Research lives and cultures

Dr Sarah Brooks is a senior lecturer in Organisational Behaviour in the Management School at The University of Sheffield. Sarah combines coaching in her work, in different ways.  She is teaching undergraduate students to gain thinking tools for career development planning, and she integrates coaching into her research portfolio, for example, with a project using coaching as a route to voice, for i...

Prof. Jenny Clark is a Materials Physics research leader in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at The University of Sheffield. Jenny has sailed the fellowship boat to build her research career while putting her family as one of her priorities. She is an example to showcase that whilst no one can ever “do it all”, researchers with parenting responsibilities can progress in science and...

Dr Phil Elks is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Medicine and Population Health at The University of Sheffield. His research career has been dedicated to using Zebrafish as a model to study human diseases. Being part of a vibrant community using this animal model has shaped his career. Listening to our conversation will prompt your thinking: How spotting small funding opportunities is par...

Dr Cariad Evans is a virology consultant for the NHS, as well as an infectious diseases specialist. After a period of working in Africa, Cariad returned to the UK to work as a consultant.  A corridor conversation with a senior colleague kick-started her engagement in doing research via an MD. The recent pandemics have been fertile grounds to contribute to research, as well as impact national polic...

Deanne Bell is Associate Professor in Race, Education and Social Justice at the University of Birmingham. When I interviewed her, she was working at Nottingham Trent University as Associate Professor of Critical Psychology and Decolonial Studies. Her research has the potential to shift higher education towards an era where the colonial past is addressed, but first, it means “exposing and dismantli...

Professor Jo Richardson is Associate Dean of Research for Nottingham Business School at Nottingham Trent University and Professor of Housing & Social Inclusion.  Her expertise on homelessness and methodological stance in co-production have created solid and value-based foundations for her leadership style.  Jo’s career was not planned from the start as an academic career. She started as a hous...

Dr Cristina Nostro is a Senior Scientist at the McEwen Stem Cell Institute at the University Health Network (UHN), a research hospital, as well as Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. She recalls challenges in demonstrating research independence. Cristina started her research career not taking no for an answer. As an undergraduate student in Florence (Italy), she had hoped to access t...

Prof. Milica Radisic is a Functional Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering Professor at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (University of Toronto, Canada).   Her work sits at the interface of engineering, stem cell biology and chemistry. Her ethos as a PI is to create interdependence between team members to build a collaborative and effective research team. Milica is part of a generation of scien...

Dr. Catarina Henriques is a Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow at The University of Sheffield. Her journey into a research career was ignited by a TV documentary on telomeres she watched as a teenager, which fueled her enduring interest in the biology of aging. Transitioning from Portugal to the UK to pursue her research ambitions involved numerous daring conversations. Not many pe...

Kristen Brennand is Professor of Psychiatry and Genetics at Yale University School of Medicine. She first set up her own research group in 2012 at Mount Sinai, after a Postdoc at the Salk Institute and a PhD at Harvard University. She reflects on balance in research careers. From the outside, Kristen’s research career looks like the perfect trajectory without a single faux pas, even though we full...

Dr Dawn Scholey is a Senior Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University. She never intended to become a researcher. After working for an extended period in industry, she returned to academia as a technician. It was the cheerleading of her manager that convinced her to embark on a PhD. Dr Dawn Scholey’s career is a good example that for some people, entry into the world of research is not part o...

Dr Ahmed Iqbal is a Senior Clinical Lecturer in Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health at The University of Sheffield and Honorary Consultant Physician in Diabetes for the NHS. His research interests emerged from challenging the status of understanding of the physiological impact of diseases and how this could be managed for better patients’ outcomes. More info about Dr Ahmed...

Dr. Sowmya Viswanathan is a Scientist at Schroeder Arthritis Institute and the Krembil Research Institute (University Health Network) and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and at the Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine (University of Toronto). She built her industry experience developing regenerative medicine products at Johnson and Johnson before returni...

Dr Iryna Kuksa is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University. She describes herself as a cross-disciplinary researcher, having studied and worked, in departments as diverse as History of Arts, British Politics and Theatre, Performance & Cultural Studies. The common thread in her research interests is Digital Technologies. Growing up in Belarus, Iryn...

Dr Sara Vasconcelos is an Associate Professor based at the University of Toronto in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering with a research team in the Toronto General Hospital: University Health Network (UHN). Her research focuses on tissue engineering approaches to address cardiovascular problems. Imagine getting your first grant as a PI and not been able to take it because of visa issues for yo...

Prof. Thushan de Silva is an Infectious Diseases Clinician Scientist at The University of Sheffield. His research journey started during his medical training and continued thanks to several clinical fellowships that have allowed him protected time to build his research portfolio alongside continuing clinical work. Thushan is currently working as a Senior Clinical Lecturer at The University of Shef...

Not everyone can say that their PhD recruitment interview took place from an exotic place; well Rebecca started her research career following a phone interview whilst she was travelling in Borneo. To me, this is an interesting career trait of not seeing limitations in a less than perfect situation, but a positive attitude in believing in positive outcomes. Dr Rebecca Dumbell is a senior lecturer a...

Dr Joby Cole is an Infectious Disease and Acute Medicine Consultant for the National Health Services and an honorary lecturer at the University of Sheffield. He has held several clinical fellowships to enable him to undertake research alongside his clinical work. His current interest to give all patients the opportunity to get involved in clinical research projects as participation improves outcom...

Dr Ruth Payne has a dual professional identity as a Consultant Microbiologist for the National Health Services (UK) as well as a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Sheffield. Her interest in malaria vaccines may have been the starting point for her research career, but her expertise in vaccines became the corner stone of her ability to contribute to the Covid vaccine development efforts...

Prof. Jason King is a research scientist at the University of Sheffield who progressed his career via the fellowship route. He has spent the last 10 years working as a Principal Investigator and building a team with the ebb and flow of PhD students and Postdoc contracts. Jason has travelled the country from Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow to Sheffield from his undergraduate degrees to his current rol...

Dr Leili Rohani is a research scientist with a specialism in engineering heart tissues for cell therapy. Leili currently works at The University of British Columbia in Canada in the  department of Cardiology and cardiovascular surgery. Leili has had an itinerant research career across different countries and continents. She started her career as a graduate in Iran, then moved abroad for a PhD in G...

Dr Madeleine Jotz-Lean has always had a passion for mathematics and research, which was nurtured from an early age by her teachers and supervisors.  She began her publication record early, with 10 articles to her name by the end of her PhD.  After moving from the US to Sheffield into a lectureship, she became more involved and interested in teaching, as well as equality and diversity, particularly...

Jonna Kulmuni’s love of nature began at an early age but biology wasn’t her strongest subject.  The challenge was what drove her to pursue a biological career and she fell in love with ants during her Masters degree, where she worked with a very supportive group and continued on to a PhD.  At the same time, she completed a Masters in Science Communication – an invaluable experience, which has supp...

Prof. Jim Thomas was inspired by his father to become a scientist but, after not achieving the best degree in Chemistry at Reading, he opted to teach in the UK before going to Western Kenya with Voluntary Services Overseas, where he taught in a rural high school for several years.  This lent him a great deal of perspective and led him to revisit his childhood ambition of becoming a research scient...

Dr Julie Hyde’s love of chemistry was inspired by her father and experimenting with him in the garden shed when she was young. She left school with no qualifications but got a job in the chemical industry as an Analytical Chemist while also studying part-time at college. It was here that one of her tutors suggested applying to university, which she did. After her BSc, Julie moved into lecturing/ t...