Alumni stories: neuroscientist, diplomat and children’s author Dr Bryony Mathew

Having served as a senior British diplomat in locations as diverse as Bangalore and Beijing, Dr Bryony Mathew is currently the Deputy Director of Operations in the Foreign Office COVID-19 Taskforce.

Unlike many other diplomats, Bryony hasn’t come from a background of politics or international relations. She in fact graduated from UCL with a PhD in neuroscience, specialising in cognitive neurodevelopment.

While definitely not a typical route, Bryony believes her alternative experience has turned out to be an advantage rather than disadvantage. “You need diverse thinking to be able to solve difficult problems,” she says. “A lot of my colleagues might have studied a topic directly linked to diplomacy, but I bring a different way of looking at things.”

Bryony is also a firm advocate of diversity in STEM, a field with a particular gender imbalance. Displaying another of her myriad talents, she’s written two children’s books aimed at inspiring young people to think big about their potential, no matter their gender or background.

Always on my mind...

Bryony grew up in Holland before moving to the UK aged 12. She initially studied experimental psychology at Oxford, before her interests shifted to primatology. She took a master’s in biological anthropology at Durham, studying great ape brain evolution, which then set her on a path towards neuroscience, and UCL.

Spending time with children and families in critical care while studying at ICH gave Bryony more skills than she could have imagined. She attributes the way she handles difficult consular and political situations to her experiences there. She also believes that her time at UCL was vital in her career growth.

“I presented my work at two or three international conferences during my time at UCL,” she says. “Getting to stand up when you’re in your early 20s and talk about your own research to a room of over 500 people, and then be challenged on it by leaders in the field, really tests your nerve. It makes giving public speeches in any other job seem so much easier!”

Making the leap

Despite enjoying the world of neuroscience, Bryony loved to travel and wanted new challenges. This led her to the Foreign Office where, after holding a number of different policy roles, including Deputy Ambassador to Cambodia and Deputy Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory, she is now leading part of the Foreign Office’s operational response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

She says: “As a diplomat, you’re very much a generalist, you need to be able to do anything – from political lobbying and negotiating to looking after British Nationals in distress to crisis response and trade work. You look at issues ranging from the environment and climate change through to defence and security.

“So far I’ve spent eight years of my career overseas, in India, China and Cambodia, and every role is different. I’ve worked on clean energy projects in Inner Mongolia, nanotechnology in Bangalore and girl’s education in Cambodia. I’ve even attended international summits where I’ve sat at the table with world leaders – Mugabe and Gaddafi for example!”

Equality for everyone

Bryony has always advocated equality. But it was her return to the UK after eight years overseas that really inspired her to take action. She says: “When I met new people who heard I’d been overseas, they automatically asked: ‘Oh, what does your husband do?’. There’s this ingrained view that if you are living somewhere interesting overseas, it must be linked to a man’s job.”

At the same time, Bryony’s six-year-old daughter spent hours immersed in books about fairies. “I read research that showed that children as young as six think that girls aren’t as clever as boys, or aren’t as good at maths or science,” she says. “So I had an idea. Why don’t I put together a book full of women in amazing careers so that, rather than deciding what fairy she’d like to be, maybe I could open my daughter’s eyes to all sorts of amazing careers that she could do.”

Bryony launched the ‘Awesome Career Books’ series in 2019. Aimed at children aged five and up, her titles include ‘Blue Broccoli and Nanobots’ and ‘Qubits and Quiver Trees’. She says: “The proportion of women in STEM is still very low, especially in terms of people staying in the careers long term. My books are aimed at children as young as five so they can look at these very diverse images and characters and start to think: ‘That could be me! I can do anything!’”

Inspiring the next generation

Bryony believes today’s students also have a role in inspiring future generations of STEM practitioners, and should themselves be brave in their choices.

Her key advice is not to panic about what you choose to study. Instead, to feed off the energy of those around you and don’t be afraid to change your mind. She says: “UCL for me was just a world of opportunities. You start with the seed of an idea of what you might want to work on, and because you’re exposed to so many inspirational leaders in their field, you get ideas and you get inspired by what they’re achieving. Then you navigate to where you want to go.

“You shouldn’t believe that the decisions you make when you’re 18 or 21 define your life. Decide what you enjoy and as long as you’re learning something new and doing something positive that is a step forward in one direction or another, then it doesn’t matter what direction it is.

“Choose something you love doing and you can’t go wrong.” 

Join the UCL Alumni Online Community (AOC) to search the directory for potential mentors from our pool of experienced alumni, search for jobs from your alumni community and build your personal network.