Job group: Academic; Senior Lecturer at MCSB, MVLS

Work: Part-time (0.8 FTE)

Children: Mother of a 22-month old boy

Mat leave details: 10 months

Theme: Parent Buddy Network

I received my BSc (Honours with Work Placement) and PhD from the University of Glasgow and then moved to the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California on a Human Frontier Science Program post-doctoral Fellowship in 2009. I joined MCSB as a Lord Kelvin Adam Smith fellow in September 2013, received tenure (Lectureship) in 2016 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2019, just before the onset of my maternity leave. My research focuses on investigating how light and temperature control plant development at the transcriptional level. In addition to directing a research group, I act as a course coordinator, teach and supervise undergraduate and PGT students on subjects related to Molecular and Cellular Biology. I have been a member of numerous internal (Athena Swan, Senate, ECR, Research) and external professional committees, editorial boards and mentoring schemes.

Thanks to the support from our HoI and three revolutionary schemes offered by MCSB and MVLS, I had the opportunity to remain active in many of the above roles while on maternity leave, which greatly contributed to a smooth transition back to work:

  1. I was involved in recruiting and closely working with a member of staff employed as a Maternity Leave Cover for my research and teaching responsibilities.
  2. Fully funded Keep In Touch (KIT) days offered me the opportunity to supervise my research staff (monthly meetings), write and publish research articles, attend seminars and oversee administrative and teaching responsibilities (such as implementing a novel in-course assessment for one of the UG Options that I coordinate) while on maternity leave.
  3. The Academic Returners Support Fund (MVLS ISSF), which I applied for and was successfully awarded upon my return from maternity leave, acted as a catalyst for performing key research experiments that were instrumental for large external grant applications.

Prior to resuming my 10-month maternity leave, I decided to apply for flexible working and returned to work as part-time (0.8 FTE). This allowed me to be productive in my research and teaching roles as well as enjoy precious time with my baby. Overall, I believe that the UoG is one of the most supportive academic environments for new parents worldwide. I would be happy to share my experience and offer advice to parents returning to work in the same way as many of my colleagues did for me.

Contact: eirini.kaiserli@glasgow.ac.uk

First published: 23 August 2021

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