Early Career Researcher Journeys

Dr Saeideh Babashahi

It’s been a long journey getting to this point. Having graduated from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, I was awarded an MSc in health economics with distinction. I also had a successful career as a health economist at the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (Iran). Having been awarded a fully-funded doctoral scholarship, I completed my PhD in health economics at the University of Otago (New Zealand).

I started my first overseas career as a postdoctoral research fellow in health economics, joining BSMS in early 2021 during the pandemic when everything was virtual. I proactively engaged in other roles to expand my network at school and, more broadly, at the university. For example, I’ve become a BSMS early career researchers’ representative at the University of Sussex, and as part of that role, co-organised a research day. I also joined the BSMS Research Governance and Ethics Committee and reviewed many applications. I worked on two NIHR-funded projects that ended this year. I’ve been recently awarded an MRF grant on climate change and health that I am co-leading with another colleague based in South Africa. I am also a co-I on another NIHR-funded climate change grant in South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique. I also got engaged in teaching at the department and, more broadly, BSMS. I developed a short course on health economics for undergraduate medical students, which I ran successfully in 2023. I also co-developed a new module on economic evaluation in healthcare for postgraduates, which we ran successfully in early 2024.

Looking back at my achievements (as well as challenges along the way), I am proud of myself and very grateful for the supportive research culture at BSMS.

Dr Lisa Quadt

My journey into neuroscience is probably a rather uncommon one. I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Mind in Germany in 2016, in which I took an interdisciplinary look at how we can best empirically research and theoretically describe the phenomenon of ‘social cognition’ in humans. Although being immersed in the literature about neuroscientific social cognition research and visiting several neuroscience labs during my PhD in philosophy, I had no formal training in statistics or neuroscience methods. I knew, however, that I wanted to transition into neuroscience after my PhD, because I craved more interaction with a team of colleagues and more tangible outcomes of my work. I considered a second PhD but was hired instead (and to my surprise) as a postdoc on a large clinical trial in the neuroscience department at BSMS. The trial, in which we tested a novel body-based therapy against anxiety in autistic adults, was funded by the charity MQ: Transforming Mental Health. I started at BSMS in 2017 and have been part of the clinical neuroscience team for the past five years.

From day one, I knew that I had found my true passion. I enjoyed all aspects of my new work; the organisational challenges of setting up a large clinical trial, teaching myself (and with a lot of support from my mentors and colleagues!) the relevant skills to conduct experiments and analyse the data, writing up the results and most of all the interaction with participants. To continue my funding after the trial was completed, I was able to secure a Seed Fund from Sussex Neuroscience to look into the associations between complex chronic health conditions and neurodivergence (autism, ADHD, Tourette Syndrome, dyslexia, dyspraxia, etc.). 

In 2019, I started an MSc in Psychology through a distance learning course to complement my skills and open potential career pathways. I graduated with a Distinction earlier this year and have since been able to make my position as Research Fellow at BSMS permanent.

In my work at BSMS, my research interests revolve around brain-body interactions in neurodivergent populations, and how we as researchers can create truly participatory clinical neuroscience research. I am immensely grateful that I was able to switch from philosophy to neuroscience and would encourage others to follow their passions.

See my full profile here > 

Dr Leena Al-Hassan

I always had a passion for science and learning, especially biology. I went to the University of Edinburgh to study Biomedical Sciences (Hons Infectious Diseases) and was fascinated by the fields of immunology and infectious diseases. In my final year project and I took on a project on Acinetobacter baumannii from animals which led to my PhD application by a complete coincidence! 

After finishing my undergraduate degree I moved to Egypt and worked as a clinical research fellow in the division of infectious diseases at the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Cairo. This was a very enriching experience for me – both a on scientific and personal level as it allowed me to engage with healthcare workers and see the impact of infections directly on the patients, the care they were receiving, and gain a first-hand perspective on how things are running in hospital settings. During my time there, I started my PhD which focused on the epidemiological characterisation of Acinetobacter baumannii – an opportunistic Gram Negative bacterium prominent in healthcare settings -  from Egypt. I was travelling frequently between Egypt and Edinburgh, dividing my time between the PhD project and my clinical research role – which in many ways overlapped. However in the final year, I decided to focus solely on my PhD which I thoroughly enjoyed – not only was my project interesting, but I was part of a diverse research group and had an amazing supervisor!

I started my postdoctoral career in Global Health under the supervision of Prof Melanie Newport as part of the Wellcome Trust Brighton and Sussex Centre for Global Health Research. Through this post, I gained exceptional experience in global health research, connecting with international researchers in the fields of infectious and non-infectious diseases. I was fortunate to travel to parts of Africa I hadn’t been before and being welcomed by the local research collaborators. My diverse cultural background has undoubtedly equipped me with the skills and perspectives to fit this role. The Centre coordination was a part of my role which I enjoyed as it allowed me to work closely with our international partners on driving locally applicable and beneficial research, and focussing on building capacity for local researchers. It also facilitated opportunities in expanding my own research in infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance within global health. I was encouraged to pursue my own research and was successful in obtaining seed and early-career research funding through Sussex, Brighton, and external funders which allowed me to establish myself as an independent researcher. I continue to expand the AMR research portfolio to address transmissions and pathways for interventions.

Working within the Department of Global Health and Infection has been an extremely enriching experience due to the diversity of the team, breadth of work, and impact we are all working towards in improving the health and wellbeing of people around the world. The continuous support from within the department, and BSMS a whole has been invaluable, has given me a platform to develop my own independent research in infectious diseases and AMR and enabled multidisciplinary collaborations locally and internationally. 

Dr Nina Lockwood

If you hold together my postgraduate starting point, undertaking a Masters in Psychological Research Methods at the University of Sussex, and my current Research Fellow post within the department of Primary Care and Public Health at BSMS, specialising in the field of mental health, it could be easy to conclude that the path joining these two points was planned and linear – this is not the case.  I imagine that many people I work with in different strands of my professional life would openly remark that I rarely speak in terms of singular causes, outcomes, or explanations; singular anything. However, if I was pressed to identify a core and consistent theme that runs through my work, my life even, it would be an endless curiosity in how people make sense of themselves and their experiences within the broader context of their social lives; relationality is my ‘thing’. 

Aware as I write this of the narrative formula I might be expected to follow, it is tempting to list each academic milestone I have passed along my way. However, I wonder if referring to select examples of these stepping stones might suffice to illustrate a couple of key overarching lessons I have learned, and continue to, and that may be of more interest to a greater range of people. Yes, I completed a PhD in Psychology at Sussex and pursued different teaching and research roles following on from this, yet I arrived at a fork in the road after several years. I wanted to actively engage with people looking for support in making sense of the myriad challenges and forms of distress they experience, and so I began considering practice-based training. I explored potential avenues in clinical psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy training programmes, opting in the end for psychotherapy. In reality, ‘fork in the road’ is not the right phrase, because I was keen to compliment my teaching and research with practice, rather than change my professional direction – the potential each strand of my professional life offers to stimulate and support the others is invaluable, in my view. Finding and maintaining a footing from which to continue to explore a career path that is not singular in its focus, and that does not evolve in linear or uniform ways is largely down to the wise words and support generously offered by trusted colleagues. I’m not a fan of the word ‘networking’, however I think it relays something of the relational activity that I see as being key to the ongoing plotting of a professional path that offers purposeful meaning. It is through listening to and engaging with a range of people, many holding subtly or even starkly varied views, that I have come to sense something of the direction I wish to travel in.

Not wishing to slip into clichéd remarks on the value of the journey over the destination, yet the potential rewards to be found in process and an openness to varied possibilities feels pertinent as I conclude this reflection. I could not have predicted that my undergraduate interest in health and exercise behaviour research would lead to my present-day involvement in a range of primary and community care initiatives focused on the mental health and wellbeing of marginalised and disadvantaged groups, or me recently being awarded a NIHR small grant, while also developing modules on psychosocial aspects of health and illness, and maintaining an active, independent psychotherapy practice. In a nutshell, I would supportively advise those interested in pursuing a research career to adopt an attitude of active curiosity, an approach that translates into immersing oneself in opportunities to make connections, and in so doing benefit from being part of a catalogue of conversations that create possibilities and guide direction. 

Dr Papreen Nahar

I am a medical anthropologist with over 20 years of experience in global health research, capacity building, and fostering equitable community partnerships across South Asia and East Africa. My career in the UK began in 2009, following a decade of research and teaching in Bangladesh. My work is driven by a commitment to health equity and justice, with specialised expertise in ethnography, qualitative and participatory research methodologies, and frameworks addressing gender, gender-based violence (GBV), and intersectionality.

My research focuses on enhancing the sustainability of health services for vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries, particularly about neglected long-term conditions. These include infertility, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), non-communicable diseases (NCDs, including mental health), and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). I have led transformative global health initiatives in Bangladesh, India, Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South America, the Netherlands, and the UK. 

I am currently the Principal Investigator for two projects focused on infertility and childlessness, as well as a project examining environmental impacts and modern slavery. Additionally, I contribute as a Co-Investigator on two other projects: one exploring mental health and racism, and another on infertility. I also teach qualitative research methodologies and medical anthropology at the MSc in Global Health course. 

As an ethnographer, my contributions include a notable medical anthropology book on infertility published by Routledge, UK, alongside 52 peer-reviewed articles in reputed international journals and book chapters. In my role as Training Lead for the 5S Foundation at BSMS, I coordinated capacity-building efforts for five years for seven PhD and four postdoctoral research projects across Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and the UK. I supervise PhD students. 

Dr Daniela Teixeira

My name is Daniela, and I’m from São Paulo, Brazil. I began my research career during my degree in Biomedical Sciences at the Federal University of São Paulo. My first experience in a lab involved studying the genetic variability of HIV strains in Brazil, which became the focus of my Master of Science degree. After that, I was hired as a flow cytometer technician in the Immunology Department at the same university. This position connected me with new research groups and approaches. Alongside my technical role, I received support to develop my own doctoral project, which involved working with various experimental vaccines against HIV. Balancing my job and studies was challenging, but it allowed me to specialise in flow cytometry, leading me to diverse collaborations across major universities in São Paulo while obtaining my PhD degree and being able to pursue my research interests. Despite my accomplishments, I always felt a desire for international experience. It was amazing to receive the opportunity to come to BSMS and work with Professor Florian Kern, whose research interests in immunology aligned with mine. My time as part of his team and of BSMS has been exceptional. Over the past years, I have been able to share my expertise and knowledge while continuously learning about new subjects, gaining experience with cutting-edge technologies, and collaborating with fantastic research groups. Each challenge I encountered turned out to be a valuable growth opportunity, both personally and for my research journey.

Dr Bethany Linder

I first decided I wanted to be a researcher when my grandad passed away from Alzheimer’s disease. I wanted to dedicate my career to finding ways to improve the lives of people living with dementia and their families. This led me to completing master’s degrees in Dementia Neuroscience and Social Science Research. I have recently completed my PhD in Health Sciences at the University of Warwick which explored the experiences people affected by dementia of attending online and face-to-face dementia peer support groups. During my time at Warwick University I helped to set up the Memory Lane Project, which is a dementia peer support group run by student volunteers from Warwick Medical School informed by my PhD research. This was such a rewarding experience and has driven me to find ways to ensure my research has real impact for people living with dementia. I hope that the project can be expanded to other medical schools in the future! 

I joined BSMS as a Research Fellow on the COV-DEM project, which examined the accessibility of COVID-19 guidance for people with dementia and their caregivers. This has involved learning to navigate the demands of interdisciplinary research, managing multiple responsibilities, and developing confidence as an early-career researcher. The invaluable support of my mentors and the positive culture at BSMS have played a crucial role in shaping my development. I’ve particularly enjoyed building skills in co-production, qualitative research, and creative dissemination methods that centre the voices of people with lived experience.

Dr Harriet Mortimer

I grew up in Brighton and my research journey has been influenced by BSMS at many stages! Around the time of my A levels I was fortunate enough to be introduced to a doctor from the first ever BSMS cohort who let me shadow him for a week. He was working on a project alongside his clinical work, and this was my first introduction to a combined academic and clinical career; he had, however, been a postgrad medical student, was very clever and I wasn’t sure if this could ever be me. 

I attended the University of Glasgow for my MBChB undergraduate medical degree; in my third year I did a student selected component (SSC) focusing on Paediatric Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgery with a proactive and encouraging supervisor who supported me to get my SSC project written up to a standard where we could submit it to a journal and thrillingly it was published! This process was so useful to me to realise that research was not purely the preserve of postgraduates or Oxbridge educated doctors and that it was possible for me to get involved however I had started to realise I wasn’t cut out to be a surgeon and when the time came to apply for an intercalated BSc I applied for Global Health. 

This decision was, in part, inspired by speakers who’d come into my sixth form college back in Brighton for World AIDS Day 2009. They had talked about their experiences campaigning for social justice as people living with HIV and how social pressure on governments and drug companies had turned the tide of the HIV pandemic. The speakers sparked quite a lot of discussion between my classmates and I and it turned out, between us, we knew friends, neighbours and parents who were living with HIV who, without all the campaigning and bravery of the generation before us might have had very different outcomes. 

So, for my intercalation year I went from budding ENT surgeon to budding epidemiologist and enrolled on the Global Health BSc and I was introduced to the impact of politics, climate and society on the health of the individual.

After medical school I was accepted into the Academic Foundation Programme in Brighton.  This meant that after my 5 clinical rotations as a foundation doctor I spent 4 months in BSMS’s Department of Public health and Primary care and worked with Dr Liz Ford on a project around perinatal mental health. This was my first real introduction to qualitative work, and I really loved it. We published a qualitative piece on healthcare professionals’ perceptions around perinatal post-traumatic stress disorder. 

After Foundation Training I worked in various clinical fellow roles from 2020 to 2022. I worked on a research project around burden of mental health conditions in people living with HIV in Croydon, I presented this as a poster and won prizes from both the British HIV Association (BHIVA) and the International AIDS Society (IAS). Of course, I also spent a good portion of this time redeployed onto covid wards in London which put into depressing reality everything I had ever been taught about the social determinates of health. However, this in turn got me thinking more about inclusion healthcare and access to care and how heath care professionals can achieve health equity for the communities we serve. 

In 2022, I came back to Brighton after being awarded an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow (ACF) role which has allowed me, alongside my clinical Internal Medical Training, protected research time within the BSMS department of Global Health and Infection (GHI). Here, supervised by Prof Jaime Vera I have been looking into the barriers and facilitators to accessing sexual health services for adults seeking asylum in the UK. 

During my ACF I’ve some excellent opportunities, a highlight was participating in a European AIDS Clinical Society exchange to Warsaw, Poland which led to my involvement in a European collaborative project around HPV-related cancers in women living with HIV; during this trip I also had the opportunity to see first-hand how Polish HIV clinicians had adapted to accommodate the influx into Poland of people living with HIV from Ukraine. I have also been studying for an MRes at BSMS which has really improved my research skills. 

It’s been fantastic being part of such a diverse department and I am so grateful to all those who have taken the time to chat to me about their work, help me with areas of my projects and for making my ‘in-office’ days at BSMS so enjoyable and engaging. I have found balancing research priorities alongside clinical training and becoming a medical registrar a real challenge, but it has been an amazing privilege to be an ACF in BSMS GHI and I hope to remain engaged in research throughout my clinical career. The protected time I’ve had during this ACF has been invaluable in allowing me to gain the skills I will need to incorporate research into a clinical academic career.