A compelling mentor can reroute a career from applied to basic research

Evidence

Rod met Marilynn in 1980, when he was a beginning graduate student in social psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He thought at the time that he was pursuing a doctorate in social psychology in order to receive the training he needed to do the applied work he hoped to do at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He had interrupted his professional work at the NCI to pursue what he thought would be doctoral studies in the psychosocial aspects of cancer. Armed with a PhD, he could then return to that work. In short, a game plan was in place—until he met Marilynn and she became his advisor. She derailed his best-laid plans by making the process of doing basic research so exciting and fulfilling that he never left academia. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 94

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 94
• XREF: connects to: Falling under a powerful mentor’s spell shifts a reformer’s focus from issues to maneuvers — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 586