Pathfinder Career Narratives 12: Leverhulme Early Career Fellow

Pathfinder Career Narratives is an ongoing series tracking the career choices and experiences of doctoral graduates. You can see all of the posts in the series here. You can find all of the Pathfinder resources and opportunities here. Today’s blog is written by Dr Akhil Kallepalli, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Glasgow and Director at Aces Consulting Limited. You can find Dr Kallepalli on LinkedIn here, his lab here, and Aces Consulting Limited here.

Name: Dr Akhil Kallepalli

Doctorate subject area and year of completion: Biomedical Optics and Biophotonics, 2020

Role and employer: Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Glasgow and Director, Aces Consulting Ltd

Approximate salary bracket of this type of role: Grade 8

I have had a very interesting journey (I am sure everyone thinks so too, so humour me for now) to Glasgow. I would always say I have a “jack of all trades” background until my PhD. My academic and research career spans 3 countries – a bachelor’s in India, master’s in the Netherlands and a PhD in the UK. Even the topics changed along the way – from satellite image analysis, to airborne imaging for vegetation mapping, to finally settling on biomedical optics. Even so, my postdoctoral term focuses on solving fundamental physics research questions related to light shaping – an interest which brought me to Glasgow in the first place.

As a committee member of the IEEE Photonics UK and Ireland Section Chapter, we organised a conference every year in London. Of the many researchers at the conference, a keynote address was a “lightbulb” moment for me – here is a field I could learn and apply to my interests in biomedical optics. Quickly grabbing my laptop, I put together an email and a CV and sent it off to the keynote speaker. I simply could have stood up in the room and said, “can I work with you?” but I decided on a more traditional approach. *wink*

That keynote address was from Prof Miles Padgett, who is today a mentor, a collaborator and one of the key reasons for my professional success. The research that was pioneered in the research group has enormous value and potential for biophotonics and medical diagnostics. This is the theme I am keen on dedicating my career towards. My focus and search of positions was in the field of biophotonics. Looking back, to choose an adjacent field to find my niche was probably one of the best decisions I have made for my career.

After about 2 years of research experience after my PhD, I secured my first major career milestone. The Leverhulme Trust Early Career fellowship is a wonderful opportunity to secure funding support and truly become an independent researcher. Here is where I am truly grateful for everyone I worked with – I have had the opportunity of lecturing, supporting student projects, and research, working in the mental health space, supporting researcher development and contributing beyond my work to the community. These experiences have enriched my research experience and skillset. My research encompasses working and developing ideas with my colleagues at the University and beyond, with regular conversations with collaborators who are academics, industry personnel, manufacturers and medical personnel. This inter- and multi-disciplinary involvement is central to solving biomedical problems.

In my geographical and academic journey, I have experienced a few challenges along the way. Even though I have found the feeling of home in the UK, the challenges of moving along with the pressures of research have been, at times, overwhelming. I am on a journey of building my mental health resilience, drawing on my experiences in my doctoral program and the advice of many near and dear to me. It is this experience that has prompted my entrepreneurial journey. Having faced my mental health challenges and continuing to build resilience every day, I am keen on improving the experiences of people around me. I find immense motivation in creating a positive impact and contributing value to people’s life experiences. This philosophy is central to Aces Consulting Limited, a venture solely in existence to encourage empathy and a sense of community for long-term resilience. ACL now provides workshops and programs about mental health, managing upwards and team building, dealing with imposter syndrome and burnout, with many more in the development stages.

On a personal front, quite a few people have had an impact on my professional success. These include my mentors – Prof K Nageswara Rao (bachelors research advisor), Dr Anil Kumar (Masters research advisor), Dr David James (PhD advisor) and Prof Miles Padgett. I am very lucky that I have always had mentors and advisors with the best interests at heart who challenge me to be a better researcher. The importance of a good mentor (or a few) cannot be overstated. To anyone reading this, I highly recommend finding yourself a mentor – someone who understands where you are in your career but has no obvious overlap – and sharing your questions with them to draw on their experience and support. A good mentor is an incredible asset. These mentors have also given me opportunities to support my career aspirations. The flexibility of supervising students as a postdoc, applying for grants and contributing to awards, and working with researchers from other fields are all benefits and opportunities given to me to showcase my academic leadership and independence.

My career has always been slightly in fear of the next contract, the new opportunity – both from a career perspective and from a visa perspective, to continue to stay in the UK. This challenge has caused its fair share of anxiety; however, I have always believed in being an advocate for myself and making the best of the opportunities given to me.

To conclude, I want to leave you with a bit of advice. Two pieces, actually.

Always lead with empathy. This simple statement encompasses so much regarding mental health, collaboration, working with people, caring about people around you, and realising that not everyone comes from the same background – they might not even be having the same day as you!

The second is that the people you work with are probably as important, if not more, as the work you do. Individually, you can achieve so much. Together, you can achieve even more. I have learned so much from my students as I have from my mentors and advisors. So value the people around you, work with those that inspire you and build something together that you can stand back and be proud of – that purpose-driven approach to research, careers and life is enormously fulfilling – it’s worked for me so far! *wink*