My Tip To Early Career Researchers: Teach Well, Take Risks, and Love What You Do

In academia — unfortunately — you are often measured on your research outputs. For most, you can be an amazing teacher, but if you are not producing research papers and getting in grants, you can be seen as not quite making the mark. Career progression for many academics is thus often focused on the quality of your research outputs.

Well, in a year where I became a Principal Fellow of the HEA and was awarded a Best Lecturer award in the School of Computing, I can vouch for the fact that an academic can have both a research career and still love teaching:

For me, research and innovation must be at the core of pushing us forward. It drives us to learn new things, and where we try and understand the boundaries of our world. It thus stimulates our minds in continually thinking about solving problems, and, many cases, solving problems. Unfortunately, when I first got into research, no-one actually told me why I was doing it, and it is only years later that I now understand why I do it … to make things better, to debate and find solutions, and to receive and pass on knowledge.

And so, for early career researchers, I say that you should try and write and create software, and take risks in both your research and teaching. Always be creating in whatever way you are…