A Review of LINC’s Inaugural Women in Neuroscience Day

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Women in Neuroscience Day hosted by the Liverpool Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Centre (LINC). Organised by Dr Lily Farakish, Dr Yun Huang, and Dr Cerian Jackson, the event created a space for women at every stage of research and medicine to connect, reflect, and share experiences. It was a day filled with honesty, encouragement, and practical advice, and I left feeling deeply inspired and grateful to have been there on behalf of Women in Neuroscience UK (WiNUK)! 

Throughout the day, the lovely speakers shared stories about their career journeys, from moving countries, to balancing family life, navigating uncertainty, and making difficult choices. There were so many nuggets of advice that it is hard to distil them all, but I have done my best to summarise them here. 

Rather than presenting polished success stories, they offered something more valuable: perspective. Their journeys showed that progress often comes through persistence, flexibility, and the willingness to keep going, even when the path ahead is unclear. 

To begin, we heard from Professor Fiona Ducotterd, Chief Scientific Officer of the Alzheimer’s Research UK UCL Drug Discovery Institute. She shared her global career trajectory across industry and academia and explained that while she did not begin with a specific end goal in mind, she always focused on saying yes to opportunities that were interesting, challenging, and sometimes a little scary. Her goal, she said, was to “have it all”. Although people sometimes judged her or advised her to make different choices, she trusted herself, listened to her mentors, and fought for the life that she wanted. She encouraged each of us to do the same, regardless of what others tell you is best. 

Her key take-aways were to remind yourself that assumptions are not always correct, whether that be what others assume about you, or even what you may assume about others. As a woman, she was advised that she should focus less on being friends with her coworkers, be more “serious” about her work, and to communicate differently. Essentially she was advised to be more reserved and tone down her friendly exuberant personality if she wanted to be successful. She ignored each of those pieces of advice, and look at her now: a Professor and CSO of the drug discovery institute, taking opportunities to travel all over the world! Widen the door instead of saying you cannot do something because the door is too small!

Then Professor Carolyn Young, Consultant Neurologist at the Walton Centre NHS, shared her journey through the highs and lows of the NHS medical system. She explained that while aspiring to a career in research and medicine is valuable, it is not without sacrifice. It is, therefore,  important to determine if you are comfortable with that sacrifice; it may mean years of delaying goals such as starting a family. She encouraged us to think of life as a jar, with large stones acting as our key values (family, job etc.), and sand acting as other areas of our lives (volunteer work, creative pursuits etc.). If you fill your jar with the stones first, then you can always make room for more sand, but if you fill it with sand first, there may not be space for stones. 

A major insight for me was the idea of “Know Thyself”, the philosophical Delphic maxim encouraging the importance of defining personal values. It is important to embrace the power of saying no, to understand the why behind the no, and to own it. Equally, it is important to say yes even when it might be hard or scary, to accept that the perfection that you or society is seeking may not be  possible and that’s okay. Maybe you have to create a gantt chart for your life, but you should always remember to enjoy the journey - you don’t want to find yourself 10 years from now regretting the choices you made and wishing you had said yes to more opportunities. Carolyn’s advice was to always underpromise and overdeliver; set expectations low and then blow them out of the park.

Our final speaker of the morning was Professor Angela Vincent, Emeritus Professor and honorary researcher at the University of Oxford. Her talk covered her career uncovering disease mechanisms of Myasthenia Gravis and some of the challenges she faced along the way. Her career moved from bedside to bench and through many unexpected turns and her talk demonstrated the value in making the most of opportunities, and the value of collaboration, curiosity, and persistence. She reminded us to keep an open mind, to stay connected to the people and environments that help you grow, and to continually fight for engagement, even when it’s hard. 

During the course of the afternoon there were parallel workshops covering topics including “Dare to lead differently,” “Motherhood in Neuroscience," “Leadership, Collaboration, and Visibility,” and “Designing your future: Career lessons from paediatric clinical neuropsychology.” I wasn’t able to attend them all, but I really enjoyed the session hosted by Dr Avital Hahamy; she encouraged us to dare to lead differently and to focus on how our differences can actually be our strengths. She led us through an exercise inspired by the children’s book Perfectly Norman, challenging us to consider the question “what are your wings”,  acknowledging our differences and how we can use those to inspire others - leaders, at their core, should inspire others to want to achieve their goals. 

To conclude the day, we had the chance to ask the speakers questions in a panel. Questions included: How do you receive good mentorship and find a good mentor? How do we change the narrative that women are underrepresented in leadership roles in industry from the perspective of a younger generation? How do you handle the guilt of splitting your time when you want to prioritise your family, work, and yourself? 

On mentorship, Dr Penny Trayner reminded us that while the people we approach for mentorship often want to be mentors, they are just as busy, if not more so, than we are. The best way to approach them is to be clear about what you need help with, give them a specific question or specific timeline, and remember that no one mentor needs to fulfil every question you have. It is better to reach out to multiple people and ask for help in a structured way. 

On representation in leadership, Dr Helen Nuttall and Professor Ducotterd shared that there is a misconception that industry roles are more 9-to-5 structured than academic roles, when in reality they are often more similar than people think. The skills needed to be an academic leader are similar to those needed in industry. If you want to become an industry leader you need to be a team player, prioritise your circle of control, stop worrying so much, be proactive, and be able to translate your positive takeaways from any previous roles into a new one. If you want to become a leader in any field, make sure you develop these skills, and if you are uncertain about how to get there, reach out to people who currently hold those positions and ask for mentorship. 

On guilt, Isabel Torres shared something especially valuable; you have to learn to let the guilt go. Accept that you will not be perfect. There will be days when your children need you, and days when you have to prioritise a deadline and let your other responsibilities take a backseat. While women are often made to feel that they must sacrifice every aspect of themselves for their jobs and families, it is also important to take care of yourself. Maybe that means the house is a mess or you have a takeaway for dinner, but being perfect is not attainable, and trying to pretend otherwise is not healthy. 

One of the biggest takeaways from the day is that work-life balance is a myth. It suggests that work and life should be separate things, when in reality they are all part of the same life. Life is a constant series of trade-offs, choices and priorities. You can care deeply about your career, your family, your relationships, and yourself without giving 100% to each at all times. It is okay to ask someone else to take care of the smaller tasks so you can save your time and energy for the more important ones. The goal is not perfect balance, it is being in tune with what matters most, letting go of the guilt, and making choices that serve you and the people you care about. 

Perhaps most importantly, the event was a reminder that we as women do not need to navigate these challenges alone. The speakers were candid about the barriers they had faced, from being underestimated to balancing parenthood, from feeling out of place in male dominated spaces to having their work questioned. But, the message was not one of isolation, it was one of solidarity: just because previous generations faced these difficulties does not mean the next generation should have to face them in the same way. That sense of shared responsibility, support and possibility is what made the day so powerful. 

Overall, I left feeling motivated, inspired, and incredibly grateful to be a part of a community of women who are pushing the field forward and making space for others to do the same!

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This article was written by Marisa Edmonds and edited by Rebecca Pope, with graphics produced by Ishika Joshi. If you enjoyed this article, be the first to be notified about new posts by signing up to become a WiNUK member (top right of this page)! Interested in writing for WiNUK yourself? Contact us through the blog page and the editors will be in touch.