your social media feeds.

Let’s come back to the interviews. So far I have been lucky to interview a wide variety of colleagues, including senior leaders, junior rising stars, women, men, and representatives from various ethnic backgrounds. You will notice that I often ask a female guest to speak about their experience as a woman in STEM. These questions are pre-arranged. I always ask them beforehand if they are comfortable to be greeted as a woman, and to talk about their experiences in a male dominated environment. I also ask my male colleagues if we should discuss this issue. Many of them are extremely active supporting underrepresented groups, and they have interesting ideas to share. However, imagine two middle-aged men (like myself and a guest) discussing women's issues on a public platform like YouTube. We don’t really have experiences to have these discussions, and so it would not end well! We stay away from such discussions that could be misunderstood in a non-intended way. Instead, what I can do is give women a voice. Give them a platform to express their concerns and experiences, if they wish to do so.

Many of my guests will talk about “fun”. What can possibly be fun talking about cancer? Please be assured that we do not see cancer as fun. Cancer is not fun at all, and we all are very serious about the work we do. However, we are also human, and we enjoy a collaborative partnership that comes together in the fight for a new treatment. Human relationships are built, we make friendships and enjoy each others’ company. Never forgetting how serious our work really is.

The idea to make these interviews found great resonance among my colleagues. I hope I will be able to find many more interesting interview partners and keep the channel going for a while. Enjoy the interviews and if anything piques your interest, or you have questions about the interviews, please leave a comment.

References

1. Introductory video
2. Youtube playlist

Image Credits

Title photo by Sebastian Pandelache on Unsplash. All other photos were created by Thomas Hillen.