Ruth Ziegler Chair of the Department of Population Sciences and Associate Director of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Co-Leader of the Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program; Professor at City of Hope National Medical Center; Survivorship Guideline Advisory Group Co-Chair; ASCO Board of Directors Member

AC: What led you to oncology?

Dr. Bhatia: My interest in oncology stems from a friend dying at the age of 12 of osteosarcoma while I was growing up in India. This was my first encounter with death at a time when there were very few oncologists in India, and none in the city where I grew up.

AC: What's the last book you read?

Dr. Bhatia: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo. This is an amazing piece of nonfiction that brings to light the lives of families living in the Mumbai underworld and the indomitable spirit of an entire society living in the depths of poverty and squalor.

AC: What hobbies do you enjoy?

Dr. Bhatia: Reading, knitting, and watching good movies and TV shows. Time flies by when I am immersed in a good book or watching a classic—preferably if I am knitting at the same time!

AC: Do you have a personal motto?

Dr. Bhatia: "Take time by the forelock." It was instilled into me by my father and has remained with me since my childhood. It is the primary reason I forge ahead as a working mother, balancing work and life at home.

AC: What is your fondest memory?

Dr. Bhatia: If I sit down to think, there is no single memory—there are several— and almost all involve my children.

AC: Who is the person you most admire?

Dr. Bhatia: The person I most admire is my mother. She has succeeded in raising three strong girls in the face of adversity.

AC: What career could you see yourself in if you weren't an oncologist?

Dr. Bhatia: In my next life, I would like to be an interior designer. I have no talent for it, yet really want to master the skill.

AC: What changes do you envision for the field in the next 10 years?

Dr. Bhatia: I envision a field that is increasingly relying on personalized medicine—that maximizes survival, yet minimizes toxicity—such that the long-term morbidity carried by our survivors is not onerous.

AC: What would you say to a young physician thinking about entering the field of oncology?

Dr. Bhatia: Welcome to a field in which you are not restricted by the need to specialize in just one organ system; in which your daily clinical practice necessitates the need to understand the biological basis of the disease as well as the therapeutic agent you use; and in which scientific advances that have been made are intoxicating, yet what is unknown is immense—and so there is much to be learned and explored.