Entitled as anyone else to explore: Meet Jessica Clark

Posted on May 6, 2016 by Nathalie Pettorelli

Version 2Jessica Clark is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, working in the Institute of Evolutionary Biology. Her research is about how epigenetic maternal effects can impact offspring fitness and the role this plays in disease transmission. Catch Jessica on her Soapbox on Sunday July 24th in Edinburgh where she will talk about “Mumma’s always right! How mums prepare their offspring for the big bad world”.

 

 

SS: Jessica, How did you get to your current position?

JC: I started out my university education in journalism. Realising this wasn’t for me, I took a bit of time to reassess what I wanted out of a career. I went back to university a couple years later and did a Zoology degree at the University of Glasgow. I was lucky enough to work with some amazingly inspiring people who gave me the opportunities to explore and experience and ask questions. I continued working for the University of Glasgow for a year after graduating, as a research assistant. This time really developed my understanding and excitement about research and made me feel more prepared to go down the path towards a PhD. I had heard great things about the department in Edinburgh, so when I saw a position advertised I jumped at the chance!

 

SS: What, or who, inspired you to get a career in science?

JC: Inspiration comes from so many places! My mum has been a nurse my whole life and has always worked incredibly hard to be great at what she does and is always working to learn more so watching that whist growing up definitely played a big part. Dr Heather Ferguson and Dr Barbara Helm at The University of Glasgow are incredible women also! So dedicated to what they do, but with so much compassion, they provided me with many opportunities.

 

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect of your research/work?

JC: I thoroughly enjoy how a simple question can grow so many legs! Something might seem so simple and suddenly you’ve opened Pandora’s Box!

 

SS: What attracted you to Soapbox Science in the first place?

JC: Having come at a scientific career from a slightly different route, I really like to facilitate people’s desire to ask questions and get interested! It seems to be a really creative, really amazing way to inspire people and make science more accessible, which is so important when certain demographics are so vastly underrepresented.

 

SS: Sum up in one word your expectations for the day – excitement? Fear? Thrill? Anticipation?

JC: A little bit of fear and a lot of excitement!

 

SS: If you could change one thing about the scientific culture right now, what would it be?

JC: I would like for science to be seen as a field with its doors wide open to anyone inspired to ask questions. For so long it has been shrouded in the notion that the doors only exist to a privileged few, but this is changing and I would like more people to feel that they would be respected and just as entitled as anyone else to explore.

 

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a female PhD student considering pursuing a career in academia?

JC: Go for it! Your hard work, opinion and knowledge are as important as anyone else’s, and you never know who you could inspire.

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Deaf life stories: What they reveal about the potential within all of us

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Nathalie Pettorelli

GoedeleDr. Goedele A. M. De Clerck is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Social Research with Deaf People (SORD) group at the University of Manchester (UK). She has been working with deaf people and sign communities in Europe, the United States and Africa. Her talk at our Oxford event potentially exposes a very wide audience to insight into the strengths in their own lives through exploring the incredible achievements of deaf people. You can find more about Goedele’s work here and here

 

 

 SS: Goedele, how did you get to your current position? What or who inspired you to get a career in science?

GDC: I have never really pursued an academic career as such. My motivation has always been to do research, understand deaf people’s lives better and to provide resources in support of deaf people’s wellbeing. I have been fortunate to be able to have inspiring mentors during my PhD, both in the area of anthropology and deaf education. These academics encouraged innovative research and academic debate, and combined high level academic work with inspiring teaching and community support. This support was vital to be able to continue doing research after my doctoral degree.

 

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect for your research?

GDC: Identifying strengths in our lives and living up to our potential are vital to all of us. In the 13 years that I have been working with deaf people and deaf communities around the world, and that I have been doing life story work, I have continued to be fascinated by people and by my work. These stories are being told in different signed languages and in creative ways, for example through drama or signed videos. Each story is unique and surprizing, and through studying these stories we gain a better understanding of deaf people’s lives, how they have met challenges, etc. There is so much to be learned from it in support of better education, equality, and wellbeing.

 

SS: What attracted you to soapbox science in the first place?

GDC: Being a soapbox science speaker enables me to share a positive perspective on deaf people’s lives. For too long, their fascinating processes of empowerment and emancipation have remained in the shadows and in the margins. I am thrilled to expose a very wide audience to insight into the strengths in their own lives through exploring the incredible achievements of deaf people.

 

SS: Sum up in one word your expectations for the day.

GDC: Curious!

 

SS: If you could change one thing about the scientific culture right now what would it be?

GDC: Sustainable development of research has become under pressure; academia is increasingly adopting market values and I think that this deserves more attention and reflection.

 

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a female PhD student considering pursuing a career in academia?

GDC: Belief in yourself and in what you are doing and keep room for ‘play’, laughter and creativity, within and outside academia.

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Get rid off the “pomp”: Meet Clare Duncan

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Nathalie Pettorelli

ClareClare Duncan (@whereisklara) is currently a PhD student based between the Institute of Zoology (Zoological Society of London) and University College London. Her research focuses on the services that mangrove forests provide to humans in the face of climate change: carbon storage and coastal protection from tropical storms and typhoons. Her work involves using field- and satellite remote sensing-based techniques to understand how mangrove diversity influences, how and where best to rehabilitate, and the impacts of combined human and climate change pressures on the resilience of, the climate change mitigation and adaptation capacity of mangroves. Clare will be speaking on “Mangroves: the roots of the sea and shield of the land” at the Soapbox Science London event on 28th May 2016.

 

SS: Clare, how did you get into your current position?

CD: How I got to my current position was really about long periods of perseverance, hard work and passion for ecology, the environment and conservation. After finishing my undergraduate degree in Environmental Biology at the University of Nottingham, I spent two years (very close to the breadline!) undertaking campaign-based internships, as well as internship and research assistant roles in the Institute of Zoology. The work I undertook in these roles, which involved extinction risk assessment, satellite remote sensing for biodiversity monitoring and predicting the impacts of climate change on animal populations, made me fully realise the importance of science and an evidence-based approach to applied conservation, and cemented my desire to undertake a career in ecological research. As a result, I then undertook my master’s degree in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation at Imperial College, London, with my thesis focusing on understanding the drivers of carnivore space-use patterns globally. But some of my main research interests have always lay in whole-ecosystem and community ecology, and specifically in ecosystem-level impacts of human activities and the benefits of biodiversity and ecosystems to humans. In 2013, I was fortunate enough to be granted funding from UCL and ZSL for my current PhD research on the drivers and management of, and threats to mangrove forest ecosystem services in the face of climate change.

 

SS: What, or who, inspired you to get a career in science?

CD: That’s a difficult question, as it was really a combination of many experiences and people – but mainly a love of nature. From a very young age, I have been lucky enough to be exposed to widespread biodiversity and people’s interactions with it: from summer trips to my grandma’s house near extensive coastal dune systems in Aberdeenshire (now largely converted into a certain American politician’s golf course), to periods living in some of the biodiversity hotspots of tropical Southeast Asia with my parents. But despite being a bit obsessed with nature (at four years old, I carried a book of animal pictures with me everywhere and cried for almost a full three days when I dropped it in the bath and ruined it), actually when I first left school I wanted to become an artist, and even undertook a foundation degree in Fine Art. Towards the end of this course, I increasingly realised that the main themes of my work were heavily environmentally-focused – clearly, I hadn’t shaken off a lifetime of concern about the state of the world’s ecosystems and biodiversity. I have also always been surrounded by several (female) family members with scientific careers – my mum was a secondary school science teacher, and my grandma a clinical psychologist in a time when it was quite unusual for a woman to be in such a role. I was always fascinated by the measured and question-led approaches involved with these career areas, and, in the case of my grandma, the importance of good science to human well-being. I guess eventually these two spheres of inspiration collided, and I realised that pursuing a career in ecology and conservation research would be the perfect way to combine a near-insufferable inquisitiveness and fascination with science, while being able to study the natural world. Lucky the inclusion of an ecology module had driven me to take Biology at A-Level!

 

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect of your research?

CD: I would say that simply the most fascinating part of my research is the mangroves themselves; they are not just breathtakingly strange and beautiful intertidal forests, but have also been largely neglected by ecological research in comparison to terrestrial and other marine ecosystems, and are of vital importance to coastal communities in many parts of the world. Being able to go in to work every day and develop and test questions about how these captivating systems function and provide services to adjacent people is immensely satisfying. But equally as exciting to me is the potential benefits mangrove research can bring to vulnerable communities: understanding how the structure of a mangrove influences its ability to provide important services such as coastal protection can help to inform how we manage and restore mangroves to reduce storm and typhoon impacts in highly vulnerable tropical countries. And all of this comes along with the opportunity to use some really exciting research tools – a lot of my work involves combining mangrove field data with satellite-derived information on mangrove structure and distribution. Developing methods to use diverse satellite imagery to understand mangrove forest properties is a dynamic and truly fascinating process – and can produce some really beautiful images! So basically, turns out I can’t pick one most fascinating aspect – I just love it all!

 

SS: What attracted you to Soapbox Science in the first place?

CD: The energy! I have actually been lucky enough to be involved with Soapbox Science London events as a volunteer for the last few years, and have seen first-hand what an amazing experience these events are for both the public and the scientists. Communication and outreach is an extremely important part of science, for many reasons, and I think anyone would be hard-pushed to find an environment as interactive and exciting as Soapbox. The idea of seeing an unsuspecting member of the public – especially a young kid – as excited about mangrove forests as I have seen them enthralled about social learning, antibiotics and dung beetles in recent years would be simply amazing!

 

SS: Sum up in one word your expectations for the day?

CD: Exhilaration.

 

SS: If you could change one thing about scientific culture right now, what would it be?

CD: For want of a better word, I would say the “pomp” of it. For sure, scientific culture has come on leaps and bounds in recent years, but among many, particularly older, academics there still can remain a very elitist culture. In my opinion, this can cause a lot of unnecessary competition among academics, which can be very off-putting for (particularly female) post-graduate students and early career researchers.

 

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a female PhD student considering pursuing a career in academia?

CD: As a female PhD student myself, I would simply say to absolutely do it! Despite the remaining obstacles, undertaking a PhD and academic career also comes along with a lot of creative freedom, which is hard to rival in other careers, and is enormously rewarding in all sorts of ways. And, of course, the more female representation within the academic community, the better for all of us!

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Strong role models is key: Meet AnnMarie O’Donoghue

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Nathalie Pettorelli

AnnMarie O'Donoghue PicAnnMarie O’Donoghue is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry in Durham University; her research group works on organic and biological chemistry with a particular focus on Sustainable Chemistry and Organocatalysis. Here she tells us how having mentors and role models from an early age have been key to her pursuing a scientific career in academia and how she draws inspiration from her female predecessors in Organic Chemistry as well as enthusiastic, determined undergraduate and postgraduate students. Catch AnnMarie on her Soapbox on Saturday June 18th 2016 in Newcastle where she will talk about “Sustainable Chemistry: Organocatalysis and Mimicking Nature”.

 

 

SS: How did you get to your current position?

AOD: Following PhD studies in University College Dublin completed in 1999, I secured a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship for postdoctoral studies in the University of Buffalo, the State University of New York, in the laboratory of a well-known biological chemist, Professor John Richard. I spent three and a half years in this position and was fortunate to work on a broad range of projects. John was very supportive and encouraged me to orally present at a range of top international conferences. I was also given the opportunity to deliver undergraduate lectures and supervise a variety of students of different levels in the laboratory. I believe that this time in the US was particularly formative for me in making the transition to being an independent researcher. After a second enjoyable postdoctoral position in the University of Cambridge funded by a Marie Curie Fellowship, and a short term lectureship position in the Department of Chemistry in University College Dublin, I moved to my current position in the Department of Chemistry in Durham University in October 2005.

 

SS: What, or who, inspired you to get a career in science?

AOD: A variety of people and places! The support of my husband, parents and family has always been key. I wanted to pursue a career in academia from my teenage years. I was strongly influenced early on by my Dad who was an industrial chemist for his whole career. The idea of working in a scientific laboratory was never alien to me as a result. I grew up in a small university town in Ireland and the local university played a big role in our lives. In secondary school, my Maths teacher was particularly influential and strongly supportive. He took a group of us to various events including a Maths Olympiad in University College Dublin. I was in a very small school and my Chemistry class consisted of only 2 female and 6 male students. In those days, safety was less of a consideration than today and we did a broad range of exciting experiments that are probably not permitted now! I embarked on studies for a Natural Sciences degree in University College Dublin as it allowed me the option to continue both Chemistry and Maths to advanced levels. I have been fortunate to have excellent mentors throughout my studies in university. Thinking back, the Department of Chemistry in UCD had strong female Organic Chemistry academics as role models, which was unusual for the time. In fact the Eva Philbin Medal was one of two awarded to top Chemistry students in UCD in honour of Prof. Philbin who was Professor of Organic Chemistry in the 1960’s to 1970’s, and I was privileged to receive that medal. Although my PhD advisor, Prof. Rory More O’Ferrall was male, we shared a laboratory with the research group of another female Professor of Organic Chemistry, Prof. Dervilla Donnelly, who was well-known and respected internationally. In fact, I recently was told a story that when a famous US organic chemist came on a lecture tour of Britain and Ireland in the 1980’s that Dervilla was the only female Professor of Organic Chemistry at the time! Looking back now, I believe that all of these influences meant that I did not second-guess the pursuit of a career as a female chemist in academia.

 

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect of your research/work?

AOD: I find many aspects of my research/work stimulating. In my laboratory, we are interested in understanding mechanisms of organic and biological reactions. We use different methods and techniques to probe which reaction pathway is followed. Constructing large organic molecules is challenging and I enjoy the challenge of using my knowledge of organic chemistry in piecing together molecules like a jigsaw puzzle. As an academic, I am lucky to have the opportunity to both teach and pursue research simultaneously. I very much enjoy interacting with undergraduate and graduate students on a regular basis. My PhD advisor used to say that it ‘helps keep you young and enthusiastic’ and I agree with him!

 

SS: What attracted you to Soapbox Science in the first place?

AOD: I was originally contacted by a member of the Soapbox Science Newcastle team. I fully support the activities of Soapbox Science. I have a seven year old daughter myself and want her to have a positive view of women in science as she grows up, and not be discouraged by older societal perceptions of science careers being predominantly applicable to males. I think that increasing the visibility of women in scientific careers and mentoring women scientists from an early stage are both key to achieving this aim. Soapbox Science achieves both of these objectives.

 

SS: Sum up in one word your expectations for the day – excitement? Fear? Thrill? Anticipation?

AOD: A bit of everything but predominantly the excitement of a new challenge! I am sure it will be a fantastic learning experience.

 

SS: If you could change one thing about the scientific culture right now, what would it be?

AOD: There are still many barriers to women progressing to the top of the career ladder in academia. Societal perceptions and attitudes certainly continue to play a role. When I went back to work after maternity leave with my twins, I felt very conflicted. Of course, I missed my children and there was the wrench of changing from seeing them all day to only seeing them in the evenings. There were feelings of guilt and of being a ‘bad mother’ by using the University Nursery rather than looking after them myself, however, I was also still ambitious and very much enjoyed my chemistry. I would definitely have benefited from mentoring and a sympathetic ear at the time from a colleague in the same or a related scientific career who had gone through similar experiences. With the ‘Athena Swan’ initiative, hopefully universities are realizing the importance of mentoring at that important transition time. Breaks for maternity leave and part-time working, particularly for laboratory-based subjects, need to be carefully considered and managed to ensure continuity of research programmes. It is not as simple as just ‘allowing’ these options, it is also important for management in departments to pay due attention to the associated implications for advancement (and survival!) of scientific research careers in academia.

 

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a female PhD student considering pursuing a career in academia?

AOD: Go for it! Sometimes academia is portrayed as being a career relatively incompatible with having children. Although life is extremely busy, as for any Mum juggling a career and a family, I find academia very rewarding. In general, it has proven a relatively flexible job. When my children have been ill and I needed to stay at home at short notice, this has always been possible for me. I do encounter prejudiced attitudes, however, that is not unique to academia. One advantage of being a female academic in organic chemistry in a field largely dominated my men is that you and your research tend to be remembered!

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Why volunteer with Soapbox Science?

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Nathalie Pettorelli

Are you passionate about science? Do you love talking to the public about science? Are you keen to raise awareness about equality in science careers? If so, you’ve got the makings of a Soapbox Science Volunteer! Read on!

 

What does a volunteer do?

_MG_8020Soapbox Science is not just about the speakers. Without a support team of committed, enthusiastic people, a Soapbox event simply cannot happen. Each event relies on an animated team of up to 20 volunteers. Volunteers play a crucial role in rounding up the public, chatting to the public informally about being a scientist and your science, supporting the speakers by managing props and help calming any pre-box nerves (even then most experienced speakers get a bit jittery!) and handing out Soapbox goodies to lucky audience members! But perhaps the most important role of the volunteers is in gathering data so we can monitor effectively the success of the event: the volunteers carry out the bulk of our streamlined, centralised evaluation process, through interviews, observations, counting footfall and advertising our post-event online surveys.

 

What sort of commitment do we need from you?
L'Oreal Soapbox Science-250We ask you to commit to attending a particular event, chosen by you. You’ll need to turn up 1 hour before the event starts for a briefing and training.  You’ll need to stay until up to an hour after the event ends, to help clear up.

We’ll send you a volunteers information pack before hand, with contact details of your local organisers, and details on what role you’ve been allocated and at what time.

 

Why should I be a volunteer rather than a speaker?

Many of our volunteers are keen to be speakers, but lack the confidence to dive straight in, don’t have the time to prepare this year, or simply want to suss out the competition before they apply! We love it when our volunteers become speakers as they’ve had time to chew over ideas on how to best present their work to the public.

 

What do I get out of it?

volunteersLondon2015We can’t pay you, but we can provide you with training, skills, networking opportunities and an awful lot of fun! You’ll learn how broad-scale public engagement events are evaluated; you’ll develop your skills in chatting informally with the public about science; get to steal innovative ideas on how to communicate science to a lay audience. And most importantly, you’ll make new friends with up to 20 other like-minded volunteers, meet your local Soapbox Science organising team, and build links with scientists from both your local area and further afield.  To keep your energy levels up, we’ll keep you well endowed with drinks and snacks!

 

 

So go on, apply TODAY to be a volunteer at one of our 14 events this summer! 

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Making the difficult decisions: Meet Dominique Tanner

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Nathalie Pettorelli

fire assayDominique Tanner is a postdoctoral researcher at Cardiff University. She is an Australian geologist and seeks to understand how magmas and fluids concentrate valuable metals within the Earth’s surface. Dominique is currently part of a team of UK researchers funded by the National Environment Research Council who are working to understand how the elements tellurium and selenium move and concentrate within the Earth’s crust. Tellurium and selenium are essential in the production of photovoltaic solar panels, so understanding the cycling and supply of these elements is important for the development of sustainable environmental technologies. Here, Dom talks to Soapbox Science about precious metals and explains how choosing to continue a career in academia put her between a rock and a hard place. Come say hi to Dominique on her Soapbox, June 4th 1pm – 4pm in Cardiff, where she will be talking about “Where do metals come from? The story of how magmas and volcanoes can make a gold mine… and more!”.

 

 

SS: How did you get to your current position?

DT: By writing papers and making a really difficult decision. In the final year of my PhD at the Australian National University, my partner Lloyd (also a geologist) got offered his dream job at a university just outside of London. I moved to London with Lloyd and worked from home, publishing the results of my research in scientific publications. After finishing my PhD thesis, I was fortunate to find a postdoctoral position at the same university as Lloyd. I thought that I could pursue a career in research there, but I was paid to do technical and administrative work instead. After some time, I realised that my life wasn’t complete without teaching and research. Because post-doctoral positions are very competitive, I made the very difficult decision to move away from Lloyd and my home and look for jobs outside of London. When I was offered this position at Cardiff University, I couldn’t believe my luck! Now Lloyd and I both get to do our dream jobs. During the week I live in Wales so that I can use the high-tech laboratories at Cardiff University, and each weekend I commute back home to London.

 

SS: What, or who, inspired you to get a career in science?

DT: My family. Since childhood I have always loved asking questions and been fascinated by rocks, minerals and the natural world. For many years my family indulged my passion for geology by letting me take them to important mines and rock formations around Australia during the school holidays. Old habits die hard, and at university I could indulge my passion for geology by scaling this up and taking undergraduate students on field trips to see mines and important rock formations in New Zealand, Peru, South Africa & Namibia!

Equally important are the people who encouraged me to stay in a scientific career. During my PhD and first postdoctoral position, there were a couple of times when I had serious doubts about pursuing a career as a scientist. I am really fortunate to have been surrounded by supportive colleagues (both men and women) who reassured me that self-doubt is rife in the academic community and that there is no easy way through this career – but at the end of the day sticking with it can be incredibly rewarding. I hope that one day I can return the favour by encouraging more women to pursue and stay in scientific careers.

 

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect of your research/work?

DT: I love being able see patterns in rocks and minerals really close up, as I never know what I am going to find! For instance, yesterday I was using the scanning electron microscope to zoom in on the surface of polished rocks to take photographs of tiny minerals made of platinum and tellurium that are less than the width of a human hair! From an academic perspective, analysing such tiny minerals can help us understand how both of these metals are concentrated by the magmas they formed from, but there is also a practical side, because the chemistry of minerals that host precious metals can make or break a mining company!

 

SS: What attracted you to Soapbox Science in the first place?

DT: If I asked you to picture what a stereotypical geologist looks like, you might imagine a wild-looking bearded man wielding a hammer on a mountaintop. While it is true that all geologists get to wield a rock hammer at least some point in their career and nearly all of us conduct fieldwork in exceptional landscapes (on the land or at sea), I want to participate in Soapbox Science to help change people’s perception of what a geologist looks like and show that female geologists are increasingly common. For instance, in my undergraduate geology degree, more than half my class were female. At my graduation ceremony at the Australian National University, I was one of six PhD graduates from the Research School of Earth Sciences – and all of us were female! While these statistics are not common for my discipline, it seems to me that we are shifting towards achieving a more even gender balance in geological sciences.

 

SS: Sum up in one word your expectations for the day – excitement? Fear? Thrill? Anticipation?

DT: Engaging!

 

SS: If you could change one thing about the scientific culture right now, what would it be?

DT: It would be harnessing talent from less privileged countries by providing equal access to education and promoting high standards in scientific education around the world. The scientific community relies on creative and intelligent people around the world to create new ideas and hypotheses. In the UK, we often take our access to education for granted, but many countries are not as privileged as us and their citizens do not benefit have the same access to high-quality education. Imagine the scientific and engineering problems that could be solved if the world could harness this extra talent!

 

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a female PhD student considering pursuing a career in academia?

DT: GO FOR IT!! And once you start, make sure you publish the results of your hard work as soon as you can. It is really important for scientists to communicate their ideas with the wider community through events like Soapbox Science and media releases, but it is equally important for scientists to communicate their work with each other. During my PhD, I was really lucky to have excellent supervisors and work with really supportive post-doctoral researchers who constantly reminded me how important it is to write papers. By publishing the findings of your research in respected peer-reviewed journals as soon as possible, you will boost the range of career options available to you when you finish your PhD.

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How motherhood has made me a better scientist

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Nathalie Pettorelli

Rebecca_Gelding_relaxedBy Rebecca Gelding, rebecca.gelding@mq.edu.au, @RebeccaGelding

Rebecca Gelding is currently completing her PhD at Macquarie University in Sydney. She is a part-time student, and full-time mum to two young children. Come say hi to Rebecca on her Soapbox, August 20th 1pm – 4pm in Brisbane, where she will be talking about “Changing the song on your internal jukebox: using MEG to investigate manipulating music in your mind”.

 

 

Rebecca_Gelding_first day at school_smallIs there an “ideal” time to have children as a female scientist? Should you wait till you’ve completed PhD, and secured some post-doc funding? Completed a first or even second post-doc? Or maybe have them during the PhD? Fortunately for me, I’ve never had to wrestle with this question, because I was a mum before I even began my PhD. I started part-time on my 3-year old daughter’s first day of preschool (as pictured on the right), and brought my 18 month old son on campus with me that day. It was tricky, and I look back on those early days and wonder where I fitted it in. But reflecting on these past few years, I can also see so many ways in which motherhood has made me a better scientist.

 

So regardless of whether you have or want kids, I hope these lessons from motherhood can inspire you to be a better scientist too:

 

Learning is a process

Over these 4 years my pre-schooler has become a fully literate 1st grader. Watching the development of my little reader is astonishing – but it hasn’t been linear. There have been times where the growth has been slow – snail’s pace, stuck practicing the same words. Other times it seems exponential; like the day she finished reading her first chapter book, and then immediately grabbed a second. It’s the same as a scientist. We are always on a learning curve – sometimes it is steep when you first start learning a new technique or researching a new area, but there are other times where progress can feel painfully slow, leading to boredom. Either way, the learning never ends, which means we are often left feeling like we don’t really understand what we are doing. Which is why so many could relate to @Sciencegurlz0 tweet:

“My advice for my students: The “I don’t know what I’m doing” feeling never goes away. You just learn the “but I can figure it out” part.”

 The lesson we can all take from children is to never give up, and persevere. Eventually we will make progress, and then find another thing new to learn and start the learning process all over again!

 

Making friends is the best way to collaborate

Have you ever witnessed a group of kids at the park go from strangers to best friends in the course of an afternoon? Kids make friends so easily; watching them play and interact can be a lesson in networking and collaboration.

In usually starts with one brave step, where a child approaches another and just begins talking. Before long a group will grow and then the games will start, and each child contributes ideas for how the game will play out: “Let’s pretend the bad guys are goblins”… “oh yeah, and I can do my super ninja kick”….   The kids know that the most fun is had when everyone joins in the game and plays together.

Networking is even more important to a scientist. Watching my kids interact with others has taught me we need to be brave and make the most of opportunities to meet with other academics and potential industry partners (either in person or online through social media). From these networks will come our potential collaborators – other scientists with whom, when we work together, there is a synergy that happens as each person in the group has a “role” to play and contributes. Perhaps there is a new potential ‘friend’ that you could consider approaching today?

 

There are always chores to be done

Talk about Groundhog Day: the washing, the dishes, tidying up, vacuuming, dressing, brushing teeth, toileting. It’s always so incredible how much more housework there is when you add one or two kids into the family unit. It. Never. Ends.

But you know what, there are parts of my work as a scientist that are chores. I’m sure you can identify parts in your work too.  It’s the stuff that I put off; often trying to procrastinate before doing. Like writing up my manuscript, or re-reading that difficult paper that I’ve already tried to understand several times before, but still seems like a foreign language. Perhaps administration for you is a chore, or endless meetings.

So what has motherhood taught me about academic chores? Just do it. The longer you leave them, the worse they get, so it’s better to have a regular routine where you fit in those academic chores. Plus there is a great sense of satisfaction you get when you do complete a chore – so get working!

 

Play is Important

Kids learn best when it is fun – which is why making time for play is so important. As scientists, taking a break for “fun” can improve our productivity. For me, my ‘playtime’ is communicating with others – over coffee, in my blog, or even standing on a soapbox! By scheduling some playtime into my week, I can see how more productive I am. Some of my best ideas or solutions to problems have arisen whilst away from my computer. Also, by enjoying my playtime it puts me in the right frame of mind emotionally to tackle some of those chores I mentioned previously – play becomes a reward for getting the work done. We don’t need endless hours in the lab to be successful. Its quality over quantity and playtime helps ensure I am energised and focus for my work.

 

 

So I can’t answer the question of when or if you should have children, and if you already have children, whether you should consider starting a PhD, but I hope this at least provides a fresh perspective for all of us to appreciate the richness that motherhood can bring to any women in science. And as we stare up at the stars, into our microscopes, at the world around us or the brains inside us, may we be reminded to never lose the wonder of a child.

 

 

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From Engineering to Finance to Physics: Meet Katy Clough

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Nathalie Pettorelli

KatyKaty Clough is a PhD student in Physics at King’s College London. She works on Einstein’s theory of General Relativity (GR), a theory of gravity which tells us that spacetime is curved by the presence of energy and matter.

Join her on saturday the 28th of May, 2-5pm on the Southbank in London to hear her talking about “Why blackboards sometimes aren’t enough – using supercomputers to simulate the Universe”.

 

 

 

SS: How did you get to your current position?

KC: I studied A level Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Biology at school, before going on to do a degree in Engineering Science at Oxford University. I specialised in information and control engineering, which I loved, and I wrestled for a while with the idea of doing a PhD in control systems. But in the end I went to work in finance in London.

Realising that I missed science, I did an Open University degree in Physics in my spare time. Having completed this I applied to several Universities to do a PhD in Physics, and was fortunate to get a place at King’s working with Dr Eugene Lim. In retrospect I was enormously lucky to get a place after such an unusual career path, but I firmly believe you can achieve whatever you want if you are just determined (or perhaps pig-headed) enough, and fortunately there are always a few people like Eugene out there who are willing to give you a break.

 

 

SS: What, or who, inspired you to get a career in science?

KC: Ironically I would say that it was working in finance that inspired me to have a career in science. When I was at University I took what I was doing for granted, and it was only after I left that I realised how much I had loved it. In finance, I worked conscientiously and I was pretty good at it, but at the end of the day I just didn’t care about what I was doing. I wasn’t motivated by money, or career progression, and the work lacked most of the creative and analytic aspects of science that I enjoyed. As I approached thirty, I started to feel a panic about the many years of work still ahead of me and I imagined that one day I would look back and ask, “what did I do with my life?”. For me, the most worthwhile thing that humans do is science, and I realised that if I aligned my job with what motivates and inspires me, I could achieve so much more than working somewhere just to pay the bills.

 

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect of your research/work?

KC: I work on Einstein’s theory of General Relativity (GR), a theory of gravity which tells us that spacetime is curved by the presence of energy and matter. What is fascinating is that GR really challenges your inbuilt perceptions about what time and space actually are. Human brains evolved in a weak gravity environment and as a result we have an effective, but incomplete, model of how things work which we rely on to solve everyday tasks. Physics helps us to probe deeper and when we do what we find is absolutely mind-blowing – GR is completely counter-intuitive in many respects. I sometimes want to shake people on the street and say “Do you know about this? Do you understand what it means? Because it’s amazing, and I can’t believe that you will live your whole life without thinking about it”.

In my work I model extreme cases of gravity using computers, and this is an area where there is still a lot of unexplored territory. It is exciting that there is so much more to understand about the Universe, and that what we find may really surprise us.

 

SS: What attracted you to Soapbox Science in the first place?

KC: I don’t want to be arrested for shaking people in the street and telling them about my research, so I thought it would be best to do it through an official event!

In addition, I’m very passionate about getting more women into science, and helping them stay there. It is shameful that women end up, for varied and complex reasons, excluded from such an interesting, rewarding and important career.

 

SS: Sum up in one word your expectations for the day – excitement? Fear? Thrill? Anticipation?

KC: Nervousness! I hate public speaking, even though I now have to do it a lot for research and outreach. Fortunately my nerves usually go away once I start talking…

 

SS: If you could change one thing about the scientific culture right now, what would it be?

KC: Postdoctoral positions generally last for two years, and are temporary contracts. You often have to move countries, and you keep having to move until you find a permanent position, which can take years. This makes it enormously hard to have stability – professionally, financially and in relationships.

I don’t think it is productive to force researchers to move so frequently, and I think many excellent researchers (male and female) are lost because they can’t deal with the uncertainty and inconvenience that it introduces into their lives, especially when they are working for relatively low salaries compared to what they could get in a commercial role. There’s a somewhat macho culture that promotes the idea that those who are really dedicated to science should be willing to sacrifice a personal life to pursue something they love, but I find this ridiculous. Someone can be a good researcher and still want to find a balance with other parts of their life.

 

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a female PhD student considering pursuing a career in academia?

KC: It is important to surround yourself with people who push you forward, who believe in you more than you do, and who are willing to prioritise you over what they want. There are always people who would be happy to see you fail, because they don’t like you or feel a sense of competitiveness towards you. But more often as a woman the danger comes from people who care about you and want to shield you from disappointment and failure, or those who mistakenly think you might actually be happier if you just settled down, had kids and took an easy, more stable job. Others think of how your life fits in with theirs, and convince themselves that what is best for them must be best for you.

These people are not really bad but they are a slow drain on your resolve to continue in a space that can be very challenging. When you find someone who makes you feel strong enough to try and fail, rather than making you feel like you need to compromise, that is someone to keep around you.

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If I can do this aged 41 then anyone can: Meet Gillian Hill

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Nathalie Pettorelli

Gill and ElephantGillian Hill is currently a PhD student at the University of Buckingham. She is a psychology researcher and teacher who hopes to share her experiences as a second career scientist in order to encourage others to take a leap into science. Here, Gillian explains how redundancy and a dissatisfaction with non-evidence based decision making led her to seek out science and how family and friends’ encouragement helped her on her way. Meet Gillian on her Soapbox at the Milton Keynes event on 9 July, where she tells us about her journey into science so far, “From Elephants to Uh-ohs: the Psychology of Insight”.

 

 

SS: How did you get to your current position?

GH: Long boring answer: I took voluntary redundancy from a local authority post during austerity cuts and looking for a new career direction, found a two-year BSc Psychology degree at the University of Buckingham. For my final dissertation project I investigated personality and insightful problem solving in Elephants. This led me to question the research that has been carried out in human insight, which I am now exploring for my PhD.

Short answer: I have had, and still get relentless encouragement and support from my husband, children, friends and colleagues. If I can do this aged 41 then anyone can.

 

SS: What, or who, inspired you to get a career in science?

GH: Initially I think my attraction to science was a reaction to the frustration at the lack of evidence-based decisions made within local authorities. As I progressed though my undergraduate degree my lecturers’ passion for the subject and particularly my project supervisor, Dr. Shelly Kemp convinced me that a career in science was perfect for me.

 

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect of your research/work?

GH: I think the variety of my working life. I really enjoy meeting with diverse participants when I am collecting data for my experiments. In contrast I also love the time I spend reading and coming up with research ideas that then develop into the studies I carry out. I also love that I get to share my enthusiasm with undergraduates in the teaching that I do. Watching students graduate and hearing about their next steps is really rewarding.

 

SS: What attracted you to Soapbox Science in the first place?

 GH: I think it is really important that we highlight the diverse and accessible nature of science and scientists. My hope is that events such as Soapbox Science mean that anyone can picture themselves being a part of this exciting community, whether as a researcher, participant or audience for research findings.

 

SS: Sum up in one word your expectations for the day – excitement? Fear? Thrill? Anticipation?

GH: Uh-oh!

 

SS: If you could change one thing about the scientific culture right now, what would it be?

GH: I think we need more diverse role models, and I don’t just mean in the recognised sense of sex, age etc. I feel the stereotype of the brilliant, perfect researcher solely dedicated to their career in science is unrealistic. We need to celebrate all aspects of being a scientist and be confident enough to talk about our mistakes and setbacks as well as successes. If this were the case I think it would be less daunting for those embarking on a career in science.

 

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a female PhD student considering pursuing a career in academia?

GH: I will simply share the advice I give myself regularly: just keep going, we will get there!

 

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