Ten Simple Rules for Making a Career Transition from Basic Science to Public Health Research

David Berrigan () and David M. Hartley
Additional contact information
David Berrigan: Health Behaviors Research Branch, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD 20853, USA
David M. Hartley: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 2, 1-6

Abstract: It is not uncommon for basic scientists to switch into public health research. Such career transitions present a variety of challenges and opportunities and can reinvigorate a career, lead to new skills, and provide the chance to contribute to individual and community health and social justice. Based on our respective experiences switching from applied physics to infectious disease modelling and from evolutionary physiology to cancer prevention and control, we propose ten simple rules intended to help researchers from other disciplines think about a transition to public health research. Together, these rules are largely about navigating between pairs of extremes related to why you want to move in a new direction, how to balance old and new expertise, and balancing humility with the confidence that you are bringing something important to the table. A career transition can also fulfill some of the basic motivators for a research career, including curiosity and a passion to try to solve important problems. Our career transitions proved deeply satisfying. We hope yours will as well.

Keywords: career change; basic science; public health; research; training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/2/223/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/2/223/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:2:p:223-:d:1584225

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().