Name: Emma Hart  

Pronouns: she/ her

Job Title/ What do you do here?

My actual job title is Senior Lecturer in Cardiovascular Physiology. I am a pathway 1 member of staff so I do teaching and research.

I love the teaching part. I mainly teach undergraduates- mainly level 3 students and I supervise dissertations as well. Most of what we’re teaching is teaching the students about research that’s happening in the school and in the wider university and it’s really nice to have a chance to integrate the teaching and the research.

The bulk of my research is concerned with human physiology research. Our interest is in what causes hypertension and how we can better treat those conditions. We do a lot of experiments in the lab, mainly concerned with repurposing drugs and how they can better treat those.

We also love a bit of mechanistic physiology- which is looking at the bodies response to exercise. So we use exercise in our research- for example we use incremental exercise tests with people who have certain diseases and look at the adjustments in their cardiovascular and respiratory systems in order to look at their exercise tolerance and see how we can improve this in order to improve their quality of life.  

 

What’s a Typical day for you?

I work 4 days a week and I come in all of those days. By the time I get to work I normally already feel like I have done a full days work! I have two young children age 3 and 5 so before I come to work I have to drop the kids to their respective settings and remember all their things which can be a challenge! I get to work on my bike so I have to manage 2 kids, their baggage, my bags and my bike! It’s quite a sight!

Once I’m here- my typical day normally involves a bit of teaching- I have 18 dissertation students who I share with Ben Chant.

I’m normally also in the lab in the clinical research facility in St Michaels hospital and spend time with PhD and my post doctoral fellow looking at data. I love looking at data so I really enjoy this bit!

My lab work is concerned with long covid at the moment- so I spend a lot of time with long covid patients along with my post doc and PhD students. It’s nice to be back in the lab but it does take a lot of time! It’s good though to get some good data and we’re seeing some good information come through about what’s causing long covid. It can be quite stressful if a patient is quite unwell and it can be difficult to balance and manage expectations in relation to the effect that the research may have in relation to their conditions.

I’m also trying to write some grant applications!

So my day is quite varied- which I really like.

 

Favourite part of working here:

On my way in I always really look forward to getting a coffee from James in the coffee van by Senate House.

The other thing that I love is getting new data! I really think seeing human physiology in action is just really cool- It’s amazing to see how the body works and is so fine tuned and I really enjoy teaching the students about that and sharing that passion with them. That passion is really what keeps me coming back and makes any struggles and difficult times worthwhile.

 

 

What do you like to do outside of work?

In my personal time I like to exercise and I have always loved sport and running. I find it really beneficial for my mental health.

Before I had children I used to do triathlons- I would love to get back to that when I have time to train for it!

I’m currently training for the Bristol 10k which is in May and I’m really looking forward to that!

Any advice to someone wanting to get into your career path:

I feel that being an Pathway 1 academic- doing teaching and research is something that needs real passion for the subject. You need to really love and believe in what you’re doing and I feel like without that passion it might not feel worthwhile for everyone.

For anyone who is currently a PhD student and who is wanting to move in to academic positions, my advice would be that you need to be really proactive and go out and look for opportunities. The time commitment to be proactive is high and it’s worth being aware of that.

 

Is there anything else you want to share?

I have a young family and I understand the struggles of balancing a young family and having or trying to get in to an academic career. I don’t necessarily have any answers but I am here and happy to talk to anyone who is struggling with that if only to share my perspective on what might have helped with this.

I’m glad I took time out to have a family, but I recognise that I was in a privileged position as I already had a permanent academic position when I started on that path.

I think the system of academia is on a journey with understanding that people taking time out to have children will publish less in that time frame. I want to be part of normalising the idea of being an academic with a family. It’s hard- but it is possible and the sector can do more to understand that.

There are people here in the school who have been through having a family and being an academic and we’re here if anyone wants to talk to us.