Stepping stones in a health research career pathway

Curious from the start

As a child I baffled adults who patiently answered scientific questions by listening quietly to their helpful child-friendly explanations and then replying: “Yes, but what are the atoms doing?”. They were all too polite to tell me to go find out for myself, but perhaps they thought that.

An early globe-trotting life awakened my interest in different people, cultures and languages. My education switched between American, British and home-schooling systems when there wasn’t a space in an international or British school. Science and gymnastics were consistently my favourite activities because I loved active learning, experimenting and
physical challenges.

Bridging biochemistry and psychology

At the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, my PhD bridged two of my scientific passions: biochemistry and psychology. The biochemistry involved objective measures of hormones and neurotransmitters in human samples and the psychological side involved finding out the thoughts and feeling of the participants. Therefore, the doctoral research involved both lab work analysing samples, as well as talking with participants to collect responses to questionnaires indicating symptoms of depression and anxiety. These approaches were aimed at early identification of women during pregnancy, or the very first days after giving birth, who could benefit from appropriate mental health support for depression and or anxiety.

From post-doctoral researcher to research leader

At Imperial, I continued working in this area as a post-doc researcher, while also developing an academic career teaching in universities in the UK. Starting at the University of Westminster as a guest lecturer, I moved on to a proper academic post as lecturer at Kingston University and, more recently, at King’s College London as senior lecturer - and now at Health Sciences University, as an associate professor leading my own research team. The research paper that I am most fond of, for the research collaborations it has generated, is the development of a short Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale (MIBS) for use in the perinatal period (Taylor et al., 2005) which has been cited over 650 times – source Google Scholar). Over the years, this has been used in many countries which is very exciting as I still have a passion for travel and working with people in different countries. I have been delighted to join international teams translating and validating the MIBS for different populations, most recently in Switzerland (Pernoud et al., 2025). I am also excited to be part of an international team developing the MIBS into the more inclusive Parent-to-Infant Bonding Scale (Lindeberg et al., 2023).

Supporting neurodiverse children 

My interest in the cognitive and social skills development of children is an extension of the early mental health research and is now focused on the needs of children with neurodiversity, including children diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The aim is to provide adjunctive interventions help the children manage symptoms that can persist even when they are supported through prescribed medication and/ or talking therapies. My team and I successfully piloted physical activities for use in physical education (PE) lessons in primary schools to encourage more moderate-to-vigorous engagement in a way that is especially supportive for the children with ADHD (Taylor, Novo & Foreman, 2019). 

Partnering with schools for real-world impact

We are also thrilled to be working with business partners developing new products and training for teachers and coaches leading physical activities for different groups of children including those diagnosed with ADHD. Our team has expanded, both nationally with schools and business partners, as well as internationally. We are refining the physical activities intervention for use in different PE curricula. There are other aspects of this area of research my team is very keen to promote,
for example, we are undertaking and advocating for more research into helping women and girls with ADHD who are often diagnosed at an older age than boys, because their symptoms are expressed differently.

Advice for aspiring researchers

If you are passionate about discovering new ideas, understanding how things work, or finding solutions to problems in our modern world, and feel you might be interested in a career in research, I would encourage you to follow the direction that truly captures your imagination and interest. Finding a supportive mentor can be of great benefit. Build a profile on
appropriate online platforms, such as ResearchGate and LinkedIn, to showcase your expertise and interests. As you start to generate your own body of research and academic activities, you might consider building a personal research website to further showcase your work. A strong network of collaborators and fellow researchers can be developed through online networks and in-person activities, such as research meetings and special interest groups. Take the plunge and join online discussions in an area you are working on, or post comments, questions or blogs - it can open the door to new contacts. In this digital age, it is still true that personal contacts can provide the most valuable opportunities. 

If you would like to discuss any aspect of the research supporting children with symptoms of ADHD, please contact [email protected] 

References:

Lindeberg, S., Tedgård, E., Kerstis, B., Tedgård, U., Taylor, A., & Jönsson, P. (2024).
Development of the Parent-to-Infant Bonding Scale: validation in Swedish mothers and
fathers in community and clinical contexts. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 1-13.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10578-024-01699-x

Pernoud, A., Taylor, A., De Luca, R., Marci, R., Timmins, E., Potter, K., & Bothorel, H.
(2025). Translation and Cross-Cultural Adaptation into French of the Mother-to-Infant
Bonding Scale. Patient Related Outcome Measures, 85-92.
https://doi.org/10.2147/PROM.S524248

Taylor, A., Atkins, R., Kumar, R., Adams, D., & Glover, V. (2005). A new Mother-to-Infant
Bonding Scale: links with early maternal mood. Archives of women’s mental health, 8(1), 45-
51. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00737-005-0074-z

Taylor, A., Novo, D., & Foreman, D. (2019, September). An exercise program designed for
children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder for use in school physical education:
Feasibility and utility. In Healthcare (Vol. 7, No. 3, p. 102). MDPI.
https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare7030102