Life after GIGA #26 Sarah Genon

Sarah Genon is currently associate professor at the University of Düsseldorf and research group leader at the research center of Jülich. She works with large datasets of neuroimaging data and behavioral data from the populations to better understand the relationships between brain and behavior in humans. After her bachelor studies in psychological and educational sciences at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, she came to Liege to study neuropsychology and cognitive-behavioral psychology. After that Fabienne Collette offered her the opportunity to do a PhD at the Cyclotron Research Centre (GIGA-CRC). Sarah then went to Germany to do a first postdoc and then continued her career in Germany. Today her team members are mainly engineers and Sarah completed also an advanced master program in the field of computational statistics at the University of Ghent. She has been engaged in parallel to her research work in initiatives to promote diversity and inclusivity in science. 

"Life after GIGA", a new series that you will find every third Friday on our website, our facebook page or our instagram account. The purpose of these portraits is to take news of the "old" but also to show the diversity of the courses after a passage at GIGA. You will be able to read the interview of people now working abroad (temporarily or permanently), people working in other universities or in the private sector. This week, it's Sarag Genon's turn to tell us about her "life after GIGA" ...Thank you Sarah to answer to our questions from Germany !

Sarah, can you introduce yourself and tell us about your current position?

What has been your career path so far?

After my bachelor (« candidatures ») studies in psychological and educational sciences at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, I came to Liege to study neuropsychology and cognitive-behavioral psychology in my master (“license”’) studies at the University of Liege. I really enjoyed my training in clinical psychology and I remained fascinated by the human brain during these studies. In my master thesis, I studied cognitive effort in patients with Multiple Sclerosis under the supervision of Prof. Stephan Adam. At my master thesis defense, I had the chance to discuss my work with Dr. Fabienne Collette, who subsequently offered me the opportunity to do a PhD at the Cyclotron Research Centre (GIGA-CRC).

In my PhD studies I used neuroimaging techniques (PET and MRI) to better understand the neural correlates of specific cognitive processes in healthy volunteers and patients with Alzheimer’s Disease. The approach was very challenging as I had to acquire MRI data under strict experimental conditions in hundreds of participants, mostly older people, including patients with Alzheimer’s disease. But this is also where I developed my creativity in study design and trouble shooting skills. In parallel to data acquisition, I learned neuroimaging data processing and analyses, which also came with a lot of challenges.

After my PhD, I thus went deeper into functional neuroanatomy and neuroimaging data analysis. I first did a postdoctoral stay at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Structural and Functional Organization of the brain (INM-1) lead by Prof. Katrin Amunts in the Research Centre Juelich in Germany in 2013. At that time, I thought that I will “simply” deepen my knowledges and skills in neuroimaging data analyses, but retrospectively I realized that I jumped into a whole new field for me. At the beginning it was tough, I was overwhelmed by everything that was required and that I wanted to learn in data analyses, in addition to brain organizing and function. Also, switching from a French speaking environment during the years of my academic studies in Belgium to a fully English and sometimes German speaking professional environment was additionally cognitively very demanding. I was clearly out of my comfort zone. Luckily I love learning and I was very supported by my supervisor, Prof. Simon Eickhoff during these postdoctoral studies. From one challenge to the other, I thus went further and further into the computational field. I obtained a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for my own position and project in 2016. A few years later, I was offered the opportunity to lead my own research group at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain and Behaviour (INM-7) in the research centre Juelich. I really enjoyed supervising PhD students and junior postdoc researchers. I started with a small team of in such a way that I could work closely with my lab members and progressively develop management skills. My team members are all international researchers. This diversity fosters creativity and intercultural communication skills development. My team members are also mostly engineers. Given that my academic background was originally in psychology and neuroscience, I had to learn to better understand the viewpoint that comes from with their background. In that aim, I successfully completed an advanced master program in the field of computational statistics at the University of Ghent (Belgium), so that my academic knowledge background covers the interdisciplinarity of my lab which is also at the core of our researches. Finally, to further develop my academic career, I applied for the Heisenberg Programm of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, from which I have been awarded with a Heisenberg Professorship at the University of Dusseldorf.

Is your current position in keeping with what you did at the GIGA?

The general aim of better understanding the human brain and its dysfunction in brain disorders remain. However the approach is different, I still work intensively with neuroimaging and psychometric data, but I switched from a more hypothesis-driven approach bound to specific psychological theories to a more data-driven approach capitalizing on computational techniques and large populations datasets.

You are woeking in Germany. Do you find that the professional life is different there compared to Belgium?

Yes, everything is more structured, organized both in the daily work and in the long-term strategies in Germany. The structured plan at the Research Centre Juelich helps to pursue long-term goals with a clear collective objective in mind. This alleviates some parts of the pressure that characterizes a research career and this is particularly beneficial for young researchers that may otherwise get easily overwhelmed or loose the relevant track during their PhD studies. However, this also means that the degree of freedom, independence and creativity may be reduced compared to more bottom-up functioning.    

In what ways is your work experience at the GIGA useful to you in your current position?

From a scientific perspective, by having the possibility to work intensively with MRI scanners and data acquisition, I developed a specific awareness for potential artefacts and limitations that may exist in neuroimaging and psychometric data. Furthermore, I learned the basics of neuroimaging data analyses. I got my first experience with multivariate analyses of neuroimaging data that are central to my current work.

From a more personal perspective, I enjoyed a high degree of freedom during my PhD at the GIGA-CRC, this helps me to further developed my trouble shooting skills, a self-driven attitude and my creativity. This also contributed to build my self-confidence in addressing technical and scientific challenges.

From a scientific perspective, by having the possibility to work intensively with MRI scanners and data acquisition, I developed a specific awareness for potential artefacts and limitations that may exist in neuroimaging and psychometric data. Furthermore, I learned the basics of neuroimaging data analyses. I got my first experience with multivariate analyses of neuroimaging data that are central to my current work.

From a more personal perspective, I enjoyed a high degree of freedom during my PhD at the GIGA-CRC, this helps me to further developed my trouble shooting skills, a self-driven attitude and my creativity. This also contributed to build my self-confidence in addressing technical and scientific challenges.

What are the positive points of the GIGA for you?

The leadership position in the last years offered me the opportunity to think more about general limitations, challenges and room for improvement in our field, beyond specific research questions and topics. Across the recent years, the need to contribute to big societal challenges has importantly increased in my view of my work. I have been engaged in parallel to my research work in initiatives to promote diversity and inclusivity in science. In that context, I also became more aware of the role that neuroscience research and communications thereof may actually play in shaping the public mind, in implicit bias, but also in the fairness in potentially derived technologies. So, in the future, I would be interested to move towards leadership/management positions in which these aspects become officially part of my missions with the perspective of positive impact on the society.

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