Bryan Copple, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics at the University of Kansas Medical Center, has an impressive list of skills that stretches across many disciplines. In the course of a week, Copple might: teach a class; recruit for and manage his staff; guide and mentor other colleagues and students; research and write grants; manage budgets; operate a business; catch up on the hundreds of journal articles in his field; write scholarly papers; and conduct hands-on research.

When talking about that last task - conducting research - Dr. Copple’s eyes light up. He is passionate about his work.

Curiosity, problem-solving skills, the ability to work with a team and the willingness to learn from mistakes are some of the abilities necessary for research work.

Being a research scientist encompasses the complexities of detective work. He must come up with ideas for research, trying to understand how and why the disease develops. He then maps out a hypothesis, sets up variables, runs the experiment and tests the results.

Copple loves the sense of exploration and the opportunity to discover something that could change people’s health and improve their lives. He loves the sense of connection and adventure he feels working with his colleagues in the lab. He loves guiding and mentoring graduate students, and he’s motivated by the idea that one of his students could continue on to do his or her own innovative research.

Copple is the principal investigator in his lab, located in the Kansas Life Sciences Innovation Center, but he places a lot of emphasis on teamwork. Copple is delighted with his new lab and office. “In the old lab building, we had a view of a dumpster. Now, we can look out and see the Kansas City skyline.”

Not that he has much time to enjoy the view. In addition to overseeing research, Copple must also deal with the day-to-day realities of running a lab program.

“Operating a lab is like operating a small business,” he says. “I have to find the grant money or my staff doesn’t get paid and I can’t run the experiments.”

For Dr. Copple, being a research scientist is both his career and his avocation.

“I enjoy my work so much that it’s also my hobby,” he says. “I feel lucky that I have the potential of learning something new every day.” +