How did I indulge my scientific curiosity? By surrounding myself with creative humans. By never being afraid to be challenged. By being open-minded. By not believing that what I do is the center of the universe, but there are actually answers in other fields. I think by remembering this aspect, the joy of research, I think remembering very, very constantly of the joy and privilege of looking at something, and thinking with others, at exploring new ideas. Science is a stressful career and I think sometimes it consumes so much, everything, that you forget how beautiful science is. So, I indulge by surrounding myself by positive, joyful explorers, and people that are able to take risk, not afraid of taking risk. I think surrounding yourself right is the way to go.

Yasmine Belkaid is a renowned scientist whose research focuses on the relationship between microbes and the immune system. She is the President as well as the head of the Metaorganism laboratory at the Institut Pasteur.

Belkaid earned her Master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene in Algiers, and a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) from Paris-Sud University. In 1996, she earned her PhD in immunology from the Institut Pasteur, where she studied innate immune responses to leishmania infection. Belkaid then moved to the United States for a postdoctoral fellowship in intracellular parasite biology at NIAID’s Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases (NIH).

Belkaid has received numerous awards including the Robert Koch Prize, the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Prize, and the AAI Excellence in Mentoring Award. She also serves on the committees of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the Microbiome Technical Advisory Group at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the NIH Anti-Racism Steering Committee, the American Society of Microbiology, and the Genentech Scientific Resource Board.