We want to put our members in the spotlight! For the Meet the WISE series, we interview WISE members in different stages of their career across the university. We hope that their stories, experiences and career paths can be an inspiration to other women at 果冻传媒.
Hello! Could you start by introducing yourself and the research that you鈥檙e doing?
I am Monica Zakhari, and I am an assistant professor at Mechanical Engineering (ME). In my research, I work on computational modelling of soft matter. My favorite topics are personalized health and nutrition, from a material modelling perspective.
What has your experience been with the WISE network?
I have to admit I'm not a super active member, but all the events that I attended or talks that I've been invited to give, have contributed to where I'm at now. I enjoyed the events a lot and I joined the topics that I can relate to.
I was invited to give the talk at the WISE annual event of 2022 about invisible disabilities. There I also learned about the 鈥渜ueen bee effect鈥� and that resonated with me quite a bit. At that time, I was actively struggling and reminding myself every day that I don't have to do this job the way it was defined by all the men who have preceded me and who paved the path of academia. I don't have to follow the hidden, unspoken rules. But you have to actively remind yourself that you should not follow that if you don't want to.
At the same event I met Carla Maria Verwer and we started talking and brainstorming on what we could do to support the wellbeing of others at the ME department, which is a particularly male-dominated department. When our new Dean, Patrick Anderson, also wanted to do something for the department in terms of well-being, Carla Maria started discussing with him. Out of these discussions came the Wellbeing Signal Group.
Could you tell us more about the Wellbeing Signal Group?
The Wellbeing Signal Group is a group of people from the ME department that aims at reducing conversation barriers and eventually positively change the culture of the department. I chair the Wellbeing Signal group and the group members represent every level of the hierarchy of the department. The idea of the Wellbeing Signal group is that people can bring 鈥渟ignals鈥� about the issues that they are experiencing in the department to us, and we help to figure out what can be done. We do not fix those problems ourselves, but instead we go with the problem to the person who is responsible for taking actions to fix the problem. If we fix things ourselves, we are only fixing instances and not the culture behind those problems. For example, if we receive multiple signals about teacher-student interaction, we go the program director and ESA with this pattern so that it can addressed more systematically and generalized to all teachers. We鈥檙e basically trying to change the culture in the department, so it is a slow change, but it is consistent and comes from within. It is a bottom up approach.
It seems like a very meaningful initiative. What was your motivation to start the group?
My motivation is based on a very personal experience. I have a chronic condition called endometriosis, which means that I am very often in a lot of pain, and you can almost never tell when you see me. On one of my very bad days a colleague basically dismissed my concerns about COVID because, and I quote, 鈥淚 am young and healthy!鈥�. I realized that there are a lot of assumptions we make about people around us but in fact there is more to people than what you can see. This is why I arranged these invisible disability workshops.
The Wellbeing Signal group grew from there. I was also thinking about how it can be very detrimental if, for example, students feel like they don't have a voice when they are in a similar situation. But what if you had a group that listens to you and makes people in higher management more approachable and at the same time accountable. Then you give room to people to voice their frustrations and actually act accordingly to improve the environment of the department.
For those who might also want to start a wellbeing signal group in their department, where would you suggest that they start?
It鈥檚 important that the group represents every level in the hierarchy of the entire department. You would also need to tailor the approach for the department because every department鈥檚 needs are different. We came up with the role that fits the needs of ME, but also it is general enough that can be applied to any department. You can copy our model and tailor it to your own department. The only thing that we're missing at the moment is central monitoring of Wellbeing Signal Groups that will start across departments. Hopefully, this gets picked up centrally, so that we can share best practices among departments.
What is the gender balance like at the Mechanical Engineering department?
In the class of bachelor students this year, we have 15% women, which is a first. It was always below 10%. But 15% is just a number. It's also important to think about what are we doing so that female students also like it here, and maybe continue their masters in the department as well.
I teach the first year Q1 course, the biggest course in Mechanical Engineering. One of the things that I heard from the female students was that they feel kind of lonely and distant from each other. I took this as a signal for the Wellbeing Signal Group and then after discussions with the program director, we decided to host get-togethers for the female students at the department. The first one was actually organized by WISE as a pilot and it was a great success. Based on this success, the ME department took charge of the organization of these get-togethers moving forward. We did the second one three weeks ago, which was also very good, and the next time it will be fully organized by the students themselves, with support from us. These get-togethers are really feel-good spaces, you get a lot of positive energy out of it. This is also the feedback of the students who attend them.
These feelings of being lonely or disconnected from other women seem to ring true through many levels of our career at the university. How do you experience it as a female staff member in the ME department?
We had a wave of new hires, especially with the Irene Curie fellowship, and the number of women has increased quite a bit, so I think that at the moment out of the assistant professors in the department, 44% are female assistant, which is great. There are plenty of ladies around, which I like. I even have lunch sometimes with a colleague of mine when she's using the lactation room, because this is sometimes the only way to catch up with her.
Any reviews of the lactation room?
The lactation room, yeah, we have problems with that. There is only one in Gemini that I know of, but it's shared between two departments - Mechanical and Biomedical. Gemini is going to be renovated, so we, myself and other junior staff members, made sure that we provided our input on what is needed in terms of lactation rooms, toilets, all sorts of things. I got a response from our managing director, and she said that all points will be taken into account.
That's fantastic to hear, let's hold them to it! You mentioned that you work with quite a lot of women in your surroundings. Do you have any role models in particular?
I think a single role model is hard to come up with, but I am inspired by a lot of people in one way or another. I am just amazed by how strong everyone is in their own way. When I talk to people, I want to know their stories because it means a lot to me and I can learn a lot from them.
You're doing quite a lot for people around you and your department. What is it like, balancing a lot of things besides your research?
The Wellbeing Signal Group takes up 20 to 25 percent of my time, and I teach the biggest course in the Mechanical Engineering bachelor. Before I was doing everything without the Wellbeing Signal Group and I was not entirely fulfilled. There is the self-fulfillment that I only get because I work with people and I would not be doing everything else without that.
And do you feel that you are properly recognized for the work that you're doing?
From the ME members, yes. I feel appreciated. System-wise, that's more difficult to answer myself. But I have the support of the dean. The ME department is part of the pilot for Recognition & Rewards, which allows to have different profiles. So I will keep doing what I am doing as long as I have the support of the people around me. I'm OK with that for now. I mean, at some point I will hit a wall, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
It's lovely to have a positive story of how we can do better in recognizing other ways of contributing to academia. Do you have hopes for the way that things might continue to change in the future for women in science?
My hope is that women would recognize that they can be themselves and that's way more than OK. You should not try to do the same job in the cast of another male, stereotypical person who did this job forever. Some people like to have different personalities at home and here at the university. But I feel like you spend more time working here than at home. It doesn't make sense to me that you would not want to be fully yourself where you spend most of your time. I hope that people would be more themselves at work.
If there was a new junior career researcher starting tomorrow, what advice would you give her?
Just be yourself. First, if you're not feeling well, take some time for yourself. I resisted that for so long and paid for it. Now I'm trying to be better at it and think others should too. Also, there is a lot of self-talk that we do with ourselves. My advice is to pick someone that you can express those thoughts to out loud. Then, they can tell you - this is your inner voice, and that is what actually happened. It can really help you to view a situation differently. If I see someone in my surrounding that I can help in with this type of self-talk, especially female junior professors and PhD students, I tell them: 鈥淟isten, if you feel this way, just come to me and we can talk it through together.鈥� I spent 10 years to realize that, but I could have also used some help 10 years ago. It's a learning process.