Communities and scholarship in supporting early-career academics at the University of the Witwatersrand

Purpose – This article is a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned entrepreneur regarding the evolution, commercialization and challenges of bringing a technological invention to market. Design/methodology/approach – The interviewee is Dr Yoky Matsuoka, the Vice President of Nest Labs. Matsuoka describes her career journey that led her from a semi-professional tennis player who wanted to build a robot tennis buddy, to a pioneer of neurobotics who then applied her multidisciplinary research in academia to the development of a mass-produced intelligent home automation device. Findings – Dr Matsuoka received a BS degree from the University of California, Berkeley and an MS and PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was also a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and in Mechanical Engineering at Harvard University. Dr Matsuoka was formerly the Torode Family Endowed Career Development Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), Director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering and Ana Loomis McCandless Professor of Robotics and Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2010, she joined Google X as one of its three founding members. She then joined Nest as VP of Technology. Originality/value – Dr Matsuoka built advanced robotic prosthetic devices and designed complementary rehabilitation strategies that enhanced the mobility of people with manipulation disabilities. Her novel work has made significant scientific and engineering contributions in the combined fields of mechanical engineering, neuroscience, bioengineering, robotics and computer science. Dr Matsuoka was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in which she used the Genius Award money to establish a nonprofit corporation, YokyWorks, to continue developing engineering solutions for humans with physical disabilities. Other awards include the Emerging Inventor of the Year, UW Medicine; IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Academic Career Award; Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers; and numerous others. She leads the development of the learning and control technology for the Nest smoke detector and Thermostat, which has saved the USA hundreds of billions of dollars in energy expenses. Nest was sold to Google in 2013 for a record $3.2 billion dollars in cash.

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First person – Fanny Jaudon and Martina Albini

Journal of Cell Science ◽

10.1242/jcs.259251 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 134 (16) ◽

Keyword(s):

Neurotrophic Factor ◽

Neurological Disorders ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Neurological Diseases ◽

Early Career ◽

First Person ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

And Function ◽

The University ◽

Selection Of

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Fanny Jaudon and Martina Albini are co-first authors on ‘ A developmental stage- and Kidins220-dependent switch in astrocyte responsiveness to brain-derived neurotrophic factor’, published in JCS. Fanny is a postdoc at the University of Trieste in the lab of Lorenzo A. Cingolani at Center for Synaptic Neuroscience and Technology, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy, investigating the molecular mechanisms controlling development and function of neuronal circuits and implementing genome-editing approaches for the treatment of neurological disorders. Martina is a PhD student at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in the lab of Fabio Benfenati and Fabrizia Cesca investigating neurotrophin biology and its involvement in neurological diseases.

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An Essay in Critical Biography—Charles Churchill

PMLA ◽

10.2307/457327 ◽

1920 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 226-246 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Joseph M. Beatty

Keyword(s):

Personal Information ◽

Early Career ◽

Original Material ◽

University Of Cambridge ◽

Robert Southey ◽

The World ◽

New Material ◽

Edinburgh Review ◽

The University ◽

National Biography

A writer in The Annual Register, soon after the death of Charles Churchill, gave to the world the first account of his life; this was followed by The Genuine Memoirs of Mr. Charles Churchill. To Bell's edition of the poet's works is prefixed a life of the author by Doctor Johnson; this does not add anything new. Kippis, in his Biographia Britannica, followed most of the inaccuracies of the first biographer, but added some new material from his personal information. Anderson used these sources in the British Poets (1795). Robert Southey in his Life of Cowper, and William Tooke in an edition of Churchill's Works (1804) made more elaborate studies of the poet's life, but, unfortunately, were satisfied with earlier biographies or neglected to give careful references to original material. John Forster, in The Edinburgh Review (1845) pointed out many of Tooke's inaccuracies. Every biographer of Churchill from Chalmers in his English Poets to Leslie Stephen in The Dictionary of National Biography, followed Tooke, or Tooke modified by Forster. In 1903, R. F. Scott in his Admissions to the College of St. John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, made several valuable contributions to our knowledge about the early career of the satirist. Ferdinand Putschi, in Charles Churchill, sein Leben und seine Werke (1909), had not seen Mr. Scott's book, and followed the earlier biographers.

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Unwaged Posts in UK Universities: Controversies and Campaigns

tripleC Communication Capitalism & Critique Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society ◽

10.31269/triplec.v13i2.583 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 533-553 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kirsten Forkert ◽

Ana Lopes

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Social Media ◽

Trade Unions ◽

Creative Industries ◽

Early Career ◽

Higher Education System ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

The Uk ◽

The University ◽

Uk Higher Education

This article examines unwaged posts at UK universities, using recent examples of advertised job posts. While unpaid work is common in the UK higher education system, unwaged posts are not. The posts under scrutiny in this article differ from traditional honorary titles as they target early career academics, who are unlikely to have a paid position elsewhere, rather than established scholars. The article contextualizes the appearance of these posts in a climate of increasing marketization of higher education, entrenching managerialism in higher education institutions, and the casualization of academic work. We also discuss resistance to the posts, arguing that the controversy surrounding unpaid internships in the creative industries created a receptive environment for resisting unwaged posts in academia. We analyze the campaigns that were fought against the advertisement of the posts, mostly through social media and the University and College Union. We explore the tactics used and discuss the advantages and limitations of the use of social media, as well as the role of trade unions in the campaigns against these posts, and we reflect on what future campaigns can learn from these experiences.

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First person – Alessandra da Silva Dantas

Journal of Cell Science ◽

10.1242/jcs.259654 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 134 (24) ◽

Keyword(s):

Fungal Pathogens ◽

Research Council ◽

Medical Research Council ◽

Early Career ◽

Medical Mycology ◽

First Person ◽

Postdoctoral Fellow ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

The University ◽

Selection Of

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Alessandra da Silva Dantas is first author on ‘ Crosstalk between the calcineurin and cell wall integrity pathways prevents chitin overexpression in Candida albicans’, published in JCS. Alessandra is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Neil Gow at the Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Exeter, UK, and is interested in the mechanisms controlling cell division and death in human fungal pathogens.

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The university-to-work transition: responses of universities and organizations to the COVID-19 pandemic

Personnel Review ◽

10.1108/pr-03-2021-0170 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

William E. Donald ◽

Melanie J. Ashleigh ◽

Yehuda Baruch

Keyword(s):

Organizational Behavior ◽

Early Career ◽

Career Services ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Content Type ◽

Work Transition ◽

Global Labor Market ◽

Career Literature ◽

The University ◽

The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand how universities and organizations have responded to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of preparing university students and recent graduates to enter the global labor market, using the accounting, banking and finance sector as a case study. The two research questions are (1) How can university career services and organizations work individually and collaboratively to best develop early career talent following the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) What are the challenges that university career services and organizations face when working individually or collaboratively to develop early career talent following the COVID-19 pandemic?Design/methodology/approachThe data for thematic analysis comes from 36 semi-structured interviews with career advisors (CAs) (n = 19) and graduate recruiters (GRs) (n = 17).FindingsThis study offers some of the first findings on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to ensure that organizational behavior and career theory literature reflect the dramatically changing landscape in the university-to-work transition.Originality/valueTheoretically, our contribution comes from applying a framework of the career construction theory (CTT) within the context of a career ecosystem to understand the views of the intermediary, meso-level actors, which, to date, have lacked representation within career literature. Practically, we provide an insightful bridge between universities and organizations, offering opportunities for greater collaboration, and enhanced outcomes for all stakeholders.

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First person – Katie Lloyd and Stamatia Papoutsopoulou

Disease Models & Mechanisms ◽

10.1242/dmm.047506 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. dmm047506

Keyword(s):

Assistant Professor ◽

Early Career ◽

First Person ◽

Transcriptional Responses ◽

Research Associate ◽

Experimental Approaches ◽

Postdoctoral Research ◽

The University ◽

University Of Manchester ◽

The Impact

ABSTRACTFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Katie Lloyd and Stamatia Papoutsopoulou are co-first authors on ‘Using systems medicine to identify a therapeutic agent with potential for repurposing in inflammatory bowel disease’, published in DMM. Katie conducted the research described in this article while a postdoctoral research associate in Prof. Chris Probert's lab at the University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. She is now a lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Chester, Chester, UK. Her research focuses on personalising medicine by combining innovative experimental approaches to identify biomarkers of inflammatory disease, drug response and mechanisms of drug resistance, which consider complex factors such as inter-patient variability and co-morbidities. Stamatia conducted the research described in this article while a postdoctoral research associate in Werner Muller's lab at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. She is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Mark Pritchard at the University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK, investigating the regulation of transcriptional responses during inflammation and the impact of environmental factors on them, and has just accepted the position of assistant professor at the University of Thessaly, Greece.

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First person – Andreia Nunes

Disease Models & Mechanisms ◽

10.1242/dmm.049244 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (8) ◽

Keyword(s):

Muscular Dystrophy ◽

Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy ◽

Early Career ◽

Disease Models ◽

First Person ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

School Of Medicine ◽

Disease Mechanisms ◽

The University ◽

Selection Of

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Andreia Nunes is first author on ‘ Identification of candidate miRNA biomarkers for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy using DUX4-based mouse models’, published in DMM. Andreia is a postdoc in the lab of Peter L. Jones at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, Reno, NV, USA, investigating therapeutics for and disease mechanisms of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.

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The Bull in the Book: A 1308 Witness to the Career of Francesco Caracciolo, Chancellor of Paris

Fragmentology ◽

10.24446/fc88 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 141-148

Author(s):

William Duba

Keyword(s):

Early Career ◽

Research Note ◽

University Of Paris ◽

The University

Research note from Fragmentology 3 (2020). Bound with the 1338 Catalogue of the Library of the Collège de la Sorbonne (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, N.A.L. 99) is a 1308 papal bull used as a pastedown in a previous binding (https://fragmentarium.ms/overview/F-nqp8). This Bull provides a further witness to the early career of the theologian Francesco Caracciolo (d. 1316), who served as Chancellor of the University of Paris.

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Sexual violence during research: How the unpredictability of fieldwork and the right to risk collide with academic bureaucracy and expectations

Critique of Anthropology ◽

10.1177/0308275x20917272 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 40 (2) ◽

pp. 173-193 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Luisa T Schneider

Keyword(s):

Sexual Violence ◽

Sierra Leone ◽

Academic Writing ◽

Early Career ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

Competitive Disadvantage ◽

The Right ◽

The University ◽

The Impact ◽

Research Endeavour

In a contradictory fashion, researchers, their departments and universities simultaneously recognize the unpredictability of fieldwork experiences and outcomes and help establish a bureaucratic system of planning every component of their research. Ethnographic unpredictability and its consequences are a fact of fieldwork and it is essential that researchers and institutions are prepared to view these as part of interpretable data, to learn from them and not mask them. This article examines ethnographic unpredictability through the lens of sexual violence which I experienced during my doctoral fieldwork in Sierra Leone. I show how I redirected my research and renegotiated my position as an academic. I discuss the culture of risk and analyse the influence of neoliberalism on the university. I describe how ‘market logic’ conceptualizes unpredictability as competitive disadvantage. I show the impact that the imaginary ‘perfect academic’ has on early career researchers and the complicity of mainstream academic (re-)presentation in nourishing the image of the ‘in-control academic’ through muting personal field experiences and vulnerabilities and silencing unpredictable occurrences in academic writing. I conclude with recommendations on how personal situatedness, vulnerabilities, and transformations can be approached as factors in every research endeavour which must not pose threats to an institution’s competitive advantage.

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