Reflections on a research career

The novelist EM Forster wrote in the preface to A Passage to India: ‘It is by chance, more than any peculiar devotion, that determines a man in his choice of medium, when he finds himself possessed by the obscure impulse towards creation.’ On the other hand, JK Rowling’s Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter believes that it is our choices and not our ability that makes us what we are. When I joined the University of Ulster after completing my PhD, I was asked to teach research to undergraduates. Now, 17 years later, I am still researching and teaching research. It may look as if time has stood still. Yet the opportunity (or chance, according to Forster) that was presented to me was a godsend. Research has provided me with new and different ways to look at the world. Each research tradition or approach looks at phenomena from a different perspective. It is fascinating to see how researchers are busy seeking the ‘truth’, which they often claim to find, but which remains elusive. What is most rewarding is that each new study is a learning experience.