How to train your future leader in medical science

Abstract

In the arc of every scientific life, there comes a moment when the focus naturally shifts. The attention that once centered on one’s own findings, papers, and recognitions begins to expand—sometimes imperceptibly—toward people. The students, colleagues, and early-career scientists whose curiosity, ambition, and questions begin to mirror those of our younger selves. In that moment, leadership becomes less about how we navigate the system and more about how we prepare others to move through it with clarity, confidence, and direction. The next generation of scientists will shape what we will live to see—and what we will never witness. Some of them will eventually lead our institutions, our disciplines, and in many cases, ourselves. Training them is no longer a personal gesture; it is a generational imperative.