#SoCaltech: Matheus de Castro Fonseca

“In Brazil, I was hired as a principal investigator for the Brazilian Center for Research and Energy and Materials. I was an associate professor at a national laboratory, but we were struggling with funding due to government issues, and I also started to struggle with the lack of intellectual freedom. We had to follow a specific agenda, but as a researcher, you want to use your creativity, you want to explore. So, I had a great job, I was in a very good position, but I couldn’t do the science wanted to do.

“Right after the pandemic, I got in touch with Sarkis Mazmanian [Caltech’s Luis B. and Nelly Soux Professor of Microbiology and a Merkin Institute Professor], and I told him my story. I was working on the same field as him, and I had published some papers on Parkinson's disease and the microbiome. He promptly invited me to come here and explore what I wanted to explore. I didn't even know where Caltech was. You know the name Caltech, but where it was in the United States, I had no idea. Pasadena? Where is Pasadena? And then I arrived in Los Angeles. I'm like, ‘Oh my God, I'm in LA!’ It’s been really fun.

“I’ve been here for the past two and a half years as a postdoc—the plan was to stay just for one—and I’ve had these great collaborations. In academia, your dream path is you get a PhD, you do your postdoc, and then you get your faculty position. But I don't feel like I took some steps back, you know? It’s the opposite. I have zero regrets. I made a good choice.

“It doesn't matter how great your salary is, how important you are in your position, or how brilliant your career is. If you get there, and you're not happy, it doesn't matter. If you don't feel fulfilled in what you do as a scientist, well, do something else. Life is too short not to.”

Matheus de Castro Fonseca, is a senior postdoctoral scholar research associate in the lab of Sarkis Mazmanian.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.