Once he completed his PhD in cell biology in 2010 and knowing that the academic path was not the one for him, David scrambled to figure out how he could leverage his training and his strengths outside the university walls.

After finding out about medical communications and working in that space for five years, David became a solopreneur offering specialized translation and medical writing services in the biomedical domain, a space where he could put to use his language skills, as well as his scientific background.

In parallel to all of this, and motivated by conversations with graduate researchers at career fairs and in career panels, David developed a keen interested for shedding light on the different ways people have navigated professional and personal life after completing their graduate degree. This curiosity and a deep-seated wish to help those now going through graduate school is what led him to launch the Papa PhD podcast, now called “Beyond the Thesis With Papa PhD”.