Saying less is harder than saying more
I had the privilege of presenting my Laidlaw research on health inequalities and answering questions from Taylor & Francis editors. Fitting a year of work into a 5-minute talk taught me that clarity is a skill. It forced me to decide what really mattered, and to step back and see my work from an outsider’s perspective. The editors’ questions then pushed me to think about who my work could help, and what comes next.
Ambition looks different for everyone
Over two days, I heard about projects on neuroscience, AI-assisted learning, housing markets, international relations, hormones and spinal cord repair. Every project was different, but the same thread kept appearing: curiosity that serves other people. For some, ambition meant building something new. For others, it meant asking a question nobody had asked. I realised ambition isn’t about the size of the goal, but about caring enough to keep asking why.
No one does it alone
Lord Laidlaw wrote that “you cannot accomplish everything on your own”, and that was true of every project I saw this weekend. Behind each one were supervisors, teams and communities who believed in the work.
A huge thank you to the Laidlaw Foundation for bringing us together, to my supervisors for their support, and to every scholar who shared their ideas!