4 minute read
Lynda Erskine
Lynda Erskine nominated by christiana ruhrberg
Lynda is a professor in Development Neurobiology at the University of Aberdeen. Originally she went there to study medicine, but after a couple of years she did an intercalated degree in Medical Sciences, and realised she was more interested in research. Lynda’s research focuses on two areas. One looks at how the eye develops and how this impacts on eye disease later in life, the other focuses on how the eye connects to the brain, which could lead to novel strategies for regeneration of damaged optic axons. Christiana Ruhrberg, who’s passing on the heirloom, says, “Aside from delivering research that is consistently at the forefront of her field, Lynda is an inspirational colleague due to her enthusiasm, scientific rigor and collaborative spirit. She has been a role model to her students and staff alike, inspiring them to pursue a career in science through teaching, mentoring and leading by example. As a current member of the committee of British Society for Developmental Biology, Lynda effectively helps to promote UK science and the careers of young researchers, and through public engagement activities for school children helps to attract young people into biomedical research. She is an inspirational role model for women seeking a future in STEM.”
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When Lynda first went to Aberdeen University to study medicine in 1988, she was shocked by what she was told by a senior member of staff. “He didn’t agree with women doing medicine as they took up places men should have. His view was that we’ll go off and have children, and then we’ll just not care anymore” says Lynda.
But what really shocked her were the other women present. “They kept telling me to be quiet, that you shouldn’t argue with this person. That was the first time I ever encountered being told I couldn’t do something because I was a girl.” This experience stayed with her for the rest of her life.
Farewell Old School Ways
“But that old school attitude is working its way out of the system. Things like the Athena SWAN initiative embed equality into the university system and make people realise that such behaviour is unacceptable.”
Lynda says programmes like the Athena SWAN initiative are excellent, but warns that we must be careful to make sure it doesn’t go too far the other way. “It’s about getting gender balance and not just about making things better for women. I don’t believe in positive discrimination. I don’t believe discrimination can ever be positive. If we started bringing in
Lynda Erskine
policies that made men feel they were being discriminated against, that would be very bad.’”
Of course Lynda has had extremely positive influences in her professional life as well. “I was really fortunate to work at Colombia University in New York with Professor Carol Mason. She’s a huge advocate for promoting women’s careers in science and mentoring women. She supports everybody in her lab irrespective of what they decide to go on and do, which is quite unusual.” Lynda strives to follow Carol’s example by encouraging her students in whatever they want to do, whether that be science or something else.
Snowball Effect
In her field of Developmental Neurobiology a roughly equal proportion of men and women researchers work in the field, including in leadership positions. She thinks this is a result of the ‘snowball effect’, whereby more women are attracted to a particular field when inspirational women scientists are already established in it.
But she says, “Science as a career is hard at the moment because of the short contracts and job insecurity – and maybe this does impact slightly more on women. It’s much harder to find a work-family balance and for some women it’s just a step too far. Some of the people that work for me are tied to Aberdeen. My fear is that eventually they’re going to hit the time when they’ve done their post-docs but there might not be a principle investigator position for them here, and because of family commitments, they can’t move elsewhere. I fear that suddenly they’ll be out of science.”
And how is Aberdeen University addressing gender imbalance? The university is trying not to schedule meetings before 10am or after 4pm to enable people to drop off and pick up from their kids school. They are also implementing family-friendly policies, such as flexible working hours.
“I don’t drive. I walk everywhere. Walking is a time to think about ideas and put them together. You get that feeling of freedom when suddenly ideas click and you think, “Of course”.”
Lynda Erskine
