Last Call

Heleen van’t Spijker, member of the Association of Women in Science

Veer Mudambi

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Professor Heleen van’t Spijker is a post-doctoral associate at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, specializing in neuroscience and neuroplasticity. But patients aren’t the only ones she wants to help during her time at UMMS. Van’t Spijker is both an active member of the Central Massachusetts Chapter for the Association of Women in Science as well as the co-founder/ president of the UMass Medical School’s first ever postdoc association. Many researchers, especially women, often face an uphill battle advancing in STEM and could use a supportive network, something van’t Spijker noticed was missing at UMMS. The post-doc association fosters networking between all current and former post-docs and provides support in the form of workshop and presentation opportunities to share their work with the larger community. Ironically, van’t Spijker’s chance to create a way for her peers to come together appeared when everyone was forced apart during the pandemic.

How did you get involved with Women in Science?

In my lab, I was very lucky that there was another senior post-doc already involved. When I first came here, she invited me to come along with her to a networking event at Wormtown Brewery. It was such a fun group that I wanted to be a part of it in organizing and helping out. Initially I was just doing really basic stuff like sending out the emails but after a year I’ve now become the treasurer.

What does AWS do?

We try to find different ways to support each other — I’ve always found our panel discussions really inspiring. We get members to sit on a panel and the audience asks really good questions. We also sometimes have workshops on topics like dealing with job interviews and sending out CVs. The group is always open to everyone from every gender — we tend to ask female speakers and ask them to talk about experiences they’ve had specifically because they’re female. Most science events have only male speakers so we can highlight female speakers. A great deal of the advice given is usually helpful to men as well.

Would you be willing to speak about your experiences with sexism?

Not one event really comes to mind to me, but I must admit at a conference, there was a female professor whose work I found very interesting. I decided to approach her, but there was a guy who walked up and started repeating what I was saying. She would ask a question, I’d think and give an answer, then he would repeat exactly the same thing like it was his idea. While it’s hard to call it sexism, I don’t think it would happen to a man.

It’s hard, especially when you’re speaking to a professor for the first time, it’s hard to ask that professor, “do you see what’s happening here?” Then you leave that conversation wondering if that professor even knew what was going on or if they just didn’t care.

So what exactly is a postdoc association and how did this get started?

It’s all about postdocs getting together to help and support each other professionally but also just as friends. Now we’ve actually had our first in-person pizza party.

When I first arrived here in January 2019, I was thinking I want to make new friends and meet new people. When you’re in a new country, how do you meet new people? One of the things missing at UMass Med School was a way for post-docs to meet up. Everybody told me that yes, we would really have something for post-docs. After a year, I started thinking maybe we should do this. Around March 2020, with the lockdowns, we were all going to be sitting at home so how could we make sure people still have a social connection. I reached out to all the postdocs I’d become friends with and said let’s start this now.

How long did it take to make things official?

Initially, we just had a bunch of meetings about all the events we could organize like socials but there are so many things professionally that we could help each other with. We did a lot of brainstorming before sending a proposal to the school administration in June of that year. We wrote the email as a group and were all a bit nervous the university wouldn’t like it — made it clear that we just wanted to support each other, and they reacted very positively. That’s when the ball started rolling and we got an official email address and were able to email all post-docs. We were able to start so many new projects, like an outreach committee, which organizes events called Science Cafes, where post-docs share their projects.

So the post-doc association doesn’t just help individuals connect with each other but gives a platform for community outreach?

Yes, each Science Café event has an audience of about 30 people from the community. It lets post-docs reach the community, which is something that scientists don’t usually get to do.

What motivates you to be so involved and try to juggle all these things?

I think I just have so much fun doing it and it’s also for me — I meet interesting people. Being a scientist is a demanding job and it’s really easy for that to take up all your time. But I find that when I get out of the lab and meet people, I’m actually more eager to return to the lab and projects. Whenever you volunteer for things, you get so much as well. Professional and personal growth go hand in hand.

What advice would you give to other aspiring women scientists?

Follow whatever your interests are, no matter what someone tells you — look at what makes you curious.

Heleen van’t Spijker STEVE LANAVA