Eda Koculi grew up in Albania when it was a communist state. By western standards her family was poor and neither of her parents had ever attended college. However, from a young age her nascent curiosity was encouraged, “My family remembers me asking them questions about how telephone and television work and why there is night and day,” says Koculi. Impressed upon her a love for learning by saving up to buy books and journals to have in the home and encouraging Koculi to learn and do well in school.
Once in school, Koculi found that much of the information being provided in humanities classes was distorted by communist disinformation. However, in addition to being fascinated by science and that science classes provided a propaganda free environment, where Koculi says she could enjoy learning and be creative.
Koculi arrived in the United States as a refugee. her family were political dissidents in Albania. She viewed the United States as a land of opportunity and a beacon of hope and freedom. When she arrived here she had no knowledge of English and no immediate family to rely on. Eventually, she was accepted to college at Illinois Institute of Technology and worked hard to support herself while earning a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. According to Koculi, “getting accepted to a college and also supporting myself through my undergraduate education were definitely some of the hardest challenges of my career.”
Thankfully, Koculi found assistance through various mentors along the way: “At different points in my career different people have provided advice and mentored me. I did my last year of high school in this country, during that time many of my high school teachers went above and beyond their duties to help me succeed in getting to college,” she says.
While earning her undergraduate degree in Chemistry, Koculi found the support of many faculty members at Illinois Institute of Technology, as well as guidance from Jadwiga Roguska, a medical doctor and faculty at nearby Northwestern Medical School.
After receiving a Master of Science degree in Biochemistry, Koculi went on to earn her PhD in Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University. During her graduate school and post-doctoral years many faculty and post-doctoral fellows provided advice, support, and encouragement to Koculi. “I have learned from them,” she says, “that a career in science is difficult but very rewarding and worth pursuing, and when at a cross roads always ask for help and advice. In my experience, the scientific community is very supportive of young scientists and if you seek mentors, you will always find them.”
When discussing her role models, Koculi points to her post-doctoral advisor Olke Uhlenbeck. “Olke’s love of science is contagious,” says Koculi, “his dedication to mentoring and training the next generation of scientist is very admirable. Even now years later after I left Olke’s laboratory, he gets genuinely excited when he hears about my experimental results. Moreover, he is very willing to comment on my grants and papers and give career advice. He does that with a number of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from his laboratory.”
Today, Koculi runs a lab at the University of Central Florida that examines how the ribosome assembles in cells. The ribosome is a target of the majority of antibiotics currently used. Antibiotic resistant bacteria is a huge and growing public health concern, and new antibiotics are in great demand. A complete understanding of ribosome assembly will facilitate the design of novel and much needed classes of antibiotics. Biophysics plays an important role in her research as Koculi’s lab investigates the structure, kinetics, and dynamics of the intermediates in large subunit assembly. Since ribosome assembly is such a complex process, Koculi sees herself and others working on deciphering the ribosome assembly process 10 to 20 years from now.
“I feel a tremendous sense of pride,” she says, “ when my students evolve as scientists and are able to independently build a scientific hypothesis and design experiments to prove or disprove that hypothesis.” In addition to helping to unravel the mysteries of ribosome assembly, Koculi finds that contributing to and observing the growth of her students to be one of the most rewarding aspects of her work. “Many friends and mentors helped me when I arrived in the US and later during my career,” she says, “so I feel it is my duty to help as much as possible the next generation of scientists. Moreover, growing up poor and in a family of political dissidents has made me more sensitive to injustice issues; hence, everyone in my laboratory is treated fairly and is given many opportunities to succeed.” As a consequence of Koculi’s mentoring, one graduate student has obtained an NSF fellowship and out of twelve undergraduate students that have worked in her laboratory over the last four years, nine have gone to on graduate school or medical school and two to biotech companies. Additionally, the majority of both her graduate and undergraduate students are from groups historically underrepresented in science.
In her free time Koculi takes a break from teaching and the lab by exploring her love of art at museums and art fairs, hiking, and cooking. “Renaissance Art and architecture is my favored art form,” Koculi says, “so, I visit Italy very often. It is through my many visits to Italy that I learned both to enjoy food and how to cook well.” This summer she is planning to hike a 120 mile long trail that spans mountains in Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro with friends and a few lab members.