Interviews usually take place the last Friday of the month around lunchtime and are co-organised by the PDC and local postdoc reps and committees from all Faculty Schools and Centre, to ensure relevance to all. They take place via MS Teams and involve set questions asked by the chair and time for attendees to ask additional questions. While guests are usually chosen to have a PhD background, all staff and students are welcome.

The October 2020 interview is organised by Claire Tonry, postdoc in the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, on behalf of the WWIEM Postdoc Career Development Committee (PCDC). It will feature Dr Peter Kerr, who is Head of Operations at Sonraí Analytics Ltd (NI data analytics company) and was previously head of project management at Almac Diagnostics, as well as Dr Karim Dib, Senior Lecturer in WWIEM.

Dr Peter Kerr is biomarker development and companion diagnostic expert with over 13 years' experience in the IVD molecular diagnostics industry. Peter completed his PhD at Glasgow, an MA at University of Cambridge and undertook his postdoctoral research at The Institute of Cancer Research in London. Peter then moved into more management-focused roles at the National Cancer Research Institute and in Almac, where he quickly worked his way up to VP of Companion Diagnostic Development. Peter is now Head of Operations at Sonraí Analytics Ltd. In this interview, Peter will discuss his career thus far, including what compelled him to move away from academia and what attracted him to the management roles that he has since occupied, as well as share some advice to help postdocs translate to industry.

Registered participants will be sent a Teams link closer to the date but should hold the time in their calendar right away.

It is possible to suggest questions on the booking form, and attendees will be able to ask questions using the MS Teams chat.

If the quality of the sound allows it and the guest agrees, the conversation could later be made accessible as a podcast (but cannot be guaranteed).