About our trainers

Rebecca is the Director of Business Engagement at Imperial Consultants, a wholly owned company of Imperial College London which facilitates the engagement of academics as consultants to external organisations. She has over 20 years’ experience of commercial roles within both the private sector and academia and has a Masters in Chemistry with German from UMIST and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Southampton. Rebecca and the Business Engagement Team provide guidance on how to consult and how consultancy can support an academic career

Bernie joined the Postdoc and Fellows Development Centre, now ECRI, in 2011 and has played a key role in the administration of PFDC/ECRI courses, including the Springboard Programme and Taking Charge of your Career Programmes. An excellent communicator with years of administrative experience, Bernie's expertise is in presentation and time-management. As well as being a Springboard Women's Development Programme trainer, Bernie is committed to working on delivering high quality training to postdocs. Bernie also works as a project worker helping young people acquire work related and independent living skills.

Caroline specialises in increasing productivity and wellbeing in research intensive organisations.  She does this by helping those she works with:

• Raise their self-awareness so they can exploit their strengths
• Develop leadership and collaboration skills to deliver innovative and efficiently run projects

Since 2011, Caroline has delivered a suite of professional skills training and facilitated team and strategy workshops to organisations across the world.   Before that she worked in biotech and hi-tech industries in Cambridge, UK.

Dr Madelaine Chapman joined Imperial in summer 2018 and is the careers contact for the Chemistry, Mathematics and Materials departments. Before joining Imperial, Madelaine worked at the University of Cambridge as a postdoc careers adviser and at the LSE as the PhD and research staff careers consultant. Madelaine has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh and worked in science publishing before specialising in careers.

Katie has over 10 years of experience working in transferable skills training and career coaching for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. She offers a broad portfolio of workshops and specialises particularly in communication and interview preparation. Her clients include universities and research groups across the UK and Europe.

Liz Elvidge is the Associate Director (Early Career Researcher Development) of ECRI  at Imperial College London. She is responsible for the support and development of the College's 2,400 postdocs and fellows. The Postdoc and Fellows Development Centre, now ECRI, was the first of its kind in the UK to provide bespoke tailored support to researchers and postdocs.

Liz has worked in Higher Education for the whole of her career. She has a PhD in Glacial Geomorphology and Geomorphology and postdoc work in magnetostratography. She first became interested in the training and development of researchers during her first postdoc. Since then she has worked at Heriot Watt University, Head of Academic Staff Development at Cambridge University and has been at Imperial for nearly 10 years. In 2015 she was awarded the Dame Julia Higgins Medal for ‘outstanding support for female early career researchers and academics’.

In 2017 she co-authored a book, "What every postdoc needs to know" (Elvidge EM; Spencely, C; Williams, EJ. World Scientific.) It is a practical workbook aimed at final year PhD students and postdocs. Liz et al have been commissioned to write a second book ‘What every woman needs to know to progress in Higher Education’

David is a zoologist, publishing in the areas of insect ecology, taxonomy and soil biology. His research background includes four postdoc contracts at the Natural History Museum in London, Imperial College and overseas. Currently, he is a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum, contributing to several research projects. Alongside his academic career, for the past 12 years David has also been running his own training company, working with organisations in the public and private sectors. He teaches a range of research and communication skills to PhD students, postdocs and staff at 18 universities. David’s presentation skills workshops consist of practical exercises grounded in his experiences of performing science comedy shows at festivals and doing stand-up comedy for five years.

Julie is the Director of the Centre for Academic English.  Previously, she taught academic English at Durham University, where she studied for her MA and PhD in Linguistics, and then she worked at the University of Nottingham, becoming the Director of the Centre for English Language Education and developing an online Master’s degree in teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP).  Recently, she was the lead advisor for Epigeum in the production of an online English for Academic Studies programme for international postgraduate students. Her teaching at Imperial is mainly with PhD students and postdocs, with a focus on advanced academic grammar and writing.  She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Gareth Mitchell is a broadcast journalism lecturer on the MSc Science Communication at Imperial. Outside Imperial College, Gareth presents the BBC’s weekly technology radio programme Click (formerly Digital Planet). He also regularly hosts Inside Science on BBC Radio 4. Here in the college, Gareth produces and presents the monthly Imperial College podcast. Gareth’s main teaching interests are in the theory and practice of radio - everything from recording, scripting and editing to the academic study of semiotics and narrative structures in drama and factual audio. And, as an event host and moderator, Gareth has worked around the world with the likes of the European Commission, OECD, World Economic Forum, the New Cities Foundation and many others. Gareth started out as an Imperial electrical engineering graduate twenty-five years ago.

Peter Moore Fuller is a design training specialist, creative facilitator and graphic designer working in science communication since 2004. He is an Honorary Lecturer in Science Communication at the University of East Anglia and recently completed an MSc in Computing Science with Data Analytics. As a designer, Peter has worked for universities and research institutes, the European Commission, UNESCO, the NHS and many other clients. Peter founded infohackit in 2015 to support the effective communication of research through training and events.

Natalie James

Dr Natalie James is the Director of Research Coach Ltd and is a specialist coach, trainer and consultant for researchers, academics and their organisations. She has spent the past two decades working with and supporting academics from all disciplines and career stages through her various roles as Researcher, Funder (UK Research Councils), University Professional Services (Researcher Developer), Coach and Consultant. She has expert knowledge of the HE sector and university cultures and environments and as a coach spends her days working with academics in both one-to-one and group scenarios to support them to effectively navigate their academic roles and meet their goals.

Alex Pearson

Alex Pearson MBE specialises in Personal Leadership and Sustainability and is a qualified Carbon Literacy Trainer and Climate Fresk facilitator. She is also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sussex Business School.

Alex is most at home in a changing environment and is able quickly to see solutions and opportunities. Alex spent 25 years in Beijing, where she worked with organisations of all sizes to inspire and develop their individual and team capabilities. She now shares her knowledge and experience through the Yurt Academy as a management trainer, consultant and facilitator with clients in the UK.

Dr Amritha Nair is an Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation Senior Executive in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. Amritha works across the entire innovation lifecycle from assessment, protection, and management of Intellectual property; marketing of technologies primed for commercialisation and supporting commercialisation via licensing or spinouts. Amritha also supports researchers in their bids for access to translational funding. Amritha manages an extensive IP portfolio, mainly focussed on therapeutics and diagnostics.

Prior roles include innovation consulting for small and medium enterprises and handling the drug development and start-up activities for a private equity backed life science development group in Houston, USA.

Amritha has a PhD in Molecular and Human Genetics from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA and a MSc in Human Genetics from Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, India.

Robin is a Senior Teacher of English for Academic Purposes and has been at Imperial since 2006. Prior to this, he developed and taught English for Specific Purposes programmes at Bordeaux Segalen University (Medicine and Life Sciences), at the Bordeaux Kedge Business School, and at the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce and Industry. At Imperial’s Centre for Academic English, Robin is responsible for coordinating, designing and delivering the Centre’s PhD STEMM writing courses, in addition to developing and teaching research publication workshops for postdoctoral researchers and academic staff. He also provides individual support in the form of writing consultations.

Andrew develops and teaches a range of courses and workshops focusing on science research writing for students and academic staff at Imperial. He joined Imperial’s Centre for Academic English in 2016 after working as an English for Academic Purposes teacher at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Stewart Theobald trained and worked as a professional actor before training as a voice coach. Stewart formed Talking Shop Training Ltd in 1992 and currently works with fifteen Universities and various businesses in the public and private sector. Over the past seventeen years, Stewart has coached actors, broadcasters, business executives, barristers, university lecturers and politicians.

Dr Emma Williams works illuminating a wider career choice for early career researchers. With over 25+ years in the Higher Education sector, she has worked worldwide with PhD students, postdocs and fellows. Enterprise skills are key enabler here and she has developed a suite of courses introducing entrepreneurial concepts for both Imperial College and the University of Oxford. She is a qualified coach, Springboard Women’s Development Programme trainer and is Belbin team roles accredited reflecting her passions for development, equality of opportunity and building peoples understanding of each other. Her development business, founded in 2009, draws on her experiences as a research physicist and co-head of Academic Staff Development at the University of Cambridge.