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Research lives and cultures

Research careers are complex and unpredictable, but the lives of researchers are fascinating.On this podcast, Dr Sandrine Soubes interviews researchers, academics and professionals with research background about their journeying through research lives and professional transitions.Bringing these stories to you listeners is about illustrating the diversity of approaches in navigating the complexities of the research environment. Stories from our guests show that there is never a set path for research careers. Guests share ideas from their own experiences about thriving in the research environment.These discussions address how individuals make choices or create opportunities and what challenges they face balancing personal lives and professional aspirations. This podcast represents a desire to help researchers navigate more joyfully the bumpy rides of research lives through sharing stories.The podcast is hosted by Dr Sandrine Soubes who is a facilitator, coach and trainer for the research environment. If you want to share your own life in research, contact Sandrine at sandrine@tesselledevelopment.com

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Research lives and cultures

50- Dr Nicola Nadeau- Facing fears at each transition in research careers

April 24, 2023 • Sandrine Soubes • Season 2 • Episode 8

Dr Nicola Nadeau became interested in the natural world at a young age. After studying Zoology at Newcastle, she secured a PhD at Cambridge in evolutionary genetics.

She moved from being unsure that genetics was really the area she wanted to be in, to becoming captivated by the possibilities it presented. She thoroughly enjoyed the PhD process, helped along by a supportive department and supervisor.

After completing her PhD and a brief stint as a postdoc with her PhD adviser, she moved on to a 5 year postdoc position in a different lab. With the support of her postdoc adviser, she developed a side project into a fellowship application.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, she bolstered her publication record with some high profile articles and was eventually successful, securing a NERC fellowship at Sheffield.

This was a major transition and quite lonely at times but she formed some strong collaborations and has now settled into managing her own research group on the evolution of structural colour in butterflies.

More about Nicola:
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/biosciences/people/academic-staff/nicola-nadeau

Look at her timeline and career milestones:
https://academicstories.group.shef.ac.uk/nicola-nadeau/