The Daily Pennsylvanian met with Penn Medical professor Barbara Weber to learn about "Improving Lives by Investing in Science and Medicine." As the University's director of cancer genomics, Weber is a leader known in the scientific community for her work on breast cancer research.
DP: What did you see as the goal for the panel today?
BW: I think the goal for the panel was to take a very diverse range of scientists and ask some of the most pressing issues of our time and learn how to approach these issues from multiple, different perspectives.
DP: What do you think is the most important message to take away in terms of how people can be productive in this area of science and medicine?
BW: I don't know that I can identify any one single method, but I think there were a couple of important ones. One is that information and collecting information [are] really important. Cultural differences are also really important, and global responsibility is important.
We all need to move things forward, but do that in a responsible, culturally sensitive way.
And the other thing is that there are important issues in dealing with [private] industry and academics. It's a necessary partnership, but it's something we also have to be careful that we [approach] appropriately.
DP: How do you see the message of this panel being implemented in [President Amy] Gutmann's new administration and her vision for leading the school?
BW: I think that it fits well in general with the themes of engagement essentially.
DP: How is this panel applicable to the Penn community?
BW: I think we said today that the Penn community is a microcosm of the world. I mean, there's no question about it.
We can use that [microcosm setup] as a way to get people talking to each other, get better understanding of cultural differences and really figure out new ways to bring advancement to the rest of the world -- without, as we said before, running [the rest of the world] over.
