Category Archives: mentoring

Does Working from Home make you more Productive?

Does working from home (and hybrid working) improve productivity or the opposite? Two recent reports have come to slightly different conclusions, and I suspect this is not surprising because the answer almost certainly is ‘it depends’. Clearly if you are … Continue reading Continue reading

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Research Leadership: Are we Getting it Right?

We are stuck in an academic world where the model of how science research is done appears not to have shifted much from that deemed appropriate fifty years ago. Back then (more or less when I set out, give or … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in bullying, HEPI, Matthew Flinders, mentoring, Research, Science Culture, teams | Comments Off on Research Leadership: Are we Getting it Right?

A Holistic CV

Just recently at a dinner for heads of the Cambridge colleges the issue of the toxic culture some research students find themselves in was raised. We all know the issues exist and, in this context, the question was what could … Continue reading

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Withdrawal Symptoms

As a new PI what advice is likely to be of assistance? Eight of us old hands were recently asked by the THE to write some words of wisdom, which newly-minted PI’s may or may not have found useful. Their … Continue reading

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Unravelling Grant Success Rates by Gender

I first realised that the problems I was facing might just, possibly, not be down to my own shortcomings when I read the 1999 MIT report on the Status of Women. For the first time it occurred to me that … Continue reading

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The Season of Presents

I have written before of my desire to get my hands on a Pensieve, that wonderful, fantastical creation of JK Rowling characterised as the receptacle described here: One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them into the … Continue reading

Posted in Ed Kramer, mentoring, Science Culture, support | Comments Off on The Season of Presents

Knowledge versus Experience

One of the things that is always said about teaching is that it shows you what you do or don’t know. You can’t flannel an explanation to a student who keeps asking probing questions though you may manage to do … Continue reading

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It’s the Individual Who Makes a Difference

Mentors are often highlighted as being crucial to success. People who look out for you, advise you when you’re feeling confused or lost, who point you towards opportunities you might otherwise have missed and who are there to offer encouragement … Continue reading

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Fear of the Illogical

I’m on my way to Newcastle to talk to their Women’s Network about confidence, and it’s made me think a lot more about the phrase ‘Feel the Fear and Do it Anyhow’ – the title of a book I must … Continue reading

Posted in fear, mentoring, promotion, Science Culture, Women in science | Comments Off on Fear of the Illogical

The Self-Promotion Stakes

My university has recently run a consultation exercise for women from different parts of the university and across the different grades (with the exception of researchers, for whom a separate event will be held later).  Various key messages have come … Continue reading

Posted in CV, Equality, mentoring, promotion, Women in science | Comments Off on The Self-Promotion Stakes