Purpose-led research - advice from Professor Fiona Stanley AC

Professor Fiona Stanley AC FAA is a world-leading epidemiologist who not only has a hospital in Western Australia named in her honour but also an NHMRC Research Excellence Award – the Fiona Stanley Synergy Grant Award. In our interview, Professor Stanley shared powerful advice for the next generation of researchers, from focusing in on the important research questions, gathering a good team and leaning on mentors.

Video transcript

Professor Fiona Stanley 0:00
I'm Fiona Stanley and what led me to my career in research, which has been the most amazing life for me, is very simple. I was going to be a paediatric neurologist, and I'm now a failed paediatric neurologist. Because what really got me when I was doing paediatrics and working in that area, was why did these kids get sick? It really took me into research when I went and visited Aboriginal communities in Western Australia and saw the dire circumstances in which children were living. We treat them at the children's hospital - 'Medical miracle. 15% dehydrated child survives.' - What happened to that child? Put them straight back in the community where they got the disease in the first place. And I thought there's got to be a different way of doing medicine, or I'm out of here. That's why I discovered epidemiology, public health, biostatistics, plenty of medicine. I went to the UK and trained - been the passion ever since. 

Professor Fiona Stanley 0:54
I've even got a hospital named after me in Western Australia - this is as good as that. You reflect on what I've done and what we've done as a team, I try keeping people out of hospital with our research. And what it's really about is acknowledging that research can make a difference, and if you work effectively and do the right research, you can actually make a difference. And I think the Synergy Grants are a great initiative of the NHMRC. I feel incredibly honoured, but it really reflects my incredible team of people that I've worked with over 40 years. I'm very old, so it's a great honour. I have a lot of tips for researchers coming up in the next generation of researchers, who I mentor and love. Whenever I feel depressed, I speak to a group of young people and I feel that we're going to be okay. The first most important thing is to read the literature and don't repeat studies that don't need to be repeated. If I see another study showing that smoking causes low birth weight or that alcohol during pregnancy leads to foetal alcohol syndrome, I'm going to scream. I want to know what to do about it. And once you've read the literature, the next tip is, what's the most important question you need to address to move this issue forward? Go for that. You might have to accommodate because you can't do the perfect study always, but go for that. What I used to call very badly going for the jugular - but it's about really going for the most important research question that you can take forward.

Professor Fiona Stanley 2:24
The next tip is to work with very good people. Research isn't a lonely occupation where you're going to be the next Marie Curie, although she was the woman who inspired me to go into research, I have to say. Because it's a team effort. Particularly in the research that I've done, whether its epidemiology or preventative medicine, you need to have a really good team. They've got to be good, they've got to be people that really are not just very good scientists, but they're great people to work with. Next tip, choose a great mentor. I wished I'd had some mentors earlier in my career, but gee, the mentors I had later in my career. Sir Gustav Nossal, Professor Mervyn Susser in New York, Professor Zena Stein who are ex South African epidemiologists who knew Nelson Mandela. I mean, I would not be where I am today if it hadn't been for these people. And you know, as we get older and we retire, we love mentoring. So use us, use the mentors, because the issues that you're facing today are much more complex, sociologically and even strategically than we did. I mean, we had a dream run. You know, we did have a dream run. So I think you need a mentor, not just for the science, but for how you getting on in terms of your workplace, for how you manage as a mum with kids and do science. I mean, those are the issues which are still important. I thought they wouldn't be. I was determined that women wouldn't go through the guilt that I went through. They still are. So we go do that. The next tip's a bit mean. It says, get out if you lose your passion. You know it's really important to like it. But the good thing about that is, look at all the jobs you can do that are around science but aren't meaning that you've got to get the next NHMRC grant or yout next whatever. No, no, you can be a scientist. You can be all these things. You can actually go out there and bat for science.

Professor Fiona Stanley 4:23
Within the NHMRC, there's lots of things that you can do. And I guess my sort of last two tips are, don't stop being critical. Don't stop being really critical and really honest about what the issues are, what the research is saying, and the good research that you need have. So you need to be ethical. You need to absolutely do research that is impeccably above any kind of criticism. And that's something that I'm passionate about, because a lot of people have gone off the rails in terms of forgetting that really important thing. And the other thing that I want the next young people to do is translate your research, if you can, and that includes the basic science stuff. I believe that basic science is going to solve the climate catastrophe actually, not in health research, but across the board. So, you know, it's really important that another question that you ask yourself is, is this research going to translate into something that will make a difference? It's so exciting about research, because, you know, you feel you're going to save the world. But you know, it means that you're working in something we just feel, you know, I could actually make a difference. And that's very exciting. And and the last little thing is part of all of that, I guess, and that is just be humble and realise that you know you're only, you know one person in this big cosmos of a world, and all the best we treat it's exciting.

End of transcript