Celebrating MDR's Women - Lynn Maslen

To mark Women at Imperial Week, we interviewed three of MDR's outstanding female staff. In our final interview, we spoke to Lynn Maslen.

Support for women throughout their career journey is critical to creating gender equality in the workplace. To understand the experiences, support and issues women may face as they progress through their careers, we spoke with three MDR staff members, each from a different part of the Department, about their career journey.

Lynn Maslen, Centre Manager of the MRC-NIHR National Phenome Centre (NPC) 

Tell us a bit about your career, background, and current role

My background is in plant genetics so it still surprises me that I ended up working in medical research. My career at Imperial started as a temporary job working as an administrative support for a research group here in the Surgery & Cancer Department, which turned into a significantly longer appointment, which totally changed the direction of my career. I briefly moved to UCL as a Departmental Manager, pulling on the experience and knowledge I gained from my time at Imperial working with patient scanning, before coming back to Imperial to work as Centre Manager on the Cancer Research UK funded Comprehensive Cancer Imaging Centre headed up by Professor Eric Aboagye which saw me expand my knowledge further by supporting the design of two specialist laboratory areas as well as supporting clinical and pre-clinical research. This was an exciting time being able to support the development of this multi-disciplinary, multi-Department Centre and helping to develop these cross-disciplinary ties to ensure we had all the necessary intellectual capital involved to make leaps in progress that is often only possible these days when multi-disciplinary researchers can work together on a common goal. I was then honoured to be selected to become Centre Manager for the MRC-NIHR National Phenome Centre – a multi-platform metabolomics Centre designed to be open and accessible to support the whole of the UK for metabolomics needs as a part of the London 2012 Olympic legacy, which is where I still use my skills today to support the many researchers wanting metabolomics analysis for their work.

Can you share a time when you felt supported in your career journey by a colleague or mentor?

I was able to discover that I was actually very good at supporting others to do their research and could gain as much satisfaction in that role as I could in undertaking the research myself. Lynn Maslen

The most influential people in my career have to be Professor Patricia Price and Professor Eric Aboagye. When they recruited me for an initial temporary contract they spotted abilities and talents in me for Administrative and Research Management, which I had not seen and opened up an area of work I did not even know existed. I was intent on being a lab-based researcher, however, with my area of interest in plant genetics having had a moratorium placed upon it at that time I did not know what to do instead. Through their support and encouragement that I had specific talents which meant I could be involved in research in a different way, this led me to explore this as a career. I was able to discover that I was actually very good at supporting others to do their research and could gain as much satisfaction in that role as I could in undertaking the research myself. I also credit numerous Departmental Managers who I have seen actively manage their relationships with senior academic and central Faculty leadership, which made me confident to stand my own ground and acknowledge my own areas of expertise in interactions with people in more senior positions.

What has been the proudest achievement of your career so far?

The National Phenome Centre was grant funded for the first five years, after which it had to be self-sufficient and bring all the money in from paid work that it needs to pay the bills. Pretty much everyone felt this was impossible, there were no other labs in Imperial which had ever had to do this so I had no one to ask and learn from and negative attitudes surrounded me whenever I did try to reach out for support. The fact that the Centre passed the 10-year mark last year and is now so busy we are finding it difficult to support all the work people approach us with is such an achievement and I am so proud of every single member of staff whose work and input have allowed the Centre to not just survive but thrive.

Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome or self-doubt in your career? How did you overcome it, and what support did you find helpful?

I experience imposter syndrome regularly. I do not have a doctorate in the area I work in and yet I am often called on to provide detailed support which needs me to be confident and understand the science I work in. I therefore take the time to learn the basics of the area I work in (which has varied from radiochemistry to MRI scanning to metabolomics). I’m not an expert but I take the time to learn enough to understand what researchers need and are talking about and I continue to want to learn and improve my knowledge to be able to provide the best support I can.

What role can people in senior positions play in supporting and advocating for women's career advancement and equality in the workplace?

Providing opportunities to explore new areas of learning and experiences without the pressure of it being a formal job change and approaching people and offering such opportunities to them rather than waiting for the female staff member to come to them with a request – the feeling of not being good enough or not having the confidence to approach senior people and suggest they want to gain experience in other areas is often too strong for self-referral so a proactive approach by senior positions is key.

What advice would you give to women who are just starting their careers, based on your own experiences?

Never stop wanting to learn, the more you know the more confident you can become and that self-assurance is the best way to make sure you’ll be happy to raise your hand and take on those areas of extra responsibility or the next stage of your career.