Lee is a Research Assistant working with Professor Nick Spencer in the Visceral Neurophysiology lab, in FHMRI.

How long have you been at the University? Twenty-one years, all on grant funded contracts. I’ve been working with Nick for the last seven years. Prior to that, I worked with Professor Ida Llewellyn-Smith.

What is your professional background? I completed my Bachelor of Science here at Flinders while working as a technician in Ida’s laboratory. Once completed in 2007 I was employed as a Research Assistant.

During my time with Ida, I worked mainly on the anatomy of the autonomic nervous system. One of our main areas involved identifying the nerve cells of origin of a nervous system pathway.

With Nick, I am involved in a number of projects focussed on the gastrointestinal tract. These include the role of the enteric nervous system in pain pathways and intestinal peristalsis. Most of the work I do with Nick is physiology based and a big shift from the type of work I was doing previously.

What led you to a professional research staff career? Was there a seminal moment? My immediate thoughts after finishing high school were to do anything but get straight into studying the science degree I had been accepted into at Adelaide University.

I deferred my degree and did a one year traineeship (offered by the State Government at the time) as a laboratory technician and was fortunate enough to be placed here at Flinders.

This time provided me with confirmation that my science degree was worth embarking on. I also decided that if possible, I wanted to stay at Flinders beyond my traineeship as I appreciated the sense of community here.

I then completed the Flinders Foundation Course which got me accepted into a Bachelor of Science while I worked in the laboratory with Ida – then the slog of full-time work with part-time study began.

What piece of advice would you give to aspiring professional research staff? Don’t be afraid to get involved in the process of experimental design with your supervisor or collaborators and speak up when you have a suggestion.

Given that in many instances you are the one conducting the experiment, your input is important to the success of the study as you can identify and resolve issues that may be overlooked by others that do not have the day-to-day, hands-on experience.

What is something about yourself others may not know? Earlier this year, I managed to deliver my daughter (with a bit of help from my wife) in the front seat of the car! All the years of medical research desensitised me enough to get through it.

What do you value most about working at Flinders? The people. The overwhelming majority of the people I have worked with over the years have been friendly, hard working, and a lot of fun to be around. The staff I directly work with in Nick’s lab and our extended group are no exception.