Karen Faulds

Meet Karen Faulds

The single biggest challenge… The challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic are of course a major challenge, but it has also brought opportunities for scientists to work together and quickly share data. But it has had a big impact in terms of lost time in the laboratory by researchers, especially PhD students who have limited time to collect the data they need for their thesis. The impact the pandemic has had on the health and wellbeing of researchers is also immense due to increased workloads and the stress of having to carry out lab work in limited periods of time.

Heroes? I had the privilege of having two amazing mentors in Ewen Smith and Duncan Graham as an early career researcher; they inspired me to try to become as good a researcher and academic as possible – but also to have fun and appreciate the social side of science!