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Welcome to the final episode of Mothers in Academia.

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Over this mini-series we've explored the challenges,

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joys and resilience that convert balancing

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motherhood and academic careers.

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I'm Cagla and today we're honored to be joined by a special guest Dr.

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Anne-Marie Broomhall, an Associate Professor from the Centre for Fusion,

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Space and Astrophysics in the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick.

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Together we'll reflect on the insights we've gained,

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hear her unique perspective and leave you with some final thoughts and

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encouragement for your journey.

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Thank you for joining us.

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Let's close this chapter with inspiration and hope for the road ahead.

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Welcome to our final episode Dr. Brimhull.

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Our first question is, can you share a bit about your journey

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into becoming an academician in physics, astrophysics in particular?

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So I only decided that I wanted to do astrophysics when I was about 17,

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which is actually relatively old for astrophysics.

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Lots of people enjoy astrophysics from a very young age.

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There was a solar eclipse that was visible in the UK in 1999.

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I was able to watch it from my back garden here in Coventry using a pinhole camera

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that I made out of a shoebox.

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And I just loved the simplicity of using a shoebox to be able to observe something

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that was happening with the sun, which is a star.

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So following that, I decided that I wanted to do astrophysics at university.

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So I went to the University of Sheffield where I got a master's degree.

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It was a dual honours degree in maths and astrophysics.

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And I did the dual honours because I was good at maths, but I probably enjoyed the astrophysics side

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a bit more and so I was just hedging my bets a little bit.

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When I was at university, I was lucky enough to do some research projects in my final year

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to astro astronomy research projects, one on black holes and one on the sun.

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And while the black holes one was fascinating, it was the fact that with the sun,

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I could make, I was testing theories with data, whereas the black hole one, it was very abstract

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and there's no way to test the theories I was coming up with.

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And I really enjoyed that research project and so I decided to do a PhD in astrophysics.

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And so I moved to the University of Birmingham,

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which is much closer to my hometown, Coventry.

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I actually commuted from Coventry to Birmingham during my PhD.

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So that was in solar physics or a field called heliosysemology specifically,

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which is where we use oscillations of the sun in order to work out what's going on inside the sun.

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Wow, sounds really cool.

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Yeah. So I got my PhD, I was awarded in 2008.

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I then stayed at Birmingham for a postdoc position,

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where during which time I had my first daughter, Abby.

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And during that time, I decided that I did one at career

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in academia until I started applying for fellowships.

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And we were getting towards the end of my contract.

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And I was just starting to look at jobs outside of academia.

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And when an opportunity came up at the University of Warwick for a global research fellowship.

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So this was a fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies.

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And I was interviewed for this at nine months pregnant

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with my second daughter. I managed to get the position and I've been here ever since.

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That sounds super cool. But were there any moments during this journey when you felt

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like you had to choose between your family and career? Well, especially at the beginning,

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when you mentioned this, having a small baby and then getting pregnant again,

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before you have a permanent role. So how did you navigate those decisions?

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So we actually, in my mind, we made the decisions before having the children in the first place.

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So I don't know if it's the same across the different disciplines, but within astrophysics,

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it's kind of conventional wisdom that if you want a career in academia, you have to be willing to

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travel around to move to different locations or countries even to have postdocs. And since

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we decided to start a family pretty much straight after submitting my PhD,

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I decided that that was not something that I was willing to do because I wanted my family. And so

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I was willing to take the chance, if you like, that if it meant that I wasn't going to have a

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career in academia, then so be it. I wanted to stay and raise a family and try and do both

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as luckily enough. I managed to. So that's kind of proof that you don't need to move around,

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I guess. No, I can imagine. But yeah, so but it was that kind of acceptance before even having

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the children that that was what I was going to do. Similarly, I kind of set boundaries and limits on

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what I was willing to do. So another example would be going to conferences. So this plays a

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big role in academia. But I decided that I would limit the number of conferences I went to and

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how long I was away for for those conferences. So for example, weekends are very special to me.

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And so I kind of said, before even having the children, I always want to be home for the weekends.

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And then I just decide which conferences are going to be most important to me. Go to those ones

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and make sure I travel home on Friday if the worst case scenario.

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Well, that's very inspiring, to be honest. But going back and thinking your specialty,

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have you ever faced an agenda based challenges or biases as a mother in a, especially in a male

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dominated field? You know, it could be if you're not enough to perform as a specific role because

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of your parenting role. Do you remember any specific incidents? I have to say that actually,

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as far as I'm aware, I haven't experienced anything like that. And in fact, I have a couple of examples

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of pretty good practice. If you don't mind me sharing those with you. I would be happy to hear

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all of them. Yes, please. So for example, I said earlier that I was nine minutes pregnant when I

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interviewed for the position at Warwick. And to help me make that transition to moving to Warwick,

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they let me start part time and build up slowly to full working hours so that I was coming straight

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back here after maternity leave. And they even gave me a bonus to cover the lost maternity pay

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for moving jobs. While maternity leave, when I started teaching, I was initially assigned a role

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that was in the undergraduate teaching labs that finish at six o'clock at night. And I had to say

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I'm really sorry, but I can't do that because my childcare also ends at six o'clock at night.

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And that was absolutely fine. It was not an issue. They just moved me onto another teaching role that

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one that finished at four o'clock. And so they were happy within the physics department to work

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around my needs. And actually, I think that can be one of the bonuses of being a mom in academia

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is that aside from certain meetings and teachings, there is a bit a degree of flexibility

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in the hours that you work. So quite often, I was able to go to assemblers and things like that and

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just start at 10 o'clock in the morning rather than at eight 30, say. And then all I would do is

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I would then pick my children up as usual. And once they'd gone to bed, perhaps make up the time

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in the evening. So I think there are actually a few benefits. These are fantastic practices.

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So I hope that that will inspire so many departments or other universities.

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So I'll move on to a different topic if that's okay. As a mother of two, one 12 and one 15.

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Are there any challenging times at home? So like, how do you regulate the emotions of your

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children, especially when there are strong feelings? So I don't know that we have too many problems.

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It's good. Yeah. And I think it partly comes because it's their expectations. It's normal

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for them. They know that I have work. And so if I have to say no, because of work, then they kind

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of understand that. And particularly now they're a bit older. There's an appreciation that I love

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my job. And they quite like that I love my job. And so they understand that I can't always go on

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school trips and things like that. Because because of work. And again, the flexibility

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kind of helps there as well. So just the other night, my daughter is revising for her maths mock

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GCSE. And I was able to sort of just pause my work for half an hour or an hour or something,

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and go and help her out with her revision and then come back to it later.

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Oh, that's nice. So when we summarise this, how do you juggle work and motherhood? Do you

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always do it all, say to speak? Yeah, absolutely not. I mean, first and foremost, I have a lot of

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help. My husband has always been very supportive of my career. And it really is a partnership in terms

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of the childcare. The fact that I've stayed in commentary, which where I was born also means

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that I have a lot of family around me. So grandparents and aunts and uncles who can help as well.

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But then, in addition to that, I kind of think that I have decided on my priorities.

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And then, it's taken time, but I've developed an ability to just let the things that aren't

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important to me go. So to give some examples, there are times when it can be difficult to

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manage to cook a healthy dinner when you've had a full day at work. And so I've become comfortable

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going, okay, I've been working hard today, let's just throw a pizza in the oven.

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When the children were little, and they first started school, I was very concerned because

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I wasn't, I didn't have time to make all the fancy costumes and things like that for all the

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assemblers and dress-up days. And I quickly, though, became aware that the kids just, they were fine

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with whatever we came up with between us. And it was more that I was more concerned about it

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than they were. And so it's sort of working out like, okay, so some things might be really

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important to me and I make sure that they happen every week, but then other things I kind of just

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let go. Yeah, that's a top tip. Thank you. And thank God we've got Amazon. Yeah, absolutely.

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So, speaking of doing it all, I'd like to move on to this topic, time management, because when we

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came up with this project, this topic has come up so often. Although some experts

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will suggest giving female PhD students or early career researchers time management tips,

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I strongly believe mothers in academia are superstars at managing time. Do you feel the same?

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Absolutely, I do. And I know from my personal experience that it was something that I became

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a lot better at when I became a mother. And I think it's having that hard cut off that you have to

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be home by a specific time. And you know that, you know that at the start of the day. And so

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I definitely get less distracted now. I'm more organized with my time. I always sort of set

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if I have a meeting, I like it to be at a specific time and for a particular length

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of time rather than just, okay, I'll chat to you on Tuesday. But other things that I do to help

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me manage my time. I like making lists, because it helps me to prioritize and it stops me from

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being overwhelmed. So if I feel like I've got a lot of things on, I'll make a list of everything

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I need to do and the deadline for them. And that helps me to work out what needs to be done first,

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what I can push back. And also that physical process of crossing stuff off on the list.

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I love that. So rewarding. And it just makes you feel more like you're making progress.

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Yeah, just crossing out something from the list. That's a huge enjoyment.

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Even if it's just the smallest thing on there, it's just like, okay, that's one less thing that I

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have to get done. But do you have a switch off? Well, I mean, here is, do you ever set aside work

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and parenting and enjoy a quiet moment and manage to not think anything at the back of your mind?

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Yeah, it's got a lot easier as the children have got older, I would say. I always sort of tried to

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set aside maybe the last hour before going to bed once the kids have gone to bed just for some quiet

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time, set on watch TV and do do nothing. I also took up running a few years ago. So

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to lose weight initially. But what I realized particularly over the pandemic,

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when we were all homeschooling and things like that was that actually, I was no longer running as

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much for the health benefits. I certainly wasn't running to be my personal best. I was running

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to get half an hour quiet time where I can put a podcast on and just tune the rest of the world

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out. So that's one thing that I like to do now. We have always though, tried to do things with the

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kids that we enjoy as well. So not just things that they want to do. So we will go on walks in

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the countryside on bike rides. I love baking. And that's something that I did with my children,

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craft arts and crafts, things like that. Because if you're doing something that you want to do,

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then that can be as relaxing as sort of tuning out things. And yeah, we always also

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made sure we had a family holiday every year. So that could be a case of sort of booking a week,

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just booking a week out of the diary for August, but booking it in January so that you know that

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that week has been set aside for family time. And that's something that we've done every year

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ever since the children have been born. Oh, that's so nice. So that they know that's going to come

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and expect that. And it's something to look forward to. Yeah, definitely. And it's such a nice bonding

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time. And sort of being that having a full week away rather than just the odd day, I think makes a

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big difference. I think so. I agree. I love doing that. Definitely. We just touched upon this, but

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there is also the positive side of being a mum in academia, because you set a role for your

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children role model for your children. How do you ensure that your children understand and

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appreciate the work you do as an astrophysicist? Because this is super cool. What do you hope

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they would take away from your example? So I guess there's a couple of different things there. So

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I've always talked about my work and my research with my children. And I've also talked about

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sort of strong female role models. So my eldest daughter had to dress up as a hero at school

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one year and she went as Marie Curie. And she's still obsessed with chemistry and

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wants to go to university to do chemistry. My youngest daughter loves power points.

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So she has taken some of the power points that I have given her talks and she'll go through

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and give her own little presentation using the slides. Oh, that's so exploring. I've also

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one other things that they really like, because I do quite a lot of public engagement and outreach.

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So I go out and visit schools across Coventry and Mauritia. But that includes their schools and

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their classes while they've been there. So they're always very proud, I think, to see me presenting,

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presenting my work and doing activities with their classmates. And they've also,

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on occasion, been named to come and help me with these outreach activities. So they'll help out

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when we've been to sort of guide and brownie nights, for example, doing the live labs before

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the Christmas lectures, they've been there as well, so things like that. So they get to know

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the work that I've done, that I do really well. And I guess, like I said earlier, they like that I

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like my job. And I think that is something that they take away from my career is that you can get

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jobs that you enjoy. If you work hard enough, you know, and that actually makes a really big

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difference to your home life. If you're enjoying your job, I think I'm probably a happier person,

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because I don't dread going to work on Monday morning. Yeah, that is super important. I agree.

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So before we finish, what advice would you give to female PhD students with children like me?

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We're trying to find their way in academia. So I think it's to find your own way of doing things

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and to decide what is important to you and to prioritize and make sure that you keep the

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important things, but don't stress about the not important things. And also, it definitely gets

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easier. Like I think I've said a few times, as the kids have got older, everything has got easier.

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And even sort of the downtime, I've gone from a stage where most of the time I was either playing

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with the kids or helping the kids with homework or things like that. So now they want to spend time

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up in their room and I've had to find a whole new bench upon the hobbies to occupy myself,

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just so that I don't work and to give me that sort of turn out turn off time.

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Oh, that's lovely to hear. Thank you very much for your contribution to our mini series, Dr. Brimhall.

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Thank you for having me. Oh, that's wonderful. And that wraps up our mini series,

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Mothers in Academia. It has been a privilege to share this space with you, exploring the challenges

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and triumphs of balancing motherhood and academic careers. We've had powerful stories shared

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insights and hopefully sparkled conversations that will continue to inspire and support you on your

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journey. Thank you for listening, for sharing your stories and for being part of this important

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dialogue. Stay connected, keep the conversations going and let's continue building a supportive,

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thriving community for Mothers in Academia. Until next time, take care and keep inspiring.

200
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Thank you.