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.