Catarina Filipa dos Santos Sa e Almeida
I am a Post-doctoral Early Career Researcher – ECR - in Prof Godfrey's group (School of Biomedical Sciences – UniMelb). Over the last 10 years I have gained extensive research experience in the field of unconventional T cell immunology, including a MSc (University of Lisbon, Portugal) and a PhD (UniMelb, Aus) degree. I have co-authored 11 original research articles and collaborated with the teaching department, including the supervision of a Honours student, a 3rd year research project student and the mentorship of 3 PhD students.
I have had an ongoing interest and played many roles in science-community engagement activities such as the Day of Immunology, 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) MD student conference, PDI student retreat and other science-related conferences. I am also the coordinator the Immunology theme group seminar series in the PDI, and a member of the organising committee for the Young Investigator Symposium (WEHI) and the MDHS-ECR network Symposium.
I aim to help bridging the gap between basic research and its commercialization and for that I have engaged on different entrepreneurship courses including the 2016-17 STEMM Central Bootcamp (Aus) and an Entrepreneurship course for MsC and PhD students (Univ of Lisbon (Portugal – 2009-2010).
Hoping to play a more relevant role in the decision-making process of issues that affect fellow ECRs within my own Faculty, I joined the MDHS-ECR Committee in 2017 as the head of the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS)-ECR outreach sub-committee, and in 2018 I took on the co-chair role for this committee (2018). Through this role, I have attended the Faculty Leadership Retreat, acting as a representative for ECRs within my Faculty. Along with the past and current co-chairs, I have been advocating for the lack of stable contracts/employment conditions, travel awards and seed grant funding for ECRs, with the last two having recently had a positive response from the Faculty.
Abstracts this author is presenting: