Brand You

Brand You

Cultivating a unique, but genuine, professional brand makes your science stand out.

By Scott Sleek

“Cam squared” might be mistaken for the name of a pop band or movie about a man and his clone. However, it’s actually the label that Camilla F. Wenceslau, PhD, and Cameron G. McCarthy, PhD, have earned as husband-and-wife research collaborators at the University of Toledo in Ohio. 

Wenceslau and McCarthy each earned distinct reputations in the field of vascular biology. But with dozens of co-authored papers on their curriculum vitae and the identical first syllable in their names, the couple generated a brand name for their scientific partnership. 

“Cameron is about to get his own lab, and I have my own lab, but we still work together,” says Wenceslau, who studies the mechanisms of vascular disease. “We didn’t think of ourselves as a brand, but people just started calling us ‘Cam squared.’ Cameron is my scientific partner, and that has value to me.”

Not every scientist can craft such a catchy label, but that shouldn’t discourage them from cultivating a professional brand that distinguishes their work, says STEM career consultant Alaina G. Levine, president of Arizona-based Quantum Success Solutions. 

A rookie mistake is thinking that branding is a negative enterprise or a dishonorable endeavor.

Alaina G. Levine

Levine authored the 2015 book “Networking for Nerds: Find, Access and Land Hidden Game-Changing Opportunities Everywhere” and writes the advice column “Your Unicorn Career” for Science magazine. Researchers who dismiss personal branding as a trite tagline or logo miss its real purpose, she argues.

“A rookie mistake is thinking that branding is a negative enterprise or a dishonorable endeavor,” she says. “None of that is true. It’s all built on an act of generosity. Whenever you market your value—what you bring to an organization and indeed to a field—you’re creating opportunities for other people to see you as a problem-solver.”

The University of Toledo (UT), Wenceslau says, already recognized her brand—and her husband’s role in it—when she interviewed for a faculty position several years ago. While few universities had positions available for both of them, Bina Joe, PhD, the chair of UT’s Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, was eager to recruit them together. Joe hired Wenceslau as an assistant professor, while McCarthy landed a unique postdoc-to-faculty position and expects to transition within the year.

“She said, ‘I really want you guys as a couple here,'” Wenceslau says. 

Wenceslau and McCarthy offer several elements to their brand. Both hail from abroad—Wenceslau from Brazil and McCarthy from New Zealand. They met at Augusta University in Georgia, where Wenceslau was a postdoc and McCarthy was pursuing his doctorate. Their work together there served as the seed for some groundbreaking research on the relationship between damage-associated molecular patterns, inflammation and cardiovascular dysfunction in conditions such as hypertension and sepsis.

Most of the students and researchers they worked with came from overseas, which they believe gives them the cultural competence to offer a nurturing environment for training and mentoring new generations of physiological researchers. “We’re quite used to working with diversity and promoting that as part of our brand,” McCarthy says. 

Merging science with personal passions

Social media represents another core part of the branding process. McCarthy and Wenceslau each have their own Twitter handles, and label themselves as scientists, avid runners and parents. (They have a four-year-old daughter, Emma.) McCarthy also uses Twitter to promote his interest in teaching and mentoring and to disseminate information and advice about career development. 

As a consultant, Levine herself has built a brand that merges her love for science, communications and performing arts—particularly comedy. She began her career in science communications at the University of Arizona, but over the years discovered a need within the scientific community that she was eager to fill. Employers told her that many graduates from the university’s STEM programs lacked some critical soft skills, such as networking and career planning. That prompted her to turn her zest for public speaking into an entrepreneurial endeavor. Today, she markets herself as a science journalist, career adviser, international speaker and—because she injects humor into those speaking engagements—a corporate comedian. 

“I want my clients to know this is going to be a fun experience, not a boring lecture,” she says. 

In fact, making science as entertaining as it is informative is a prevalent branding strategy. Theanne Griffith, PhD, a neuroscientist in the Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology at the University of California, Davis, has taken that approach, primarily with children. Griffith has authored a chapter book series, “The Magnificent Makers,” that takes young readers on scientific adventures. The writing has allowed her to meld her love of science and storytelling. And that’s secured her an image as more than just an academic.

“I didn’t think until very recently about intentionally cultivating a brand,” says Griffith, who studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of thermal sensations. “Children’s books made me realize that I unintentionally would do that. Now, I’m very much aware of my role as a science communicator and how I’m viewed.”

Griffith’s books, aimed at children ages seven to 10, stand out because most of the characters are people of color. The series revolves around Violet, a third grader who dreams of discovering cures for diseases, and her best friend, Pablo, who aims to become an astronaut. Their adventures introduce them to everything from physics to sensory processing, and the stories include racially diverse characters like Deepak and Mr. Eng. 

Griffith also has partnered with museums and libraries on science outreach events. She delivers scientific talks to students in elementary, middle and high schools, and she’s offering science-writing workshops and presentations that show students scientists from different walks of life. 

“When I discuss science, my perspective takes on that larger framework of being a Black woman in science,” she says. “That’s become part of building my brand. I have a unique voice as a woman. And you don’t see too many people who look like me working in this world.”

Griffith doesn’t necessarily view her research work as a big component of her brand, in part because she’s in the early stages of her academic career. But she’s well aware that a brand like hers can weaken if it isn’t backed with a record of solid research. 
“You have to do good science,” she says. “You have to have a product that backs up your brand.”

Jazmine I. Benjamin, a fourth-year PhD student in cell, molecular and developmental biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is also crafting a brand around scientific communication, largely in the political arena. Benjamin investigates the role of feeding behavior on risk factors for diabetes-related kidney disease. But she also serves as president of the university’s Graduate Student Government and aspires to a career in public policy.

Benjamin is particularly interested in policies related to STEM education, research funding and prescription drug pricing. She’s co-founder of the Science Policy & Advocacy Initiative and is pursuing the Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She’s visited congressional offices in Washington, D.C., to impress upon lawmakers the importance of robust research funding. 

Benjamin, who plans to eventually run for public office, views her ability to talk with politicians as a major component of her brand. “I think a lot of my policy and communications work is intertwined with my research,” she says. “I get my credibility from being a scientist. In the same way that I can’t do my communications work without my research, I can’t do my research without my communications work. Being able to talk with students and get them to understand my research means I can explain it to many other audiences.”

Levine asserts that physiologists, many of whom are conducting critical studies, possess a particularly strong foundation for branding among scientists. 

“As a physiologist, your responsibility is to the science, to the understanding of disease, and ultimately to the patients who will benefit from your research,” she says. “So, by championing your own brand, saying ‘I can solve this,’ you are also improving patient outcomes.” 

This article was originally published in the March 2021 issue of The Physiologist Magazine.