To mentor others, I think it's an incredible relationship. I think of all the things I have done as a scientist, this is probably my favorite thing, to mentor others. I think you are absolutely correct; you build a family and you have to take people in your own laboratory with a full commitment. This is not a two-year, three-year, four-year relationship. It's a life commitment. This is really people that are going to be with you that you're going to care for and protect for your whole life. It's a really profound relationship, so my first advice is to pick very selectively who you're going to have because this is going to be a commitment. It's a real profound relationship and you have to be ready to really be fully there.

Then, you have to accept people for absolutely who they are. You're not molding them to be a mini you. You have to really allow them to express this unique quality or this unique aspect that can make them extraordinary scientists. Also, to have some time, to give time to people to grow. So, I think respect, giving them a lot of space, being always there in the difficult moments. I think science is this really incredible complex marathon, and you have to be there. You have to be there to help them, to guide them through difficult moments. You have to give them the energy. You have to. It's really a wonderful relationship and I think when people emerge as this fully independent, creative scientist, I think this is the best gift you can have as a scientist, [to] see others becoming that.

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.