Contact details
Dr Emma M Watson
Dr Emma Watson is Research Manager at the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), Imperial College London. She is based in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington Campus and works with staff and students across each of NHLI’s campuses and locations.
She has responsibility for NHLI’s Students and Fellows, and supports the Director of Postgraduate Studies, Professor Tony Magee, in ensuring the smooth progression from admission to award of research degrees of all research students and fellows, as well as their welfare and training.
Emma studied Chemistry at the University of Hull where she obtained a first class honours degree in 1998. She then moved to Imperial College London to study a biological chemistry postgraduate degree under the supervision of Professor Robin Leatherbarrow, funded by the EPSRC. She was awarded her PhD in 2004 for her thesis entitled ‘Positional Scanning Soluble Libraries of Protease Inhibitors’.
Following her PhD, she worked as a fundraiser and event co-ordinator in the charity sector. This role gave her extensive experience in event management and marketing and importantly, communicating science to the lay public and engaging the public in a medical cause.
Emma returned to Imperial in May 2006 to the Research Management Office at NHLI working with Dr Alun Owen and was promoted to her current role, Research Manager (Students & Fellows), in May 2008.
Emma’s role incorporates:
- guidance and review of all studentship and clinical training fellowship applications
- postdoctoral scientists’ development in liaison with Imperial’s Postdoc Development Centre and NHLI’s Postdoc Committee. This includes the co-ordination of NHLI’s PostDoc Research Day
- co-ordinating NHLI’s Annual Cardiovascular and Respiratory lectures, Inaugural Lectures and Research Afternoons
- collation and distribution of the monthly NHLI Newsletter.
Emma is the administrative lead for NHLI’s Clinical Research Training Initiative (CRFI), which aims to attract, encourage and support clinical trainees interested in undertaking postgraduate research. The CRFI aims to match potential fellows and their research interests to appropriate supervisors, support the process of writing fellowship applications, advise on regulatory, intellectual, statistical and financial considerations, and guide interview technique.
She was the administrative lead, working with Professor Clare Lloyd, the Self Assessment team and Head of institute on NHLI’s successful Athena SWAN submission which resulted in a Silver SWAN Award granted to the Institute in September 2009, in recognition of the Institute’s commitment to the advancement of the careers of Women in Science, Engineering and Technology.
Emma is a member of NHLI’s Respiratory Research Committee (RRC), Higher Degrees Committee (HDRC), Strategic Education Committee (SEC) and the Divisional Administrative team.
Externally, she is involved in the Postgraduate Administrators Forum of the Faculty of Medicine (PAFF) which she created with colleagues in 2008, is a member of the Faculty of Medicine Website Committee, has had an advisory role in the ICA and e-service development (as a user) and been part of the InfoEd user group.
In 2011, she was awarded the Rector's Award and Rector's Medal for Excellence in Supporting the Student Experience. These Awards recognise the importance placed by the College on the contribution of support staff in underpinning the College’s learning environment for students.
Selected Publications
Conferences
- Usmani OS; Watson EM; Meah SN; Hodson ME; Mitchell JA. DECLINING RESPIRATORY CLINICAL ACADEMICS: A MODEL FOR REVERSING THE TREND?. Winter Meeting of the British-Thoracic-Society, 2 Dec 2009 - 4 Dec 2009. 64:A165-A166. B M J PUBLISHING GROUP (1 Dec 2009). DOI.
