Meet Dr Lia Paola Zambetti, Manager Prizes and Pipeline in the Researcher Development Unit at the University of Sydney. Here she talks about her ‘untraditional’ career path in research and how a conversation can change your life.
What is your current role and how did you get to be there?
I am currently the Manager, Prizes and Pipeline within the Researcher Development Unit (Pro-Vice Chancellor Researcher Development) in the Research Portfolio at the University of Sydney. My work focuses on managing internal funding schemes, researcher development projects, and some support for external prizes applications (such as the Eureka ones open now)
I got the role replying to a job ad – just not the one I applied for! Back in 2017, I applied for a role at the University of Sydney. I didn’t get the job and thought I had missed my chance, but a couple of months later, I was offered an interview for another position. I did it, and I got this role. The whole interviewing process was done very remotely, as I was in Singapore back then, where I had spent 3 years as a postdoc in immunology and 3 as a research manager. Before that, I had been in London for 5 years, completing my masters and PhD in haematology. So yes, I’ve been around :).
In addition to my main job, I am also a freelance writer and I was lucky enough to be able to publish my career transition story in Nature.
How does your work contribute to the field and/or overall health and wellbeing of the community?
I like to think that my work helps researchers from all disciplines to get visibility for their research, support in their career (beyond disciplinary skills) and, generally, that it helps to get them to the next stage of their career faster! As many of the projects I work on are for cohorts of researchers from all disciplines, not only biomedical ones, I think an important aspect is also helping to build bridges and connections between researchers that would not, ordinarily, meet or collaborate – it’s always amazing to witness the lightbulb moments of two people from very different fields realising they have challenges, victories or academic circumstances in common!
What is a project you would love to get off the ground or a skill you would like to develop, if you had the opportunity?
I would love to develop some policy-related skills, especially in a biomedical field, and I am very curious about research-related government work and research strategy. I’m keen to write more and for more audiences. And I would like to become a better mentor (and mentee!) as well!
What are your loves outside of work?
Maybe I don’t always love it, but exercise keeps me sane – I started going for a walk before work during lockdown and the habit stuck spectacularly well (it helps that, luckily, I have a very short commute to work). I also love going to the theatre whenever I can, especially for classic plays like Shakespeare, and travelling overseas when possible (I love living in Australia but the distances from, well, everywhere else are really too long!).
What is one piece of advice you could pass onto others following their own career in health and medical research sector?
You’ll never know which conversation can change your life, or at the very least your career, so you should never not talk to someone at work, no matter how far from your dream job they might seem. My life-changing conversation took place under a hood on a Saturday morning while feeding cells. It was then that another researcher, more senior than I was, listened to my somewhat incoherent wishes for a different life in science communication (that also didn’t entail feeding cells on a Saturday morning…). He told me flatly to make an appointment with the director of the institute where we both worked and repeat what I had told him just now, incoherent or not. I was very sceptical, but I did it. The director listened and put me in touch with someone who was looking for a science communicator (and that I would have never found on my own). In a few months, I changed job, career and life and never looked back 😊!