Zahra Rattray
BIO
Lecturer in Translational Pharmaceutics at the University of Strathclyde. Mom to one fur child and one 2-year old boy!
Instagram: @z_rattray
Twitter: @z_rattray
Zahra Rattray
“For us, lockdown meant sharing our parenting responsibilities and seeing our son grow and thrive.”
I am a Chancellor’s Research Fellow and lecturer in pharmaceutics at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences in Glasgow, Scotland.
Growing up as a child I had a strong fascination with how everything around me worked. When I was 15 my sister was diagnosed with leukemia, so I spent many days self-studying on hospital wards and revising for my exams. When I was not caring for my sister at the hospital, I would be looking after my three-year-old brother at home. It was during this period that I became really interested in how drugs work, and how chemotherapy can be used at different times to stop cancer. I studied pharmacy at the University of Manchester and decided to embark on a career in drug discovery and development. My life goal was to develop new lifesaving medicines for patients.
After finishing my degree, I spent a year in industry and the clinic (known as the pre-registration year in the UK), I returned to study for a PhD which is where I met my husband. We were introduced by his PhD supervisor who used to teach me on the pharmacy degree and after months of sharing our PhD journey trials and tribulations started dating.
After graduating from my PhD, I found the lack of long-term roles in academia challenging and decided to return to industry where I worked on a range of drug development projects.
I really enjoyed the dynamic environment and the new family I had found in my fellow colleagues. The atmosphere was very welcoming and there was a true team spirit, but I really missed working in academia and inspiring the next-generation of scientists. The academia bug had bit me once more, and I decided to return to academia.
My husband and I were really lucky and managed to both secure a postdoctoral position at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven. Though they were temporary positions, we felt very fortunate to secure a role at the same institution and even collaborated in our research efforts. Two years passed really fast and we started searching for a role closer to home. We both again struck gold and were offered lectureships at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. The relief we felt was immense and we really looked forward to our next chapter.
The thought of starting a family had not yet crossed our minds, but in September 2018 when we finally returned to the UK and started our new roles in the department, I had started to feel a change. I would feel periodically nauseous and very emotional, both of which I had linked to the stress of a new job and moving continents. These feelings only became stronger and one day in a meeting the thought crossed my mind that I may in fact be pregnant. At this point in time we were living with my in-laws as we were looking for somewhere to live.
I took a pregnancy test and immediately tested positive. When I told my husband we were both extremely shocked, delighted and surprised about how our lives were about to change.
We had our son 6 months into our new job, and it was a rollercoaster of emotions (joy combined with fear of the unknown). We were trying to build a research team at the same time as handling a life changing responsibility. Our son was a member of our research team and would accompany us on day events, lab meetings, work-related meetings or social events. I spent a few months working remotely and caring for our son but was concerned about putting him in daycare. I always wondered what it would be like to miss all his key milestones as he developed.
Shortly after starting daycare, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and we entered 100 days of the first lockdown. For us, lockdown meant sharing our parenting responsibilities and seeing our son grow and thrive. We saw his first birthday, saw him take his first steps and say his first words at home. He would help out in the garden with growing flowers and vegetables. While it was a very tough and challenging time for us to juggle teaching, supervision, grant and paper writing with parenting, we saw lockdown as a once in a lifetime opportunity to see our son grow and develop.
Being a mum and a scientist is not easy - you have to move away from the sense of being perfect at everything. Sometimes good is good enough.
Our son made my husband and I view our lives through a different lens. There is more to life than work and our son created a new dimension in which we could create a sanctuary at home and establish a work-life balance.