An interview with Dr. Charlotte King. Isotope Specialist from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Tell us about your research in only three sentences:
I use isotope chemistry to find out about human migration, dietary change and adaptation. At the moment I’m looking at colonial migration to New Zealand and evaluating whether colonists really improved their lives by relocating across the globe. It’s amazing what we can tell from tissue chemistry!
What are some achievements from the last few years you are really proud of?
I’ve been lucky to get some good research funding after my PhD. In 2014 I got a Rutherford Postdoctoral Fellowship for my first postdoc work and last year I got a Marsden Fast-Start to work on NZ colonial populations.
What is it that drew you to your research topic?
I got drawn into the world of isotopes pretty early on in my undergraduate as a double major in geology and anthropology. I found out about forensic uses of geochemistry in my geology degree and realised I could use it in archaeology. I loved the opportunity to be able to use geochemical techniques to reveal people’s stories. The colonial side of things is a recent addition to my research life, but it’s a really exciting area too. It’s so cool to have the opportunity to combine my work with the historical record and other skeletal information to fill in details of ‘ordinary’ people’s lives.
How do you stay passionate and focused on your goals as your career progresses?
For me outreach and teaching is an important part of staying passionate. When you have to explain to people why your stuff is cool it helps you to remember yourself. Seeing students or visitors get interested in your research helps you to remember that it is exciting and relevant – you sometimes forget that in the day to day research grind!
How do you balance work and social life and do you have any tips for achieving this?
After burning out pretty hard during my PhD I’ve learned to be quite strict about when I do and do not work. Weekends and evenings are not work time for me unless I have an urgent deadline coming up. And I have friends and mentors around me who model a good work-life balance (or at least try to) so I don’t feel pressured to be working all the time. Get yourself a supportive peer group who will call you out for working yourself to the bone. Schedule time for hobbies so you know you’re not working on certain nights. When I started my first postdoc I signed up for a block of swing dancing classes to make sure I was doing something outside of work – it's a great time and forces me not to think about work because I’m too busy trying not to fall over.
Grant or job failures are commonplace in science. How do you deal with rejection and do you think there are ways as a scientific community we can help each other through this inevitable part of our work?
For me the most important way of dealing with rejection is to tell other people in academia about it. Everyone has rejection stories and will generally share them to cheer you up. Knowing it’s something everyone goes through helps you feel less alone and stops the imposter syndrome setting in. Generally, I find that sharing both successes and failures with your peers helps to produce a more honest research environment, instead of one where everyone is just presenting their best selves.
Are you actively involved in science communication? If so, what efforts do you pursue to get the public engaged with your science?
I’d like to be better at it, I’m science tweeter (@showmethemummy if you’re interested – it took me ages to think of the best pun to put as my twitter handle), but sometimes that can feel like tweeting into an echo chamber. I’m trying to get more on top of things in terms of sci comm for my current research project though. It’s really important that we keep descendant groups informed of our results, events and research outputs. We want the project to be informing communities and our work to be nice and transparent. So I’ve started a project blog that everyone contributing to the project is a part of:
https://southernsettlerarchaeology.wordpress.com/, which is a resource for direct descendants, local groups and hopefully other interested parties.
Tell us about your research in only three sentences:
I use isotope chemistry to find out about human migration, dietary change and adaptation. At the moment I’m looking at colonial migration to New Zealand and evaluating whether colonists really improved their lives by relocating across the globe. It’s amazing what we can tell from tissue chemistry!
What are some achievements from the last few years you are really proud of?
I’ve been lucky to get some good research funding after my PhD. In 2014 I got a Rutherford Postdoctoral Fellowship for my first postdoc work and last year I got a Marsden Fast-Start to work on NZ colonial populations.
What is it that drew you to your research topic?
I got drawn into the world of isotopes pretty early on in my undergraduate as a double major in geology and anthropology. I found out about forensic uses of geochemistry in my geology degree and realised I could use it in archaeology. I loved the opportunity to be able to use geochemical techniques to reveal people’s stories. The colonial side of things is a recent addition to my research life, but it’s a really exciting area too. It’s so cool to have the opportunity to combine my work with the historical record and other skeletal information to fill in details of ‘ordinary’ people’s lives.
How do you stay passionate and focused on your goals as your career progresses?
For me outreach and teaching is an important part of staying passionate. When you have to explain to people why your stuff is cool it helps you to remember yourself. Seeing students or visitors get interested in your research helps you to remember that it is exciting and relevant – you sometimes forget that in the day to day research grind!
How do you balance work and social life and do you have any tips for achieving this?
After burning out pretty hard during my PhD I’ve learned to be quite strict about when I do and do not work. Weekends and evenings are not work time for me unless I have an urgent deadline coming up. And I have friends and mentors around me who model a good work-life balance (or at least try to) so I don’t feel pressured to be working all the time. Get yourself a supportive peer group who will call you out for working yourself to the bone. Schedule time for hobbies so you know you’re not working on certain nights. When I started my first postdoc I signed up for a block of swing dancing classes to make sure I was doing something outside of work – it's a great time and forces me not to think about work because I’m too busy trying not to fall over.
Grant or job failures are commonplace in science. How do you deal with rejection and do you think there are ways as a scientific community we can help each other through this inevitable part of our work?
For me the most important way of dealing with rejection is to tell other people in academia about it. Everyone has rejection stories and will generally share them to cheer you up. Knowing it’s something everyone goes through helps you feel less alone and stops the imposter syndrome setting in. Generally, I find that sharing both successes and failures with your peers helps to produce a more honest research environment, instead of one where everyone is just presenting their best selves.
Are you actively involved in science communication? If so, what efforts do you pursue to get the public engaged with your science?
I’d like to be better at it, I’m science tweeter (@showmethemummy if you’re interested – it took me ages to think of the best pun to put as my twitter handle), but sometimes that can feel like tweeting into an echo chamber. I’m trying to get more on top of things in terms of sci comm for my current research project though. It’s really important that we keep descendant groups informed of our results, events and research outputs. We want the project to be informing communities and our work to be nice and transparent. So I’ve started a project blog that everyone contributing to the project is a part of:
https://southernsettlerarchaeology.wordpress.com/, which is a resource for direct descendants, local groups and hopefully other interested parties.