Meet the team!

We are a small team who are passionate about making it easier for Early Career Researchers to confidently change careers. As a group of PhDs from diverse backgrounds who have all navigated out of academia, we are well versed in the different pressures PhDs face during an academic career.

We were brought together by our shared concern over what we consider to be a major problem at the heart of academic scientific training: too many PhDs are produced for the number of positions available in academia. This means that the majority of those who train for careers in research ultimately end up employed in other sectors, and this transition is often quite challenging.

We are passionate about helping to address this problem, and are working on developing [re]searching into a resource that will be useful for all of its users.

Nick Riddiford

Founder

Nick is a postdoc in bioinformatics working on genome instability in cancer genomes at the Institut Curie.

He became interested in young researcher career advocacy after finishing his PhD and published an article to highlight the pressures early career researchers face.

Nick has always wondered if a horse and a narwhal had a baby, would it be a unicorn?

Shauna Katz

Strategic planning and outreach

Shauna Katz is the Technology Transfer and Science Coordinator for the LabEx DEEP and CelTisPhyBio at the Institut Curie.

She became interested in in the problems of career development for academic researchers after finishing her PhD, and has built on this interest via career advocacy work she has done in her current position.

Shauna’s million dollar idea is integrating sporks into daily dining wear sets – she has always wondered why these amazing merges are only found in plastic.

Stefan Amyotte

Development

Stefan is the director of software development at HyAlto, a startup in Ottawa Canada.

After experience the uncertainty of transitioning from academia to a career in software development, he is excited to build tools and a community that will help empower anyone looking to follow the same path.

Jeffrey Wolf

Marketing

Jeffrey Wolf is an adviser in the Strategic Partnerships Office at the Centre for International Affairs at Wildau University of Applied Sciences, near Berlin, Germany.

He became acutely aware of the problems facing academics hoping to transition outside of academia when numerous HR personnel looked at his resume and could not understand why he had spent 6 years in graduate school. They advised him to remove this time from his resume.

Now, he is determined to help others navigate the challenges and opportunities that await outside academe.

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