Calling for gracious spaces in science, just as Terry Beaubois called for gracious spaces for humans in buildings, Kennan shares her story of losing her husband, suddenly, while on tenure track in a demanding career in science.
While proteins are able to self-organize, humans seem to have a harder time of it. It's the interpersonal glue or communication, including the rewards system, that are limiting our ability to solve major scientific challenges - not the technology itself - Kennan asserts.
Going from two National Labs to Georgetown University, then on to Celera Genomics and later UCBerkeley and the Joint Genome Institute, Kennan has seen both obstacles and evidence for the natural state of scientists - to share, to collaborate, to work toward the common good.