A Career in International Development Research: Panel Discussion with Post-doctoral researchers

Registration website

LIDC and the Action Against Stunting Hub are holding an online career event for students with an interest in international development who want to find out more about a career in academia.

The panellists will discuss their careers paths and share advice on how to start or transition into a career in research. This is a brilliant opportunity for those looking to gain an insight into what a researcher actually does on a day-to-day basis, how to become a Research Fellow and the role research pays in addressing wicked problems.

The speakers will be available for a Q&A session at the end of their presentations.

This event is free to attend and open to students and recent graduates anywhere in the world. Please sign up here and you will receive a link to join the event shortly before it starts.

Greg Cooper is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based at the Institute for Sustainable Food, University of Sheffield. His research on the Action Against Stunting Hub focuses on using computer models to identify policies that will increase the availability of fruits and vegetables in food insecure markets in India, Indonesia and Senegal. Before his postdocs at the University of Sheffield and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Greg completed his PhD in Geography at the University of Southampton, where he became passionate about studying the opportunities and challenges associated with sustainable development. Greg has completed extended periods of fieldwork in both India and Bangladesh, and believes that such opportunities to interact with local communities are one of the most valuable and worthwhile aspects of being a researcher.

Hilary Davies-Kershaw is an assistant professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  She is part of the Nutrition workstream (led by Elaine Ferguson) on the Action Against Stunting Hub Study (India, Indonesia and Senegal).  This involves protocol development, capacity building and in-country training for the collection and analysis of the following: dietary intake, anthropometry, blood, hair cortisol, breastmilk, infant and young child feeding, maternal stress, social support and depression.  Hilary is an epidemiologist and registered dietitian with experience of working in Non government organizations, the NHS and academia and has held post-doctoral positions at UCL and the University of Surrey. She completed her PhD at UCL in Epidemiology and Health, using a mixed methods approach focusing on drug use and opioid substitute treatment in pregnancy and neonatal abstinence syndrome using evidence from electronic health records (The Health Improvement Network and Hospital Episode Statistics).

Lorna Benton is an Interdisciplinary Research Fellow at London International Development Centre (LIDC), where her current areas of focus are Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) and early childhood nutrition. Lorna completed her BA in Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford and her PhD at the Institute of Global Health, UCL. Her PhD utilised demographic, epidemiological and qualitative methods to explore the impact of antiretroviral therapy on fertility and reproductive choices of people living with HIV in South Africa. Her postdoctoral research at UCL focused on maternal and child health, early childhood development and intervention development, building on participatory learning and action processes in the UK and India. She also has experience of working with Public Health England, World Bank and most recently worked on the Fleming Fund, a UKAID programme to build AMR surveillance and capacity in 24 countries globally. Lorna draws on interdisciplinary collaboration with experience in African and Asian settings.