4 minute read
Ele Zeggini
Ele Zeggini nominated by sarah teichmann
When Eleftheria Zeggini was growing up in the Greek town of Volos, she always knew that she wanted to do biological research. This desire motivated her to leave her native Greece to study biochemistry at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). Ele’s research focuses on genetic analyses of common diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis, and human traits like body mass index and blood lipids. Through large-scale surveys of genetic variation in sub-Saharan Africa, the UK, and isolated populations in Europe, she has contributed to the discovery of hundreds of risk loci, improving our understanding of disease aetiology. She has received several Excellence Awards and attained a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship in 2006. She joined the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI) in 2008, where she is one of four women research group leaders out of about 34. She was recently recognised by a European award scheme for outstanding researchers (ERC) and was appointed Honorary Professor by the University of Leicester in 2013. She is pioneering change at the WTSI and European Bioinformatics Institute to bring the issue of women in science to the fore through her programme – Sex in Science.
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‘The idea of Sex in Science is to raise awareness, challenge preconceptions, generate discussion about issues facing women in science, and to drive policy change. We have been very active in introducing new policies and practices within the Sanger Institute,’ she says.
Sex in Science, that’s a catchy name. ‘Yes, we held our first couple of events three years ago as Women in Science, and 95 per cent of the audience were women. So we rebranded with the bolder Sex in Science title, and were successful in attracting more men to our events. Since then we’ve held an event every six weeks. These include talks by invited speakers, workshops, career days, debates, work-life balance discussions and a theatrical play.’
Carers’ Grant
The programme’s new policy changes include the recently launched Sanger Institute Fellowship. Uniquely, this post-doctoral, threeyear fellowship is aimed at researchers who have had a career break of one year or more.
The institute has also created a Carers’ Grant, which covers the cost of care work for researchers who are travelling for work, and an onsite workplace nursery. ‘Nursery fees are very expensive. For an early career scientist with two children under the age of five, financially it’s almost not worth coming back to work. We’re trying to address that.’
Ele understands just how important it is to balance work and personal life, and to have a
Ele Zeggini
supportive partner. She talks about her first maternity leave as one of the most “interesting” periods of her career. ‘On my first day at the Sanger Institute I was 20-weeks pregnant. I moved from Oxford to Cambridge midway through my pregnancy. I was building up my group, hiring, moving job, moving house, buying a house, and having a baby all during the same period of time.’
Challenges of Maternity Leave
When on maternity leave, she found herself leading her new team remotely. ‘I had four people in the group and was still hiring. At some point I was conducting a phone interview while changing my five-week-old baby’s diaper, which makes for an enjoyable anecdote –as do loud baby noises during teleconferences. The challenging aspect of going on maternity leave so soon after joining a new institute was the lag time in understanding the organisational structure, which can speed up administrative tasks. My second maternity leave was a breeze.’
Does Ele have any tips for young mothers in a similarly challenging position? ‘My pearl of wisdom would be: get help. Had I known I could get cover for myself, I would have hired a research administrator. I would also introduce structure into the group so that there are one or two deputies who can run individual projects with very minimal input from the group leader.’
‘And importantly, don’t worry about projects getting delayed. It’s not the end of the world.’
Changing Priorities
Since having two children, Ele’s priorities have changed. ‘I used to work all hours of the day and night. But after having my first child I learnt how to delegate, how to say ‘no’ and how to prioritise better. Now I’m happy to say that I shut down my computer at the end of the working day, which is bound by opening and closing times at nursery and school – and I don’t routinely bring my laptop home with me.’
“However worried or stressed I am about work, it’s play or cuddle time with my children that completely wipes it all clean for me and gives me the energy to keep going.”
