As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2023 we have turned our focus to the International element of the celebration and have asked 4 senior colleagues to share their experiences of what it is to work and succeed at the University of Bath as a woman in an international context.
Professor Eleonora Fichera
Acting Head of Department, Department of Economics, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences
Tell us what excites you about your research?
My research is applied in its nature, as I use data to examine how policies can change individual health outcomes and behaviours, as well as the quality of healthcare providers, in both high and low middle income countries. I get excited about finding methodological approaches as well as new sources of data to demonstrate the causal impact of policies (what works and what doesn’t) and the potential for these results to impact on decisions.
What are the biggest challenges and the biggest opportunities your area of work is facing right now?
Two things: i) the digital transformation and ii) the role of the “State”. With regards to the former, there are massive opportunities in the availability of ever bigger new sources of data, but the challenges are around how to process information, interpret it and allow it to inform decision-making. With regards to the latter, there are issues around the negative externalities of big players in the market onto health and environment, for example. In this context, should the role of the State be “just” to fix these market failures?
How does operating in an international environment enhance your work?
I do not see clear boundaries between national and international environments in my personal and professional life. Economics is a very international field by its very nature, I am a dual citizen, more than 90% of our department is international, and my work is based both in low and high middle- income countries. In this environment, the diversity of experiences, perspectives, and issues compels me to looks at issues from different angles.
What do you believe is special about the University of Bath?
I remember when I joined the University of Bath almost six years ago (coming from a larger institution), I emailed a few people who did complementary work to mine, and they all made themselves available to discuss research. The University offers great opportunities for collaborative interdisciplinary research both within the institution and across other academic and non-academic institutions in the SW region, nationally and internationally. But it also offers excellent employability prospects for students while also equipping them with highly technical skills. As such, what is special about the University of Bath is that it aspires to excel equally in both its research and teaching provision.
How do you relax away from work?
Maintaining wide interests outside work fulfils the many parts of me. Meditation, physical exercise, and walking are all part of my daily practice. In terms of sports, during the week I either go to the gym, do rock climbing (indoors or outdoors), sailing or cycling. I find them all helpful for my physical and mental wellbeing, especially this year because I have taken a new role as Acting Head of Department (HoD). When I took this role, I also decided that I wanted to learn a new skill by the end of my term as HoD (summer 2023). So, I have started playing the saxophone with the “learning by ear” methodology at the Blowout Sax school. It’s fantastic! I also spend a lot of time with friends hiking, eating (as an Italian, I like cooking and good food!), or at a pub!
Dr Caroline Ang
Manager, Institute for Mathematical Innovation, Faculty of Science
Tell us what excites you about your research?
I work with a team of very talented researchers at the Institute for Mathematical Innovation. We engage with academic and non-academic partners to provide data science, modelling and machine learning expertise to research and consultancy projects. IMI’s Mathematical Innovation Research Associates (MIRA)s work on challenges ranging from automating x-ray diagnoses to tackling machine learning algorithmic bias to analysing political career lengths to calculating the statistical probability of FA Cup third round “giant-killings”. It is exciting finding the mathematics in such a wide variety of problems, and a privilege to contribute (even if as a biologist I don’t do the maths myself).
We’re always looking for new collaborators, so colleagues with interesting projects that might benefit from IMI’s expertise, please feel free to get in touch.
What are the biggest challenges and the biggest opportunities your area of work is facing right now?
Data science and mathematical expertise are highly valued by industry, so one of my biggest challenges is retaining talented researchers. We can’t compete with private sector salaries. At the same time, it’s great to know that working at the IMI helps prepare our MIRAs for future success, and as future industrial partners.
Another challenge is what sometimes feels like a Battle Royale with institutional systems just to keep things running smoothly. I have to be a jack-of-all-trades engaging with many different parts of the University with which I’m not an expert, and a lot of these systems are designed for individuals who use them frequently. It is exhausting. I rely a lot on colleagues in those teams for guidance, and their support is invaluable.
How does operating in an international environment enhance your work?
At IMI, I have colleagues from all over the world, including Germany, Mauritius, Australia, and China. We try to recruit as widely as possible because excellent mathematicians can come from anywhere. Brexit and xenophobic political rhetoric have made it much more difficult to be open and welcoming to talented individuals who want to work internationally.
Luckily, there are still amazing researchers doing amazing research. I’ve lived and worked in Canada, the US, Ireland and now here. There’s a noticeable confidence to doing research in the UK that lends itself to a level of creativity and “giving things a go” not found in countries with less generous and less secure research support.
What do you believe is special about the University of Bath?
I’ve met some fantastic people at Bath who will be friends for life.
How do you relax away from work?
We’re supposed to relax?
Professor Mairi Maclean
Associate Dean (Faculty),
School of Management
Tell us what excites you about your research?
For many years I conducted research into international business elites, initially mainly in France and the UK. One of the burning questions which wouldn’t go away related to: what do they do with all the money? This led me to becoming involved in philanthropy research, and to examining how elites embark on a ‘philanthropic journey’. My recent research has focused on how, why, and with what consequences do wealthy elites engage in large-scale philanthropic giving. This research has expanded to include the United States and Pakistan, as well as being more locally based, in communities in the Northeast of the UK. The research is complemented, however, by my research into low-power actors, especially migrants, exploring their journeys to the UK, and their efforts to make the best of themselves, to improve their own lives but also their children’s futures.
What are the biggest challenges and the biggest opportunities your area of work is facing right now?
One of the biggest challenges in conducting research on philanthropy is that, while it can do great things, it also shores up tolerance of inequalities. Problems arising from persistent and rising inequalities within nation states are not caused by philanthropy, but by the inequality generating capacity of globalization, which enables dominant firms to extract and concentrate economic rents. The US tech giants are exemplary in this. Philanthropy in the past has played a valuable role in ushering in progressive social innovations in a variety of fields. It has the potential to do so in the present age, but this potential is limited by the personal dispositions and institutional embeddedness of elite philanthropic practices that favour domestic giving and elite causes. Despite the spending of leading foundations on health, education, microfinance, and poverty relief in developing countries, we are far removed from the ideal of effective philanthropy: to spend where it is most needed, on things that are most needed, for people most in need.
How does operating in an international environment enhance your work?
Working in an international environment is important to me. At university I studied French and German and have worked in both countries. In France, I spent two years teaching, first at a high school in Normandy, and then at the Sorbonne. In Germany, I spent my summers as a student working in a German tyre factory, at first in the canteen, after which I was ‘promoted’ to the translation office! In the School of Management, we are fortunate to have a very internationally diverse group of colleagues, from across the globe, which is enriching for both faculty and students. As Associate Dean for Faculty in the School of Management, I really appreciate the degree to which the School and University are truly international in nature, scope, outlook, and orientation.
What do you believe is special about the University of Bath?
This is an easy question for me to answer. I first came to the University of Bath when I was in my late twenties and studied for a Master’s in Business Administration in the School of Management! It was a wonderful experience. We had a genuinely international cohort of students, and I often felt that a large part of what you learned on the course was from your peers. Our class has had a couple of reunions in Bath, and I am in regular touch with several former classmates. I have lived in and around Bath ever since. My three kids all went to school here. So, when I was appointed at Bath as Professor of International Business in May 2016, it felt like ‘coming home’. One of my friends said to me at the time, ‘It’s where you were meant to be’. Now we have a fabulous new building in 10 East. Bath is simply a wonderful place to live and study, with fantastic colleagues and beautiful surroundings, and I feel blessed to be here.
How do you relax away from work?
I love reading novels, walking, and going to the gym. We are fortunate to have beautiful countryside in the South West, and I am very fond of the coastline of North Devon, which we visit every year. I love going on holiday on boats, especially in France, Germany, and Austria where I speak the language. Sailing down European rivers is incredibly peaceful. Last year I travelled all the way round Britain on a ship, a wonderful experience! Spending time with my husband and three children, Emily, Alex, and Rebecca, is important to me. I now have three grandchildren, Bella, Harri, and Elise. They are lots of fun and certainly make life interesting!
Professor Furong Li
Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering & Design
Tell us what excites you about your research?
My research is concerned with electrical power systems for transporting electricity from distant offshore renewable energy, nuclear, and community energy to our major industries, homes, businesses, schools and hospitals. The electric power system is the ‘life blood’ of our modern economy and touches every corner of our lives. It is also the largest manmade system, offering many different avenues of research to suit one’s interests from asset management of MW wind turbines, solar farms, or digital simulation of large power systems to predict, optimise and control these assets to allow electricity to flow to where they are needed most amongst many other projects.
In my 25 year career, I’ve had numerous opportunities to work with and learn from outstanding colleagues from large and small energy companies, the energy regulator and the government. I am really fortunate to work with academic colleagues across the UK to address emerging grand energy challenges.
What are the biggest challenges and the biggest opportunities your area of work is facing right now?
The energy system is undergoing a rapid transition to meet our net zero goal. This requires not only major deployment of technologies, ie GW offshore renewable generation, and wide spread use of the electrification of heat and transport, but crucially a flexible smart grid to enable them to communicate with each other. Such systems will provide the right incentives for vehicles and heat pumps to charge when renewable energy is abundant. However, we don’t yet have whole-system modelling and analyses tools that allow the industry to do this and the traditional monolithic software tools widely used by the energy sector can only deal with a sub-system at the national level or regional level and cannot be easily scaled to cover interaction across all systems.
My current mission is to fill this critical gap, researching a distributed, modular, open paradigm to software development to make whole-system modelling and analyses tools a possibility. I’m currently working on the needs case for the Energy System Digital Spine, commissioned by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. The project investigates the minimum layer of digital infrastructure which will allow the nation’s energy assets to talk to each other, and the benefits to the wider smart, flexible energy system.
How does operating in an international environment enhance your work?
It allows the freedom to pursue one’s interest, and pursue the interest across multiple disciplines. Working internationally gives access to some of the best brains of the world, who are generous in offering their wisdom and support. My closest collaborators are Marangon Lima from Brazil. In the area of network pricing, we understand each other’s language and thoughts and are able to quickly elevate our ideas and thinking. It also means being exposed to international challenges to ensure solutions we derive here are not just UK specific.
What do you believe is special about the University of Bath?
It is a campus-based university so you can meet colleagues regularly outside the normal meeting places, the badminton courts, café shop and canteen. I have friendly and supportive colleagues, who are curious about my research questions, and are ready to form a team to address some of the energy challenges eg. I am working with Julian Padget from Computer Science on the Digital Spine project, tapping into his knowledge on multi-agents and distributed architecture for software engineering.
How do you relax away from work?
I like reading fiction, science fiction, psychology, economics and exercise from big racket sports (tennis, badminton) to small racket sport (table tennis).
