Grammarly is a web-based service to support writers. I use it a lot but worry that Grammarly will homogenise the literary voice until we all sound like the Grammarly family’s pet — a parrot named “Mr Grammarly”. Grammarly provides advice on correcting punctuation, word use, and reducing the use of…

Is life so precious that any number of painful, lonely, frightened deaths is acceptable to preserve one life? As a child, I competed with my siblings to see who could hold their breath the longest. I remember the increasingly desperate need to draw a breath as time slowed in proportion…

Dr Tammam Aloudat تمّام العودات @Tammamo (a Syrian born, Syrian national working with Médecins Sans Frontières in Switzerland) co-authored a “roadmap” for decolonising global health. In a carol of eight tweets, he objected to my critique. He objected to the suggestions that (i) the authorship of the “roadmap” for decolonising…

There are a growing number of papers in the peer-reviewed literature about decolonising global health (see). Pascale Allotey and I have discussed the problem in terms of “trickle-down science”. That is, the way (global health) science is done, how it is prioritised, and who is advantaged by it. It is…

After competence, are certitude, charisma and chutzpah the 3-Cs of research leadership? When Rob Moodie was the CEO of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) he started a “conversations in leadership” series for the recipients of VicHealth Public Health Research Fellowships. …

When I started my research career, a research leader’s retirement was a moment to celebrate. Their lives and their contributions were recalled through their research, their papers, their PhD graduates and Postdocs. The Festschrift was often published, literally celebrating their intellectual contribution to a field. Some of those researchers truly…

Learning from a member of staff that she wants to leave can feel surprisingly hurtful. It can be particularly upsetting when he wants to stay within the organisation, just not in your unit. As bosses, we very often spend far more time with our staff than we do with our…

Over a 20 year career in global health research, I have worked with some great researchers and some inspiring leaders. The leaders and the researchers were not necessarily the same people. Two of the most thoughtful leaders I have known are Rob Macredie and Richard Parish, both of whom I…

This is the first in a series of pieces I am writing on research leadership. The first in the series is a couple of articles devoted to conflicts of interest. …