Constance Cepko

What inspires or motivates you in your role at HMS/HSDM?
I love being a scientist. I had the opportunity to begin working in lab while in middle school, where Tell in love with doing experiments. Simply going nto lab felt like going home to me, and it still does Dreaming up experiments, solving technical challenges, trying to understand what data are telling us about nature provide me with intellectual challenges and puzzles to solve. In addition, our work has taken us in a direction that may enable us to help those who inherit disease genes that rob them of their vision.

In what ways do you feel you contribute to the Harvard community?
Graduate education is an area in which I like to contribute. I well remember being a graduate student, and the difficulties of getting an experimental system up and running. It is a challenging time for most students, and it is a crucial time in terms of one's intellectual development as a scientist. I have been involved in setting up two of our training programs and have enjoyed working with our students and faculty. We have such an amazing environment here, it is a great challenge to capture what we have to offer while creating a cohesive community for learning.

What is the significance of the object you brought with you to the photo shoot?
I like to exercise and I feel strongly about environmental issues. I also have trouble being sedentary. Biking to work addresses all of these issues. It is such a win-win activity. I enjoy being outside, even when it is cold. I also really like the efficiency of commuting by bike. Biking over to Cambridge or MGH is quicker and more convenient than any other way to get across town. The traffic around the Longwood area makes driving very painful. We need a better way to deal with our transportation problems. If we could make it safer to bicycle in this area, more people would be riding.