Mentoring to Empower Researchers

Sam studied BSc Zoology in the UK and then completed her MSc and PhD in South Africa. Following completion of her doctorate, she held positions as a Tutor and then a Lecturer at the University of the Western Cape. She then continued her post-doctoral research career in biological sciences at the University of Surrey and spent a short time at the Zoological Society of London creating a course for research fellows. Sam then became mentoring lead for the doctoral college at the University of Surrey working within the Researcher Development Programme. Sam is now applying these experiences to her role at Surrey where she works as a teaching fellow on the foundation year programme in the department of biosciences..

Professor Susan Brooks is Director of Researcher Development at Oxford Brookes University where she develops, oversees and delivers the professional development and skills training programmes for research students and research-active staff at all levels across the University. She began her academic career by completing a doctorate, in pathology, at University College London Medical School in 1990. She continued with post-doctoral cancer research at the same institution until 1995 when she joined Oxford Brookes University, initially as a Senior Lecturer in Cell Biology, and later as Reader. Her interest in researcher development began in 2006 when she took what was originally planned to be a 3-year half-time secondment that eventually turned into an ongoing passion - fuelled by her own experience of the joys and challenges of attempting to build a career from the starting point of being a researcher. She continues to teach biomedical sciences to undergraduates and heads a small cancer research team alongside her researcher development role. She was promoted to Professor in 2016, partly based on her researcher development work. Susan has a deep interest in mentoring, having established a University-wide research staff mentoring scheme in 2015 and, over the course of her career so far, having benefitted from the wisdom, experience and friendship of many formal and informal mentors.

Alison is Academic Writing Consultant at Purely Academic Ltd. She has extensive experience of designing and delivering bespoke academic writing training programs to researchers at all stages of academic career in a wide range of research institutions. She has designed many different genres of writing material, including training resources for English language teachers, language resources for international executives, academic writing materials and programs for doctoral, and post-doctoral and researchers, as well as materials for workshops and writing retreats for academics across diverse disciplines. She has co-authored publications on mentoring and collaboration within academia and is part of the editorial team for the SAGE Success in Research series.