Dr. Jenna Poonoosamy: Leading in the mid-level faculty
Team head at the Institute for Energy und Climate Research - Nucleare Waste Management (IEK-6)
“With the ERC Starting Grant, which I attracted in March 2022, a lot of things changed all of a sudden: in addition to the funding and the scientific challenge, for example, it was immediately clear that I would be leading a research team at Jülich – my first true leadership responsibility. My team emerged from the research group Reactive Transport at IEK-6, where I had been conducting research together with several postdocs since 2018. Then I became the head – with two of my postdoc colleagues and a doctoral researcher as members of my team. Even months before I actually started as head of a team, I made use of P-E’s onboarding talk for young managers. This helped me a lot to prepare well for the new role. I have been heading my team, which has been growing ever since, since last September. Many things were still unfamiliar in the beginning: for example, making decisions for my staff that not everyone liked, or emphatically championing and defending my positions beyond my team. But that’s coming ever more naturally to me now!
It’s a new challenge for me to be a researcher and a manager at the same time, because, as a young scientist, I would of course also like to continue researching in the lab myself. At the same time, in order for us to reach all the important scientific milestones on time, I have to constantly decide which tasks to assign to which member of my team. It helps me to have a good knowledge of their individual strengths and weaknesses and to ensure that they can contribute their potential in the best possible way. Since I myself had been doing my doctorate in Switzerland until 2015 and still have detailed memories of the discussions with my supervisor at the time, I understand very well the concerns and wishes that my own doctoral researchers now have. At the same time, I am also responsible for the results of my entire team and have to say ‘no’ quite clearly sometimes – this is a constant balancing act.
Recruitment is also difficult: just because applicants are professionally competent does not necessarily mean that their personality would fit into the team – which, however, is important for our success. Since last autumn, I have also been expanding my skills with the FZJ development programme, where I learn a lot for my leadership practice. I also contribute my experience from international collaborations, which often borders very closely on management responsibilities. I notice how I’m continuing to grow into my leadership role. That’s important for my goal of making my team at IEK-6 an internationally relevant player in our field of research! For example, we aim to provide high-level scientific contributions to the safe final disposal of radioactive waste, in particular elucidating the relevance of gas phases in the reactive transport of contaminants underground.”