Exploring Research Careers: Recent Episodes
Exploring Research Careers
Welcome to Exploring Research Careers Podcast where we explore careers and personal histories of people working in research today. This podcast which is targeted at those interested in research careers explores in detail the career trajectories of people actively working as researchers or those who work supporting researchers.
We explore the transition from finishing education into professional roles, whether these transitions were designed or accidental. We explore the skills that were developed and how those interviewed perceived their journey, development, and successes. We also look at the lessons learned, things they might do differently and things that surprised them along the way.
Each podcast also focuses on a particular area of expertise or insight such as “imposter syndrome”, “intersectoral mobility”, “emotional journey of applying for prestigious grants”, working in “industrial research and development” to name a few.
The podcast offers advice to those considering a research career at undergrad or postgrad level and career development advice to those already on the academic/researcher pathways
Dr Liz Elvidge is the Director of the Post Doc & Fellows Centre at Imperial College Dublin.
In this very honest conversations Liz provides insight into her career journey - from PhD in Glacial Geomorphology and Geomorphology to her first couple of post doc positions in magnetostratography, then moving into researcher development. I talk to her about her book “What every post doc needs to know” around areas like getting the most out of your postdoc contracts, career ownership and careers beyond academia for researchers. She adds advice for postdocs and she tells us about her own lessons learned through her career.
Dr Maire Brophy graduated with her PhD in Political Theory in 2006. From there she began a journey that would lead her to a new and growing profession – Research Management & Development. Working in this sphere Dr Brophy realised that the skills and attributes that she possessed and developed were key to her success working with researchers around their funding challenges and proposals.
Having brought in millions of euros into research centres and departments throughout her career we talk to her about her latest role as Dean of Graduate Studies at Athlone Institute of Technology.
She also talks to use about lessons learned and how tenacity and career ownership are requirements for successful post docs and researchers
Dr Ian Sherwin is a Lecturer in Sports Coaching at the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences and is the Course Director for academic programmes relating to the National Council for Education and Fitness at the University of Limerick.
He highlights his career journey from various jobs after leaving college, returning to college to focus on sports science, then moving into a coveted coaching role with the Irish Rugby Football Union.
After 13 years in that role returned to education and he chats to us about transitions and decisions along this journey. He offers advice to undergrad and postgrad students and highlights how kindness is central to his philosophy.
At the time of recording Dr Emma Gallon was a Commissioning Editor in the Publishing team at Epigeum. She was responsible for commissioning and strategic development of a portfolio of courses, along with conducting research into trends in higher education and collaborating with experts in the field to develop programme content.
She talks us through her PhD journey studying music, her move into publishing and how through choices and circumstances finds herself currently in her dream role working for the OUP. She emphasises the skills and attributes that PhD researchers possess are valued highly outside Academia and in many different sectors.
Dr Cedric Assambo charts his career journey from a small country in Africa the “Central African Republic” to moving to France where he attended the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon, known in France as INSA Lyon. He then moved to Ireland where he obtained a scholarship to complete his PhD. He is currently CTO at Capri-Medical and a Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.
He provides insight into his previous academic and R & D roles. He also highlights 3 areas that potential PhD’s should consider when embarking on the doctorate journey, funding, passion for the topic and the supervisor. He also talks to us about his own lessons learned.
Dr Cathelijn Waaijer is currently a Policy advisor working in Human Resources Management and is also Institutional Researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands where her role focuses on providing policy advice to university leaders on various areas within HR relevant to researchers, such as talent management, diversity, university rankings, bibliometrics and research grants.
In this episode she talks to us about her own PhD and post doc journey, how the work she focuses on today is transformed into relevant policy for researchers and academics, some of her research papers, lessons learned and the advice she has for others a their own PhD Journey
Dr Ruth Brennan, who is a recipient of a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship researching with the Trinity Centre for Environmental Humanities, Trinity College Dublin, talks to us about her career to date. Starting off highlighting her career in corporate Law in Europe, she talks us through her transitions from there to becoming a Divemaster and how her life experiences led her to begin researching marine environmental issues and marine environmental governance policy. She has held research positions in Ireland, Scotland, Europe and Israel and has collaborated with different disciplines and research approaches. In this episode she highlights how to get into advising policy and what is next for her in her own career.
Domhnaill Hernon PhD completed his his PhD is aeronautical engineering in 2006. From there he moved into Nokia Bell Labs as a post doc and gradually over the years moved into more senior leadership roles; he speaks globally on a variety of topics, has been involved in numerous company change culture projects; culminating in the project he finds himself working on today which is a global collaboration with Artists and Scientists named Experiments in the Arts and Technology or EAT.
He talks to us about the reality of working in in research in an industry setting, the impact of doing a MBA on his career; the characteristic and attributes that he's noticed that successful postdocs and researchers possess; how he stays creative himself and he provides career advice and life lessons for those students and researchers from Arts To Science.
Dr Margaret Collins trained as an immunologist. She talks to us about her career journey, beginning with how she was the 1st in her family to complete a PhD, how she worked her way up from postdoc contracts to Senior Lecturer to now where she runs her own business training and coaching researchers and academics.
She delivers training on all sorts of topics from project management for researchers to coaching senior academics on getting the very best outcomes for themselves. She is also the author of the book “Beyond Imposter Syndrome” and in addition to her career journey she talks us through what Imposter Syndrome really is and how it can manifest in our day to day impacting on our choices and ultimately our career journey.
Conor Reid PhD completed his academic training in 2012 in popular literature at Trinity College Dublin. During his career he has worked in roles in teaching English while upskilling in coding and different technical platforms.
This merged into the very popular podcast regularly broadcast on the all podcast channels called “Words To That Effect”.
He talks to us on the episode about completing an Arts Phd, his journey through teaching and ending up as Development Manager of the most successful podcasting studios in Dublin working in editing, business development and training.
He also talks about research identity and how holding on to part of it can allow you to have a fulfilling and purposeful career in another sector.
In this episode of exploring research careers podcast I speak with doctor Larissa Florea. Dr Florea studied organic chemistry and chemical engineering at University Politehnica, Romania (B.Sc. Hons). In 2009 she joined the Adaptive Sensors Group at Dublin City University where she earned her Ph.D. in materials chemistry
Moving through her research career In 2018 Larisa was awarded an Irish Research Council Laureate grant and an ERC-Starting grant that enabled her to establish an independent research career in School of Chemistry and AMBER.
In today episode we talk to her about how she felt supported and developed through her student and post doc years and how that has impact her support of her own PhD students and post docs, she talks us through the emotional journey of applying for an ERC grant; being rejected; reapplying and being awarded the starter grand 2nd time round.
Dr Carla Parra Escartín is a computational linguist and translator specialising in Human Factors in Machine Translation, Machine Translation Quality Evaluation, Translation Quality Assurance and Multiword Expressions.
She currently works as the Global Program Manager of Iconic Translation Machines, Ltd., a Machine Translation company part of the RWS group and specialises in bespoke Machine Translation and Language Technology solutions. She began her working life as a translator but then moved into research where she won 3 separate Marie Curie awards, One an ITN award, one as experienced researcher fellowship and the EDGE fellowship award which she completed in Dublin.
She relays the emotional move of deciding to take a role in Industry after applying for many academic and researcher positions. The reality of getting a full time academic or research position was too challenging to deal with after a while.
Her current role blending research, her knowledge of translation and how her experience of working both sides of research and client divide have meant her skill set is highly suited to this particular job.
Welcome to Exploring Research Careers Podcast where we explore careers and personal histories of people working in research today