I do what inspires me and look for that same attribute in colleagues. It may be that a top applicant from, say, a synthetic organic chemistry group has never touched a protein before. That’s all right if she’s also brave, fearless, has bold ideas, and insists on figuring things out. The simple truth is young coworkers are your closest allies in creating new science. They are changing biology and chemistry, and they’re going to change the world.

A network is built via conferences, workshops, and visitors to your institute. Always take the time to hear about others’ work, even if seemingly far from yours, to increase your breadth of thinking and problem solving. Improve your own presentation skills to reach the widest audience and create impact. Being sociable and interactive is important in that networks evolve from multilayered interactions. Collaborating on research and on organizing seminars, symposia, and workshops as ways of meeting your community.

Senior colleagues were my mentors. They are now very old, or have died, and I miss them very deeply. These supporters were giants in their fields, exceptionally gifted men; few women were on the job at the time. They intuitively, practically, and profoundly understood their areas, had vast perspectives, and chose to open doors to opportunities I hadn’t known existed. They didn’t need me, but I, I realize, very much needed them. They taught and encouraged me in innumerable ways.

I haven’t had mentors, but now enjoy being one by trying to help younger colleagues.

As far as mentors go, I would say that I really didn’t have a lot of help from mentors early in my career. Today I work and collaborate with my husband as well as a large number of colleagues at my institute, the local university, and neighboring institutes. We meet primarily at local and international conferences.

Help comes in many forms, and friends and mentors are there for you. Hear their advice. It is difficult to survive without this support system. It was not easy to know what to do at the beginning, but the network grows with you as you assume the role of a mentor yourself.

I made most of my choices alone but recognize today that three male colleagues, two in Portugal and one abroad, probably influenced me via long scientific collaborations. Today, I very much enjoy discussing science and science management with local and international colleagues I’ve known a very long time.

I’ve not entered into formal networks per se, but my husband and I trained together. I discuss virtually everything with him.

I have been extremely fortunate to be surrounded by exceptional scientists who are also excellent people. It is they who inspired me to become, and keep me, a good scientist.

Some curiosity is unusually penetrating, well trained, and always on highest alert. Some people question their own thinking. They probe what they encounter or create. They make unexpected connections. They can summon enormous concentration. They express themselves elegantly, with economy and evident enjoyment, in person and in print. We value these colleagues whether senior, contemporaries, or younger, and form lifelong associations with them. As for mutual-aid groups, I’ve yet to experience an effective one but certainly consider myself part of a movement promoting inclusivity in science.

I worked in various labs in different parts of the world before starting a lab of my own. These connections and more recent collaborations are my network. I also benefit from university commitments to students that make it easy to recruit good coworkers to my group. Overall I most enjoy the old-fashioned pleasures of meeting with people in person and conversing together.

Collaboration with experienced researchers in academia and industry created a network that I’ve carefully tended and enlarged throughout my career. I actively reached out to fellow scientists and leaders; many of these became mentors first, then trusted friends. Demographics in my field mean that my network is over 90% male, but I have, in turn, attracted and actively supported female PhDs. Over 50% of my former doctoral students are female.

Today my Ph.D. mentor and I collaborate closely and have published together, but initially, during my first independent steps, I had no mentor. I did things on my own, making mistakes that delayed tenure by a year or two, but was lucky to have friends, within the university and abroad, with whom to share experiences and advice.

My support network formed randomly. To be honest I should have been more systematic in identifying mentors or colleagues to discuss important questions and, more informally, share ideas and feedback. In fact I should still improve in these areas but consider my close colleagues and advisors a network. We meet for coffee and occasional lunches.

I am afraid I had, or built, no network of colleagues and mentors who helped me onto the path I took. I made my own choices with little advice; my path might have been easier if I had had more counsel. Only an undergraduate professor and postdoctoral P.I. ever advised me professionally. We remain good friends who keep in touch, and I very much respect their opinions, but we do not collaborate scientifically as we all moved on, professionally speaking. Presently, however, I also very much value the opinions of close research collaborators.

I’m fortunate to have had fantastic graduate and Ph.D. advisors. I’ve also leaned heavily over the years on academic colleagues, and have met terrific women, friends and supporters, at conferences. If you meet someone you like, keep up the connection. Continue to reach out! A word about networking via social media: senior colleagues tend to be either unaware of, or see no benefit, to Twitter and other platforms, but younger colleagues highlight publications, honors, and graduations, and recount lab and family events, as a way of staying connected with literally thousands of colleagues, friends, and followers in a few words, photos, or figures. Most tweets are positive and encouraging though exceptions do arise.

I carried out undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Athens and Paris, respectively. During those years, common scientific interests and long days in the lab grew into professional links and strong friendships. Some of the researchers, particularly more senior colleagues mentored me. Their experience and advice were fundamental in building my career. In certain cases, professional contacts lasted for many years. Retired now, I still maintain strong friendships with almost all my former colleagues in Paris and I am grateful for this. I believe that friendly and professional contacts developed during Ph.D. or postdoctoral studies, and during the first steps of a scientist’s career, are deeply important.

As a graduate student and postdoc I formed strong relationships with fellow graduate students, postdocs, and a partner or two. Those relationships are still significant.

I find the best ways to build networks are presenting at conferences and signing up to meet seminar speakers in broad areas, not just your own. Invite and host scientists to speak in your department. Organize symposia. As an assistant professor, turn down no opportunities to socialize and network!

Do I have a network? I do see my mark on former students and postdocs, dedicated women and men whose independent research is very strong. Their science is correct, careful, and convincingly communicated. Minute, meticulous training is something I do. Not inspiration, though. I’m no good at motivating. If not inspired on their own, they sort themselves out. I don’t require them to stay. I tell them, “Find the science you love”.

My path to networking was through professional societies, specifically the Biophysical Society, American Crystallographic Society, and International Union of Crystallography, which were centrally important to my development as a scientist. Many in the international research community at synchrotron and neutron facilities became lifelong friends and collaborators. This has to be one of the real joys of science: to travel the world always finding someone who speaks your language, so to speak. Science is a social activity. It is important to get out there and talk to your people.

During my studies, my best mentor was my mother, who so enthused me for the study of microbiology. My working group was not friendly at the time. At present, I am no longer in touch with my first colleagues.

For better or for worse, I don’t often take part in support groups or networks. Early teachers, first colleagues, and former students aren’t active in my professional life. However, like other women in science whose visibility is high given our relatively low numbers, opportunities do come my way to meet others at conferences, on committees, and in reviewing proposals and papers.

I never explicitly built a network. Rather I accepted into my group, and can still contact, interested women and men of passion, curiosity, and high scientific quality.

As a young academic in Japan, I formed strong friendships with classmates who graduated in my year. On leaving Japan for Switzerland, the United States, and Switzerland again, the same applied to colleagues (I even married one.) Presently, at this point in my career, when given awards, particularly in Japan, I arrange financial and other support for the organization, in gratitude and to further its encouragement of others.

No formal groups, really, but my colleagues and I are close.