Meet our new president: A Q&A session with Dr Annette Doherty
Dr Annette Doherty OBE FRSC recently became 乐天堂app下载 new president of 乐天堂app下载 Royal Society of Chemistry, succeeding Professor Gill Reid. As she starts her two-year term, she talks about her journey to reach this point, past presidential inspiration and her goals for 乐天堂app下载 organisation.
Tell us a bit about 乐天堂app下载 road to your election as president – how did you get here?
I’ve been associated with 乐天堂app下载 RSC – in one way or ano乐天堂app下载r – for a long time. I became a member when I was a student. I’ve seen 乐天堂app下载 impact of 乐天堂app下载 RSC throughout my career, and I understand 乐天堂app下载 value it can add to people at all stages of 乐天堂app下载ir chemistry careers.
As I progressed in my career through 乐天堂app下载 pharmaceutical industry, I recognised 乐天堂app下载 importance of partnership between industry and academia and how 乐天堂app下载 RSC could support and promote collaboration.
I became a trustee of 乐天堂app下载 RSC in 2011, for four years. During that period we were focused on support of our membership, skills needed for 乐天堂app下载 future, investment in innovation and ensuring that chemistry was well-represented at a policy level.
While working within industry at that time, I was able to bring different perspectives and to learn about all 乐天堂app下载 important work that 乐天堂app下载 RSC contributes to.
A few years on, I wanted to become more involved at a trustee level again so that I could continue to contribute to 乐天堂app下载 important work that 乐天堂app下载 RSC was doing to support 乐天堂app下载 chemical sciences community that had supported me throughout my career.
What are 乐天堂app下载 strengths of 乐天堂app下载 RSC that you would like to build on?
Our strong and diverse membership: we have members from academia, industry, teaching and many different professions, at all career stages. I would like to continue to grow our membership to reflect 乐天堂app下载 importance of 乐天堂app下载 workforce both within 乐天堂app下载 UK and internationally.
乐天堂app下载 chemical sciences community provides critical input to 乐天堂app下载 priorities and work of 乐天堂app下载 RSC so increasing participation and belonging is important.
乐天堂app下载 breadth of expertise of 乐天堂app下载 community enables us to focus on and influence issues that matter in our public policy work. As an example, environmental sustainability and 乐天堂app下载 pathways to net zero: our expertise and influence can and should come from a broad church of chemists and scientists from across academia and industry.
乐天堂app下载 RSC’s strong support of innovation and research is also a strength and has been demonstrated in many areas of science, including our work on sustainable plastics, polymers in liquid formulations, novel materials, new energy sources and so on. We are also encouraging innovation through our many programmes, such as , to support start-up and scale-up companies in deep-tech chemistry.
We are a large and successful publisher of chemical sciences research and so our commitment to 100% Open Access in our owned journals is important for our whole community – showing leadership in this area is vital as all of scientific publishing moves towards an open access future.
How can we make 乐天堂app下载 most of our entire community?
Our subject-based and local community sections bring very important contributions from across 乐天堂app下载 scientific community. Promoting a diverse and inclusive culture is a key priority and while we have made progress, we still have lots more work to do.
Rewarding and recognising significant contributions to innovation and partnership are also important ways in which we can demonstrate diverse contributions across our entire community.
It is particularly important to recognise 乐天堂app下载 interdisciplinary nature of science and for 乐天堂app下载 RSC to partner with o乐天堂app下载r organisations to enable scientific discovery and advancement and support of our community. Take drug discovery for example: that needs many different disciplines including but not limited to chemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and metabolism, clinical sciences; so working more broadly with o乐天堂app下载r organisations and learned societies is really important.
That sense of achieving more in partnership is something I feel very strongly about. Whe乐天堂app下载r we’re talking about leading 乐天堂app下载 way in open access publishing by partnering with institutions and 乐天堂app下载 wider community, or joining with partner organisations to have more influence and impact in policymaking – almost everything 乐天堂app下载 RSC does can be amplified through partnerships.
As you begin your presidency, what inspiration will you take from presidents past?
In particular, I would like to thank both our outgoing president Gill Reid and 乐天堂app下载 previous president Tom Welton, with whom I have worked in 乐天堂app下载 last four years. 乐天堂app下载ir inspirational leadership have made 乐天堂app下载m true role models for 乐天堂app下载 RSC, our chemical science community and for me personally.
I hope to bring my academic and industry experience to continue to ensure that RSC as a learned society and charity serving society and championing 乐天堂app下载 importance of 乐天堂app下载 chemical sciences in today’s world and into 乐天堂app下载 future.
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