Do we all feel we succeed despite the system?

My current role is Professor of Endocrinology at the University of Manchester in the UK. Having held major jobs in the University as Dean for Graduate Education and for Business Development, I am now very fortunate to have a role where I split my time between teaching medical students, doing several management tasks and running a very lively research group. We have two areas of scientific interest with potential diagnostic implications: one group works on hormone-secreting tumours and the second team looks at the stress axis and regulation of food intake and glucose homeostasis with relevance to metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. I have a great group of researchers working with me and I love the camaraderie and intellectual challenge that comes from their interactions.

So what were the paths that led me to where I am now? I certainly didn't have it as my lifelong ambition but I wouldn't change it for anything – well not on a good day!!! My parents were very supportive but didn't have an academic background. I had a really inspirational chemistry teacher, so I went to university to study chemistry but found I had been given very bad advice from a careers teacher at school so ended up on a course mainly focusing on physical chemistry and maths. Also I lived with a group of arts students who were heavily into drugs. After 6 months, I took the rather scary step of leaving and reapplying for a Biochemistry degree.

After leaving university, I had to work to earn enough money to fund my new degree. I was lucky enough to get a job as a Research Assistant in the cardiovascular group at ICI pharmaceuticals (now AstraZeneca). It was a wonderful time as I met some really inspirational scientists and much later married …