Career Q&A

Piper Trelstad responded to early feedback about her management style and says that those interested in leadership positions in industry should learn to show vulnerability.

Despite facing sociocultural and political barriers, vertebrate palaeontologist Khalafallah Salih returned home to train the next generation.

Emojis are part of a science communicator’s arsenal. Computational chemist Andrew White describes how and why he submitted an application.

Cell biologist Keisha Hardeman describes her journey with mental-health challenges, and the power of therapy.

Astronomers Natalie Batalha and Natasha Batalha collaborate to understand the variety of planets outside our Solar System.

Neuroscientist Anil Seth draws on his 20-year career to reveal that the mystery of consciousness need not be beyond science.

Chemist Basant Giri designs inexpensive assays to test for contaminants and other health hazards in low-income countries.

A psychology class about railway engineer Phineas Gage’s behaviour change after a metal rod speared his brain in 1848 led Chantel Prat, author of The Neuroscience of You, switching disciplines.

Grace Nambatya Kyeyune uses modern technology and clinical trials to help validate the efficacy and safety of products based on traditional medicine.

An emergency helpline and online resource is now available to researchers in the Netherlands.

Endangered-species specialist Jim Groombridge describes how to lead a conservation field team, even when the species in question disappears.

Simon Kay wants to use his newly acquired skills as a life and leadership coach to improve how science is led and managed.

Neuroscientist Gina Rippon describes how and why she tackled the nature–nurture debate in her book The Gendered Brain, and the media furore it caused.

Engineer-turned-sociologist Erin Cech describes how she coined the term ‘passion principle’, which challenges the belief that people should love their jobs.

Conservation biologist Kay Van Damme works with locals on the Socotra archipelago to help save ancient trees and colourful invertebrates.

Running the Uganda Cancer Institute is a chance to put my vision for treatment into practice, says Jackson Orem.

Farmer and environmentalist Joshua Zake shares what he has learnt about advances in sustainable agriculture with small-scale farmers.

Paediatric-health researcher Mary Nyantaro wants more investment in and mentoring for the research workforce.

Cutting out single-use plastics was the beginning of a sustainability transformation, says Jane Kilcoyne.

Cyril Boateng is helping to connect members of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands through geophysics research, using skills he acquired during a PhD and postdoc in China.