Today I want to take a break from sharing research to share a personal story instead. It’s a story about my name, why I once decided to quit academia, why I came back, what I learnt from it, and why I’m grateful to have an audience here on Twitter.

Near the end of my PhD, I had three main publications. I ran into someone at a conference whom I knew from previous events. He asked me about my work, and I briefly mentioned my papers. His reaction was something I didn’t expect…

He’d seen and liked my papers, but the name hadn’t registered. He didn’t realize the 3 papers had the same first author and that it was someone he knew. He was embarrassed and apologetic. If he’d known, he said, he’d have advocated for me at his school for a faculty position(!)