Can you give us an overview of your research background?
I'm a Research Associate at the Centre for International Manufacturing, Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering, and a Research Fellow at Clare Hall. I am interested in system-level methodologies to develop, reconfigure, and deploy manufacturing and service capacities across supply chains. This is particularly important in the context of demand shocks for emergency production triggered by catastrophic risks, such as pandemics.
What initially led you to explore networks and groups outside of your postdoc contract?
When I came to Cambridge, I found that postdocs tended to remain siloed between two networks: one is the network of undergraduates, assigned to colleges during their studies, and the other is that of tenured academic staff, who are assisted to join colleges via the dedicated university programme.
One of the websites I was following was the Postdoc Academy website, and some college affiliation positions were posted there. I guess I applied to so many of them I lost count!
So it's about being specific when choosing the right college and considering what you can provide as well as what they're able to provide for you?
Yes, it's a challenging process, as the open positions usually do not disclose things you want to see with your own eyes. In my opinion, joining a college community where you can become an important member is much more rewarding than being merely formally listed in another college, even if that college has a prestigious name and historical dining hall.
Visiting colleges before making applications is quite important. When you meet someone there, you can gain an insight into their attitude, their working culture, the place of postdocs in their community, and find out if they are looking for a teaching support in a specific domain. So, I think it is very important that postdocs recognise themselves not as someone who is asking for resources from colleges, but as being able to provide resources to students and wider communities in these colleges. The appeal should be ‘What can I provide for students in the college? Where would my capabilities be best of use?’ rather than ‘I want to get into the college with the most beautiful dining room’. If you find your place, you’ll be surprised how quickly things can develop, because you feel that the things you do matter. So, the affiliation goes beyond a connection to some famous academic brand… It’s more about your social bubble and the people you meet.
Do you feel like you have benefited from being involved in these extended networks? If so, in what ways?
I cannot speak for all colleges, so I would say based on my experience in Clare Hall.
First, the college experience, as for many people, provides professional benefits for me, as well as for many other people. There are emeritus professors who do not teach any longer but are present in the college and have vast experience. Prof Elizabeth Garnsey was very helpful for me personally in finding value in my research topic of supply chain reconfiguration during demand shocks and discussing the ways this research can be applied to catastrophic risks, such as pandemics. This was particularly valuable in giving me a feeling of continuity and purpose when I was between departmental contracts. Besides this, I recall invited Clare Hall Tanner lectures of Allen Buchanan, and Amitav Ghosh, that shaped my research towards systems level resilience in face of catastrophic risks.
Second, while you continue working in the lab, it's always nice to think that you have a “third place” to go between work and home. For me, it's very important that I know that, for example, I can always come to college for lunch in the middle of a hardworking day, meet some familiar faces for a few minutes, and recharge my “social battery”. I think it's quite important, as postdocs are overworked. Moreover, my role in the college as a tutor is pastoral; I am responsible for a number of students. You try to see how they're doing, intervene if they need help, or just discuss their plans over a cup of tea. As I discussed earlier, you both receive from and give to the college, which creates reciprocal value for the community. Besides, I also enjoy taking part in early morning rowing to see nature waking up all around me amidst the beautiful Cambridge scenery, singing in our audition-free choir; being involved in extra-curricular college life means that I see familiar faces everywhere. I feel that wider participation in the community is important: if something is going wrong with one of the students, then it is more likely that I, as their tutor, will notice it, which I think adds another layer of resilience for everybody.
Third, there is a cultural element to all of this. If a postdoc is coming to Cambridge for a short time, there are some things that make Cambridge famous. All of these rituals and ceremonial events just make your life richer. In Clare Hall, Wednesday formal dinners are a very important part of the calendar, where is no high table (or perhaps it’s better to say that all the tables are high), as you are surrounded by international academics, visiting fellows, and their guests. Visiting fellows are leading international academics who come for a sabbatical from top universities, always in town, and they are coming not only for formal dinners, but also all the activities including sports and choir. You have a lot of opportunities to meet them and practise your “elevator pitch”. My best memories of Cambridge are connected with the people brought to the college by other members, including masters of other colleges, lawyers, and philosophers, who were genuinely interested in my work and discussing it. Overall, meeting visiting fellows whose academic interests are close to your domain is a hidden gem of the college system. This creates a very interesting combination because you come as a junior researcher, striving to learn, and they are happy to share their knowledge. It's a bit like an academic symbiosis. So I would say that the three main things are professional growth, social life, and culture.
What have been some of the main challenges or difficulties you've had to overcome?
Joining a college as a postdoc affiliate or fellow represents something like a second job application, as it requires a long-term ground-breaking research proposal (often different from a postdoc’s current project), understanding of the target college, and the perseverance to continue applying despite many rejections. As we are all quite busy in labs, there is a significant time commitment related to any application.
What would you recommend to other postdocs wanting to do the same things you've done, but aren’t sure quite how to proceed?
On applying for college affiliations, the basic advice I’ve received from various people, including my department is, very generally - be bold, make sure that you are thinking big, setting the right goal, and you're working hard towards it.
Perhaps the main hidden leverage is persistence, because many people stop applying after a few rejections. From the people I’ve spoken to, many rejections are now automated, which can be explained by many hundreds of applications, but still feels hurtful at the personal level. I think that colleges should change the tone in which they deliver rejections: there is just a rejection letter and no further explanation or feedback on the reasons for their decision, which can feel demoralising.
Of course, when you start and you're inside the college system, you know that colleges often receive applications from various domains, from philosophy to engineering. This makes comparison and selection quite challenging. I think there are lots of components involved in getting into a college, but luck is not the smallest part. You have to be presenting your topic in the right place at the right time, in order for it to be properly valued.
That is why I think persistence is key: putting the right things together, refining the application over and over again, and then re-applying.
Do you have any advice for postdocs new to Cambridge?
This shouldn’t cause unnecessary pressure, but if it is possible, they should try their best to become part of a college. Fellowships are quite competitive, but even so, there are also lots of opportunities to get affiliated to a college as a postdoc. Some of the colleges charge a small fee, which I was completely disoriented by when I was applying. I thought it was something bad. But actually, I learned later on, the fee is not charged by colleges, but rather goes to the postdoc community in the college, and they use it for events. So, it's not a “payment” for membership, but rather a crowdfunding of some independent activities there.
I think it’s useful to know these things before making any decision.
If you were to give your past self some advice, what would that would be?
I think that the whole point is trying to have a look into the community first before applying.
If I could go back in a time machine, I would not waste my time applying to colleges that are completely unknown to me. That's one change I would make. I would not only be focused on the brand and history of a college. Rather, I would focus on the community of people who are in a college, and I would have applied only to the specific colleges where I know people personally, and know that there is plenty of activity that I want to get involved in.
Apart from that, I wouldn’t change very much; I would possibly have started interacting with my college before I was officially affiliated, for example meeting people and attending open events. Coming as a guest to a formal to the college might be a good starting point to see what’s going on in the community. When I applied to Clare Hall, I already knew about their formal dinner, as I had been invited by Dr Ionut Moise a couple of times as a guest, and I was fortunate that everything else in the college was fantastic too. But my experience might have been different, so it’s an important thing to consider before applying. You don’t want to end up in a situation where you are surrounded by undergraduates and have no access to other academics.
I think it's a very good sign if one of your colleagues invites you to college for an event. You can judge how the community reacts to you, whether they are friendly and welcoming or more reserved and cold when addressing a newcomer. I think it's very important to ensure the culture is inclusive. For example, I remember meeting a Darwin member at a concert, who immediately invited me to join their beekeeping community, where they make their own honey! I never actually became a member but if you’re interested in a particular activity, you could always find people at different events and get involved in the social experience, without being a college member.
It can be very helpful to join a community such as the “Mature student society” that also includes postdocs as they often organise swaps between colleges or visits to other colleges.
A colleague of mine, Dr Valeria Ramirez, established a network between STEM and Humanities, which links researchers and organisations working at the intersection of science, technology and society across Cambridge.