Physician-Scientist: Linking Science, Medicine, and Public Policy

Abstract

Forty years ago, soon after I came to Seattle in 1969 to be a Fellow in Medical Genetics with Dr. Arno Motulsky at the University of Washington, I went to meet the founding chair of Internal Medicine, Dr. Robert H. Williams. Dr. Williams was a world leader in endocrinology and especially diabetes. In the early 1950s, he famously recruited young physician-scientists from “back East,” especially where he had been at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, by telephoning them and their spouses at home in the morning before they had a clue what the time was “out West” in Seattle! He was way ahead of his time in inviting spouses to participate early in the recruitment process. At a time when everyone seemed obsessed about identifying “role models,” he had a plaque on the wall behind his desk, which read “Do not ask what path to follow; go, instead, where there is no path, and leave a trail”—as he had, from a start in rural Mississippi. I have found that statement very helpful for myself and for many young people and contemporaries I have counseled across a great variety of career paths. The explicit messages are, “Take risks, pursue your passion, override conventional wisdom, be creative, be bold.” And don’t look back on what might have been the obvious alternatives when pursuing what Robert Frost called “The Road Less Traveled.”

Do not ask what path to follow; go, instead, where there is no path, and leave a trail.

–Robert H. Williams, MD