Attending a big scientific convention like The Biophysics Meeting was an opportunity to meet some of my heroes in person. I was giddy with anticipation at the prospect. I searched through the list of names and abstracts looking for names and subjects that might be related or important to my work. There were lots of people and things to see.

Once I got to the meeting, I went to a poster presentation by a guy from France who did a lot of important work on creatine kinase in the heart. I had never met him, only read his papers, but they seemed really high tech and related to my work. I went up to the poster and a young woman was there. I read over the poster and started to ask her questions. She had a pleasant French accent but spoke very clear and understandable English. I took notes on what she was saying, trying to take in the huge load of great information that came forth. She could do some things in the lab in France that we could not do in the Michigan State lab, and did this work using heart muscle.

I pointed to the name of the lead author, my hero, printed on the poster and said, “So do you work for or with this person?”

I pointed to his name because I was not sure how to pronounce “Ventura-Clapier” in French.

She said, “No, that is me; Renee Ventura-Clapier.”

Boy, was I embarrassed. I was talking to the big boss! If I had known who I was talking to, I would have been too shy to ask all those questions.

Undaunted by my faux pas, Dr. Ventura-Clapier continued. “What kind of research do you do?”

I told her about my work on vascular smooth muscle and creatine kinase, about my purification efforts, the NMR studies and the function work I was doing. Renee believed that the creatine and creatine kinase systems were important during diseases such as heart failure and high blood pressure and that they could affect or improve heart function. This was very similar to what I had been thinking about with the arteries. She also said her lab had been interested in studying the creatine and creatine kinase system in arteries, but had never found anyone interested in studying this.

“If you want to do some work in France, my lab could welcome you do to that,” she said almost off-handedly.

Was she offering me a job in France, or just being polite? Her lab was in Paris. I could do my work on arteries and do it in Paris. That was a exciting concept.

“Where are you working now?” she asked.

When I told her Michigan State, the expression on her face changed.

“Do you know Dr. Myer?”

“Yes I do,” I said not quite understanding her concerned tone.

“Dr. Myer does not believe in compartmentation,” she said.

Now I understood her cooler demeanor. She was a compartmentation supporter and must have assumed that I might be against that hypothesis because I was in the same department as Dr. Myer.

“My data seems to be showing compartmentation in vascular smooth muscle. I am not sure what to think just yet regarding compartmentation in other tissues, though. I know what you think based on your recent papers, but I am still trying to decide for myself what I believe based on the data.”

Renee smiled. “You’re going to make up your own mind independent of what Dr. Myer has published. Good for you.”

I really liked the fact that she did not try to convince me of her opinion and seemed content to let me make up my own mind. I genuinely liked Renee.

“Maybe you could come to Michigan to talk about your work.” I suggested.

“If you can arrange it, I’ll definitely come to talk to you and Dr. Myer.”

“Great, I’ll get started on it.”

We exchanged contact information and promised to be in touch after the meeting. I felt confident that I would see her again both at this meeting and eventually in Michigan. I was also intrigued by the concept of doing my postdoctoral training in Paris. I started to wonder about the possibilities. What would I need to do to go there? I would need a passport and a visa. I would also need to talk to Ann. How would I find a place to live in France, and exactly where would I live? These and a myriad of thoughts started to swirl around in my head. It sounded like I could have a job in Renee’s lab—I wondered what the salary would be. Renee had some great research tools and she had indicated that I could use them in my work with arteries in her lab. She was the leader of a cardiovascular lab and I could be the vascular part of her cardiovascular lab. They were studying things like heart failure and high blood pressure, and my work might help them find cures to those and related diseases. This would also give me an opportunity to learn more so that I could make up my own mind as to whether I supported the theory of compartmentation, or not.

I wandered around the Biophysics meeting for the rest of the day in somewhat of a daze, thinking thorough all the things Renee had said and mulling over the opportunities that seemed to be opening up. Would Ann be supportive, and could I bring her? Could she get a job over there? How long would I be in France? There were many things to think about.

Could I learn French? I’d taken Spanish in high school and German in college, but I had pretty much forgotten those. Would I need to speak French? Renee spoke English very well. What about Ann learning French? What if Ann did not want to go to France? It seemed like such an opportunity, if it was really an opportunity. Maybe I had misread Renee and she was just making polite conversation. I would have to get Renee to Michigan and see how serious she was with her invitation to work in her lab. The more I thought about it, the surer I was that there was a bright future for me in this research arena.