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114 Science mixes it up with statisticsthey understand that young researchers need to have primary authorship onthese ventures.10.4 ConclusionsOne theme in much of my work has been a willingness and desire to workon things that are new and somewhat controversial. Not surprisingly, thesetopics often garner more attention than others, and certainly more attentionthan the statistical contributions would merit on their own. I personally findthat such topics excite my curiosity and push me to work more intensely.While working on such topics has the benefit of leading to publication in topjournals, it also has drawbacks. When you’ve been on the opposite side ofan argument, tempers can flare, and in the process grants and papers canbe rejected. The best policy in this regard is to maintain good communicationand try to respect the people on the other side of the argument, evenwhile disagreeing with their opinions. Regarding another controversial topicwe published on — heritability of IQ — we encountered some stiff criticismat a leading journal. Our finding was that the so-called maternal effect hada big impact on the IQ of a child. As a consequence it could be argued thatit was important that a mother experience a good environment during pregnancy,which hardly seems controversial. Nevertheless, a top researcher frompsychometrics said we would damage an entire field of scientific inquiry if wepublished this paper. Fortunately, Professor Eric Lander argued for our paperand we managed to publish it in Nature. Just last year David Brooks, a NewYork Times columnist, mentioned the paper in one of his columns. For me,knowing that an idea could stay alive for nearly two decades and rise to theattention of someone like Brooks was enormously satisfying.While I have been blessed with singular good luck in my life, writing onlyabout the successes of a career can leave the wrong impression. I wouldn’t wantyoung readers to think mine was a life of happy adventures, filled with praise.Just before my first job interview a beloved faculty member told me I was onlyinvited because I was a girl. Nonplussed, I asked him if he could help me choosemy interview shoes. As a young faculty member the undergraduate studentsinsisted on calling me Mrs. Roeder until I finally listed my proper name onthe syllabus as Professor Roeder, offering helpfully — if you have troublepronouncing my last name, you can just call me Professor. More recentlyI had three papers rejected in a month, and one was rejected within fourhours of submission. I believe it took me longer to upload it to the journalweb site than it took them to review it. But truth be told, I have not foundrejections hard to bear. Oddly it is success that can fill me with dread. Theyear I won the COPSS award I was barely able to construct an adequateacceptance speech. Any field that felt I was a winner was surely a sorry field.