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Following the annual Rising Scientist Day, Drs Myrsini Kaforou, Alex Thompson and Claire Byrne recount their experiences of becoming fully-fledged early career researchers and share their best advice for prospective postdocs.<\/strong><\/p>\n The annual Rising Scientist Day at Imperial\u2019s Hammersmith Campus offers PhD students the chance to share their research both with their peers, and a more general audience. In addition to poster presentations and networking opportunities, the showcase featured talks from those who had successfully made the transition from PhD to postdoc.<\/p>\n I guess my journey might be quite different to that of the typical PhD student in the Department of Medicine. I started my studies in electrical and computer engineering, completed an internship at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and then moved to London to complete an MSc course in Bioinformatics and Theoretical Systems Biology at Imperial. I had always wanted to use computational approaches to confront complex problems in biology and medicine. Therefore, I decided to pursue a PhD in Professor Michael Levin\u2019s group<\/a> in developing novel approaches for analysing large gene expression datasets to identify diagnostic signatures for tuberculosis.<\/p>\n While writing up my thesis, a colleague of mine forwarded me a call for post-doctoral fellowships from the Antimicrobial Resistance Collaboration at Imperial College, which I applied for successfully. My fellowship extended the work of my PhD to the bigger question of the use of host RNA diagnostics to identify bacterial infection to guide antibiotic use and tackle AMR by bridging clinical research and point-of-care assay development. I worked with Dr Pantelis Georgiou<\/a> and his team in the Department of Bioengineering. At the end of this year-long post, I applied for a few different schemes and was successful in getting the Sir Henry Wellcome fellowship to work on understanding and diagnosing infectious diseases using multi-level omics data. This scheme offers recently qualified postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to start independent research careers.<\/p>\n Although I\u2019m still in the early stages of my career, I can share some things that I think helped me to secure a fellowship. For me, knowing yourself, your strengths and weaknesses \u2013 and working on them \u2013 is key. Also, consider what you enjoy, and what works best for you: while some people thrive instability, others thrive in change. As competition is extremely high, it\u2019s also essential to find ways to stand out by measurable outcome. Whispering scientific findings into a dark hole never helps, but publications, active and interesting social media accounts, reviewing papers, organising meetings and conferences, are all vital. Look out for yourself, be enthusiastic, show some evidence of independence, and apply your skillset to questions from a different field (ICRFs are really supporting that). Proposals can describe interesting and impactful questions, but they need to show feasibility so that funders will be willing to invest in you. Research is all about teamwork, so seeking support, advice and mentoring is always a good idea. However, it\u2019s really important to invest in the person you are outside of academia, and nourish that part of yourself too.<\/p>\n Since October, I\u2019ve been working as an Imperial College Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine. However, I originally came to Imperial nine years ago to study for a PhD in Physics. After completing my PhD, I took up two post-doctoral positions \u2013 first in the Department of Chemistry and then in Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery (Department of Computing) \u2013 before finally moving to the Department of Medicine.<\/p>\n Throughout my career, my research has focussed on the use of optics \u2013 the study and control of light \u2013 to develop new technologies for biology and medicine. This has involved developing new diagnostic tools for early detection of cancer, studying important biological phenomena such as the formation of brain plaques involved in dementia, and fabricating microscale robots for the next generation of minimally-invasive surgery. As part of my fellowship, I\u2019m now working to translate optical technologies to developing countries through the production of a new test for gut health that is cheap, robust and simple to use.<\/p>\n In my experience, it\u2019s often factors outside of your research career that end up being the most important in determining your next steps. In terms of career advice: firstly, while it\u2019s obviously important to plan your career, make sure that you are aware of all of the different opportunities that are available to you. I would suggest keeping an eye out for post-doc positions being advertised in related groups, fellowship deadlines, and calls for small grants such as seed funding and travel awards. Doing this will help to build your CV and to avoid missing out on the job opportunities that are most relevant to you. Lastly, I would advise thinking of your career as a \u2018story\u2019, and developing a narrative combing three key aspects: the research you are doing, the places you have done it, and the experience you have gained as a result. Career choices often feel like they have been made at random, but if you develop a clear narrative with those three ingredients, then you\u2019ll have a good chance of selling yourself to potential employers and funders\u2026 even if your career decisions really were taken at random!<\/p>\n My PhD research focussed on the role of non-digestible carbohydrates on appetite regulation and energy homeostasis. In my final year, it hit me that I needed to figure out my next step. At this stage, my PhD hadn\u2019t put me off academia \u2013 I still enjoyed it. I decided to speak to my supervisor \u2013 Professor Gary Frost<\/a> (Chair in Nutrition and Dietetics) \u2013 about funding opportunities, and expressed that I was keen on staying on as a postdoc in his group. We applied for a Wellcome Trust Fellowship together as a follow-on from the data I got from my first paper, but I didn\u2019t get it. I realised that the chance of getting my own funding was slim so early on in my career. Thankfully, as part of the Nestl\u00e9-Imperial collaborative, Gary gained funding for a project proposal he had submitted when I first expressed an interest in staying on in the group, and had named me as a postdoc on it. My quest for funding was over!<\/p>\n So, what\u2019s my advice? I have a PhD checklist of sorts, which includes things that I aimed for, and some things I only realised were important afterwards:<\/strong><\/p>\n My advice for transitioning to a postdoc position would be:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMyrsini Kaforou<\/a> – Senior Research Fellow in Bioinformatics<\/h2>\n
Alex Thompson<\/a> – Imperial College Research Fellow<\/h2>\n
Claire Byrne<\/a> \u2013 Research Associate<\/h2>\n
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