Women’s voices: Ellemarije Altena

For this new episode of our Women’s Voices series, Milesa Simic, a PhD student at IMN, met with Ellemarije Altena, associate professor at INCIA.

Milesa Simic: Could you give us an overview of your academic background?

Ellemarije Altena: After my PhD in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and a postdoctoral position in Cambridge (UK), I arrived in Bordeaux in 2014, where I first became Team Leader and then Associate Professor since 2017. I perform my research at the Sleep/Wake, Aging and Neuroimaging team at INCIA, while teaching at the bachelor Applied Mathematics and Informatics in Human and Social Sciences (MIASHS) and the Master of Cognitive Sciences, for which I am responsible of the first Master year. In my career, I have often combined research projects with clinical work as well as teaching.  I have also worked for and with several companies during my PhD and in my different positions since. Looking back, combining those different activities has always been inspiring to come up with new ideas for my research projects.

In your opinion, what have been the most important personal and work challenges you have faced to reach this stage in your career?

Students always get advised to study or work abroad to enhance their experience of following courses and working in different environments. I still advise this my students today, even though I see how much more challenging that can be nowadays. For me personally, moving to three different countries within 10 years and each time learning a new language and culture, however exciting and educative, was also a bit challenging at times, in particular when having a family.  There is a delicate balance to be found between the need for internationalization of young researchers and stability to develop our research and careers.

How did you balance your postdoctoral work with developing the project for your current research?

During my PhD and then my postdoctoral work I learned about setting up large interdisciplinary research projects successfully and efficiently. During my master internship in Canada and PhD in The Netherlands  I learned to apply and analyze data from different neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and EEG and to combine them with standard behavioral tests. At the University of Cambridge, I then learned how recruitment of human participants is highly facilitated by existing databases: I could include and perform neuroimaging tests on a large group of patients and healthy participants within weeks of starting my postdoctoral position. In both my PhD and postdoctoral positions I further learned so much from brain storming sessions, data analyses and paper writing sessions with different scientists from related disciplines. From both these positions I learned  that  helpful specialized support personnel when applying neuroimaging techniques and data analyses, local and remote access to data analysis systems, and a great science team are such important ingredients for scientific productivity.  The experience acquired during my postdoc also helped me to assess the real possibilities of implementing my research and to adapt it to the local circumstances and context. As an example, my research on brain activity in insomnia moved from investigations on cognitive functions to affective functions during my post-doc, to investigations of vestibular functions in a collaboration with the movement analysis platform (PAM) at INCIA, as a tenured researcher.

If you could travel back in time, when in your career would you return and what would you change?

That’s a tough question! I thought hard about an answer but realized I wouldn’t change anything. I always took my decisions after very careful consideration, and although not everything worked out well, each time I learned from those moments and I still use and apply that knowledge every day. Actually, in particular what I learned from the failures!

In your opinion, what are the most significant challenges you anticipate facing as a woman in a leadership position in neuroscience?

In Europe, inequality in leadership positions and salary payments for the same job and position unfortunately still exists between men and women in many types of industry and in academia. On a personal level, although performing and anticipating positions with a high level of responsibility,  I cannot say I feel that it has been harder for me than for my male colleagues. Both men and women do have to be careful to consciously choose and, where possible, adapt their workplace conditions to optimize their productivity, which can be very challenging.  As for leadership, I feel and usually have felt respected by colleagues and students.

If you had a piece of advice to give to young female researchers, what would it be?

My first advice would be: keep showing your enthusiasm, skills, and eagerness to learn, if you are indeed passionate about science.  I guide young female Master and PhD students often in their career choices and feel they often underestimate themselves, do not emphasize their skills and experience enough  in their CVs or application letters, do not send reminders if they do not receive a reply on a first application e-mail, etc.

My second advice would be: keep a plan B, and possibly a plan C and D in mind. In my own experience, next to a scientific career, it is very useful to develop some hard skills that can come in handy if the science part becomes more difficult. It can be the inspiration from that other skill, like working as a clinician for instance, that keeps you inspired in science as well.

About Women’s Voices

Women’s Voices is an interview created by Sara Carracedo for the Brainstorm Journal in partnership with the Neurocampus Parity and Inclusion Committee (NeuroPIC) a local group committed to promoting equality and organizing actions to close the gap between women and men in academia.

The goal of this section is to increase the visibility of early career female researchers at the Bordeaux Neurocampus of the University of Bordeaux. We interview researchers about their scientific contributions, insights and opinions about equity, diversity and gender bias in academia. Through these interviews, we aim not only to highlight their achievements but also to serve as inspiration for our scientific community and other female scientists.

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