She laughs when asked why she pursued not only a doctorate in chemistry, but a post- graduate and a master’s degree in the discipline as well.“That’s what people always (ask!),” she stated with a laugh. “Why chemistry?”
She explained that she has always enjoyed science subjects and that while she was in high school she realised that she wanted to pursue a career that would help people suffering from diseases. According to Dr. Barrett, during that time, in the ’90s, a lot was being said about infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and outbreaks of the Ebola virus.
“I wanted to do my part to try and find cures for these diseases that were affecting people, and I thought chemistry would be the best way to make that contribution because chemistry is sort of a linchpin science subject. You need an understanding of chemistry to do biology; also psychics and chemistry are also overlapping subject areas. Plus it was hard, and I’m always up for challenges!” she stated with another laugh.
Inquiring mind
Described by her mother as a child who had an inquiring mind, Dianah admitted that she always wanted to know how things worked. She said her parents have always fuelled her passion for the sciences and always encouraged her and her older sister, Dr. Belinda Barrett, who works at the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston, to be the best that they could be. They both have an older sister, who currently lives in Florida.
According to Dr. Barrett, her parents also influenced her choice of career.
“In father’s study, there were so many books about science as he has always liked technology and science and my mom’s background is in nursing and she also worked for drug companies.
“My parents are my heroes, my inspiration!” she revealed. “Pursuit of higher education was always encouraged in our household and what our parents told us, they lived themselves. Dad always said reachfor the Moon, if you don’t reach it, at least you’ll fall among the stars.”
She said her stint as an intern in the Pathology Department of The University Hospital of the West Indies in summer 1999, during which, she participated in an epidemiology study of HTLV-1, a viral STD that affects the immune system, was a crucial turning point in her life and also helped to determine her career path of medical research, the kind of research that could help people overcome certain illnesses.
She said the study revealed that the HTLV -1 virus cause cells to overproduce, which leads to cancer, a terminal illness.
“The study gave me the wonderful opportunity to work with the nurses and with the people who were affected by the virus, who kept their spirits up despite their illnesses,” she stated. “That was the turning point for me to do more in research to help people. I wanted to find cures so that people like those who participated in the study could have hope.”
Dr. Barret told Outlook that while she was in graduate school she did research in infectious diseases and potential drug target for the development of new anti-bacterials, her concentration right now is in bio chemistry.
“Right now, I want to continue to do research looking at drug targets and work at a pharmaceutical company to gain more experience in this area,” she revealed. “My long term career goal is to go back into academic research because there is still so much we don’t understand about (some illnesses).”
She is very close to realising her dream. She begins her first job, shortly, as a senior scientist at Schering-Plough in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a pharmaceutical company that focuses on drug discoveries.
She pursued her post graduate degree at Princeton University in New Jersey, USA and her Doctorate at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which would be considered Ivy League schools, where students of colour would be in the minority. She said she would like to see more female scientists.
“I always encouraged other women who want to become scientists, and other underrepresented minorities, especially in the US, where you don’t see many students of colour in a Chemistry Department, that if they are interested in science, to go for it and never think that it is a subject that they can’t do,” Dr. Barrett revealed.
She has won a number of honours and awards including the Graduate Prize Fellow Grant for 2006-7007, UNCF.Merck Graduate Fellow 2005-7 and the Pierce Prize (for excellence in Biology & Chemistry) in 2002.
“I want to encourage every one that whatever you can dream, you can achieve. Keep dreaming big and never give up on that,” she stated with huge smile.
