Dr. Carmen Falcone is postdoctoral fellow at UC Davis Medical Center. Currently, she studies astrocyte complexity across species in the laboratory of Dr. Veronica Martinez-Cerdeño at the Shriner's Hospital for Children. Recently, she has taken to Twitter to clarify the latest changes in immigration policy that will affect all international scholars, including herself. We invited her to publish her Report on the US Proclamation Suspending the Entry of Immigrants, and answer some interview questions about her own journey as neuroscientist.

What got you interested in reporting on the executive proclamation in your Twitter post?

The last few weeks have been intense for me, my husband and many of our international colleagues, due to that proclamation. Days have been full of stress, anxiety and- above all- uncertainties. Even after reading the full text of the proclamation, we were not sure of how to interpret some of the points. I attended  the event organized by our UC Union of Postdocs and Academic Researchers, where the lawyer Stacey Gartland took the time to explain the details and answer some questions.  I immediately felt that I had a better understanding than before and I felt the need to share all the acquired information with all the people in my same condition (of stress, uncertainty, etc.). I perfectly know how they are feeling and wanted to provide some sort of relief through information. I also wanted to give my small contribution to spread information to American colleagues that wanted to understand more about this proclamation but did not have the time to read about it from different sources. I am a science communication enthusiast, so I have tried to provide an outreach post which could be a starting point to get to know better what’s going on. 

I am very grateful to the Science Twitter community for sharing and appreciating my thread. I have a small account, so I was not used to such big numbers of retweets/comments, but I have been overwhelmed by positive feedback, and it has been awesome so far. I also believe this thread has provided a good platform to exchange information. Most importantly, I hope this thread helps build up a sense of community for both Americans and non-Americans, so that we - international scholars at all career stages - do not feel alone or abandoned, but we rather feel welcomed and appreciated.

Link to the thread here.

What challenges have you faced as an international scholar?

I have to constantly worry about my visa status and renewal. 

Also, as an international scholar, I have access to a very small percentage of all the federal grants and fellowship opportunities. This is frustrating for me and all the international scholars actively doing high level research at US universities.

How has the order impacted you/your international colleagues?

Luckily it seems that all of the international scholars who are currently in the US will not be affected by the latest proclamation in terms of possibility of staying/continuing to work in the US. Thus, all the international scientists in the lab and the institute where I work are allowed to stay, and even renew their visa if it’s about to expire. The situation becomes difficult for many people who are outside and applied/are waiting for an H1-B visa. In that case, UC Davis and the whole academia in the US will be missing thousands of valid researchers from all over the world, researchers who perhaps already got the position and were already planning to move here. 

Mobility in science and academia is crucial, everywhere in the world, and especially here in the US where there is a high quality of research. 

Diversity of background and scientific expertise is what makes science advance towards new horizons and overcome new challenges. Depleting the American research and academia from international contribution and perspective would impact the quality of science and consequently the achievement of results. This is translated into a slowdown of the progress of the whole country. Science is international and should never have borders.

What response would you like to see from the UCs? Nationally?

I would like to see more inclusion for diversity and immigrants. I would like the UCs to give international scholars more support for grants, fellowship and career development opportunities in general. 

How did you get interested in neuroscience research?

Through the end of my Bachelor in Molecular Biology, I became fascinated about the brain and I wanted to know more about how the nervous system develops and works. I wanted to become a neuroscientist and this affected all my subsequent choices in my career in science. 

I moved to another city in Italy, where I had the opportunity to pursue an International Master Degree in Neuroscience and a PhD in Functional and Structural Genomics within the field of Developmental Neurobiology. 

You are also actively involved in scientific outreach. How did you get started with your seminar series BioRoom2?

In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, where most of the scientists were stuck at home, I thought that a virtual seminar would have been a stimulating opportunity to expand our scientific horizons. I put an announcement on Twitter asking for biologists interested in sharing their research for a broad biology audience. I have met awesome people who helped me put together the BioRoom seminar series and we have met once a week for almost two months. 

Most of the 15 min talks have been recorded and are now available on our YouTube channel. This has also been an exciting opportunity to bring our research to the public. 

We will start again in September 2020, and we hope to reach out more scientists at all career stages and expand our community. 

What is your favorite part of your research?

I love the thrill and the excitement when I find out something new and/or unexpected. I also love meeting other scientists to discuss science, and communicating my science to kids and adults outside academia.

Who are you in the lab, outside the lab?

In the lab, I am very focused and I like to be efficient while working on multiple projects at the same time. I love making schedules. Nevertheless, I am always happy to chat with the other labmates and exchange ideas for troubleshooting or career development/mentoring.  

Outside the lab I like playing volleyball. I am a very social person, so I like going out with friends and family or organizing events. I like to travel a lot, but also spending relaxing time at home with our cats. 

What’s the next step for you in your scientific journey?

I am currently a postdoc, which is a temporary appointment for scholars. I would like to move to a faculty position to lead my own group of research.