What is your current role and what do you enjoy most about your job?
I am a Senior Research Fellow based in Centre for Rheumatology at the Royal Free campus, investigating the role of immune cells in scleroderma. I lead several modules in the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the Division. Recently, I took on the role of co-chair of the Division's Early Career Researcher (ECR) Network Committee and am a member of the Division's Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team. I most enjoy seeing the progress and development of students as their research projects and studies come to fruition and enjoy working alongside such fantastic and supportive colleagues in the research, teaching and ECR teams. It was particularly rewarding to see so many ECRs attend and engage enthusiastically in our Relaunch Event last Friday. This was to mark the beginning of the research culture seminar series set to be kick-started in October, aimed to build a healthy research culture and grow the ECR network community.
What is your background and how did you find your job in this field?
I graduated from UCL with a BSc in Biochemistry and decided I wanted to pursue a career in research. I applied to and pursued an Arthritis Research UK-funded PhD project on connective tissue disease.
After my PhD, I obtained a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science, which gave me the opportunity to work abroad for a year at Keio University, Tokyo, Japan to explore immunology in scleroderma.
Armed with this experience I returned to UCL to continue my research as a postdoc in the Centre for Rheumatology. From supervising project and placement students in the lab, and assisting with practical demonstrations, I became more interested in pedagogy and a career in education and have since transitioned to taking a more active role in teaching.
What are your interests outside work?
I like to bake and love the process of discovering and developing recipes, and of course eating and sharing the end product. I also enjoy hiking, a hobby that was started when I was a member of the Duke of Edinburgh society as a student. Some of my favourite places to walk are the Kent Downs, and coastal trails in Kent and Dorset. I love to watch murder mysteries and am currently watching the "Only Murders in the Building" series.
