Question: How did you work your way up to being a professor?

Sian Harding answered on 23 Jun 2010:

The most important thigs you are judged on are the papers you write and the amount of money you can raise by applying for grants. I had a permanent job quite early on, and so just concentrated on interesting experiments to get these papers and grants. Then I was assessed by committees to see if I could get promoted. Now though, its a lot harder to get onto that permanent job ladder, people often do contracts of 2 or 3 years, then have to go somewhere else