Mentor Profile for Contract Research Staff Professor Jane Clarke FMedSci Professor of Molecular Biophysics Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge College Affiliation: Trinity College Research Interest Group: Biological For more information, please visit: www-clarke.ch.cam.ac.uk About Me My career is somewhat unusual. After several years teaching in high schools I started a PhD at the age of 40 with Professor Sir Alan Fersht in Cambridge. I did a post doc in NMR at the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering and then re-joined the Chemistry department as a Welcome Trust research fellow in 1997. I am still a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow today. I am particularly interested in encouraging young women to stay in science – we lose so many talented women at the stage where they move between post doc and faculty positions. I know by experience that this is a career one can combine happily and successfully with being a mother (and grandmother too!). My Research Interests My scientific interests are in the field of protein folding. My research is multidisciplinary, combining single molecule and ensemble biophysical techniques with protein engineering and simulations to investigate protein folding. We study the folding of families of homologous proteins to address many of the fundamental questions on how proteins fold, and of evolution of folding landscapes. We are interested in more complex problems, including investigating the folding and misfolding of multidomain proteins, and, recently, folding upon binding of intrinsically disordered proteins. Mentoring Support I Can Provide • Topics included in my research interests above • Research-related issues: project management/time management • Other work-related issues: people management/conflict resolution • Career development and progression: career values, aspirations, training and paths • Career development and progression: routes to academic careers • Work-life balance (including ‘women in science’ and related issues) • Widening your support network • Provide motivation, confidence and inspiration Mentoring Availability and Contact • Please contact me to arrange: [email protected] Department of Chemistry - Mentor Profile Last Updated: 14 November 2013 .