Shirley M. Tilghman is president emerita and professor of molecular biology at Princeton University.

Q. Tell me about your path since graduation.

A. My name is Shirley Tilghman, and I've been at Princeton University as a faculty member and then as president of the University for almost 30 years. I grew up in Canada knowing that I wanted to be a scientist of one kind or another. I went to university thinking I wanted to be a chemist, and I left knowing I want to be a molecular biologist. After two years teaching in West Africa I went to graduate school to pursue a degree in molecular biology and had been thinking of myself as both a teacher and a molecular biologist for many years, until I suddenly discovered that I was a university administrator. That was a big career change; it was unexpected. I often call myself the accidental president, because I never intended to be a university administrator. It was never on my bucket list of things I wanted to do with my life. I became president because I had agreed to run as a member of the faculty on the search committee to identify the 19th president. I did that because I was starting a genomics institute and I was really concerned that we have a president who understands genomics and believes that it's an important part of the future. So I think without serving on that search committee I would never have been chosen, and I never would have thought that I would want to do it.


Find Ms. Tilghman’s full interview here: [ Ссылка ]

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CAREER & LIFE VISION CONVERSATIONS is a video series by Princeton Career Services highlighting lessons learned by inspiring Princetonians. For the whole series visit: [ Ссылка ]
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Produced by Lisa Einstein '13
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