Cather Simpson
In this installment of Senior Member Insights, OPN talks with Cather Simpson, a physicist and chemist at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and a partner at Pacific Channel, Ltd. At the University of Auckland, she founded and directed the Photon Factory. In addition to studying fundamental light–matter interaction, her group created several startups, including the award-winning Engender Technologies, Orbis Diagnostics and most recently Skin Photonics.
After a three-year stint as chief science officer at Engender, she returned to the university in 2022. Simpson is a Fellow and member of the Academy Executive for New Zealand’s Royal Society Te Apārangi, and she won the 2019 Pickering Medal. She sits on the board of SPIE and several companies, including Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Orbis and Advemto.
What first interested you in pursuing science?
I was always a curious child, and I did a lot of “experiments.” One of my chores was to make coffee for my parents in the morning, and once I could reach the spice cabinet by standing on a dining room chair, they would be “treated” to cinnamon coffee, ginger coffee or (shudder) oregano and thyme coffee. Both of my parents had more of a classical education, though, so that kind of interest meant I was supposed to become a doctor.
When I took my first biology class at the University of Virginia, USA, the professor, Richard Rodewald, invited me to do some summer research in his cell biology lab. I made so many stupid mistakes, but I loved it! By the end of that summer, I had decided that instead of becoming a neurosurgeon, I would do medical research.
What aspect of your current work do you find the most interesting or exciting?
Right now, I’m involved in a bunch of projects that are exploring how a photonics-based innovation can deliver benefits to society. We have two spinouts that are in the biomedical diagnostic space—Orbis Diagnostics is a microfluidic blood test platform and Skin Photonics is developing a probe that can diagnose skin cancers, including melanoma. We also have a new type of prostate probe that is showing promise at better diagnosing problematic tissue for biopsy.
A couple of very new projects, at the proposal stage, will use lasers to help the bee industry and to diagnose endometriosis noninvasively. These are all done with early-career researchers from my team, Matheus Vargus, Michel Nieuwoudt, Claude Aguergaray, Francesco Merola and Nina Novikova, respectively. I really enjoy working together with them to help them get funding, build their teams and provide other support to drive these ideas forward.
What tips for successful networking do you have for early-career professionals?
Be bold, walk up to people and introduce yourself at events. I try to think of it as another part of my job duties. To be honest, I am not a very social person, so I have a kind of “extroverted Cather” persona that I bring out at conferences, lunches, etc. I sit next to someone I don’t know, I make sure I meet at least six new people—that sort of thing.
“I also strongly encourage early-career professionals to network in all directions—not just upward.”—Cather Simpson
Develop a two-sentence introduction that says who you are and what you do, so you can trot it out whenever you need it, even when you’re nervous. I also strongly encourage early-career professionals to network in all directions—not just upward. The people at your own stage will eventually have the students you’ll want to bring into your group, and the bandwidth and ambition to collaborate on ambitious projects.
What professional resources do you rely on to stay active and engaged with your field?
When I was an emerging researcher, I went to the same series of conferences for several years so that I could build up a network of people whose work I knew and who knew mine. This was a bit hard because I came from outside what ended up being my professional field, so it took me longer to get traction. One of the communities I was in was a bit toxic—sexist, bullying, ungenerous to emerging researchers. If I had it to do over again, I would have left it sooner. The sooner those groups die out, the better!
I also used to review papers and sit on organizing committees more often, as a way to see what others were doing. Now that I’m more senior and the research we do is so varied, I can’t get to everything each year, so I try to find service/leadership roles within scientific organizations that keep me connected. And when I go to a conference, I attend as much of it as I can, including social/networking events. I try to squeeze every last bit out of those experiences!
What skills do you think are most important for someone interested in a career like yours?
“To succeed in this career, you need to be curious, motivated and resilient. Generate lots of new ideas, write up the best of them, then shake off the inevitable failures quickly and make sure to enjoy the successes.”—Cather Simpson
I used to think it was being smart and well prepared. Now I think those are necessary but not sufficient. Careers like mine involve a lot of rejection and failure, punctuated by occasional success. That’s true for both the research and the professional aspects, like funding and publications. If you’ve got a decent funding rate of 20%, then you’re going to fail four of 5 tries. This is not a career for the easily discouraged! To succeed in this career, you need to be curious, motivated and resilient. Generate lots of new ideas, write up the best of them, then shake off the inevitable failures quickly and make sure to enjoy the successes.
What’s the best career decision you’ve ever made, and why?
Moving to New Zealand in 2007 changed the way I think about science and what it’s for. I am so glad I made that move! In the United States, I focused on very fundamental research—what happens in the first 10 picoseconds or so after a molecule absorbs light. When I came to New Zealand, I found that there were no instrument grants, and to obtain the laser system I needed, I had to write a business case. I had to convince my vice chancellor that my laser system would support itself.
Well, no one is going to pay $400 an hour to obtain a femtosecond spectrum of something, so I intentionally made my lab, the Photon Factory, an outward-facing facility. When we opened our doors, the mission of the Photon Factory was to help New Zealand businesses and industries better succeed through exploiting ultrashort laser pulses. It took me about three years to stop apologizing for doing applied science, alongside fundamental studies. At one point, though, I realized that the work I had been dismissing as “funding my basic science habit” was really delivering valuable impact for real people.
My definition of success changed. Previously, success was limited to obtaining a fundamental understanding of how energy moves around in molecules, deep and thorough enough that it will be in textbooks. Now, I also derive satisfaction from using my expertise in light–matter interactions to create new technologies that do useful things like sort sperm by sex for the dairy industry (with lasers), evaluate the composition of milk in the dairy shed (with lasers), diagnose melanoma (with lasers) and so much more.
The fundamental science is still critical because I believe that without that grounding you don’t learn how to ask the right questions and answer them. I no longer apologize for our applied and entrepreneurial science, though—I embrace it.
What advice do you have for young scientists who are discouraged about their current work or career path?
I’m a firm believer in living your values. Before I got tenure in the United States, I got lots of advice about publishing, focusing on my research, tricks to get more citations, expending the bare minimum on teaching and so forth. One former department chair advised me to volunteer for a big job like graduate student recruiting and do it badly so I wouldn’t get asked to do anything again. That approach goes against the grain for me. The academics I admire are more balanced, and they do excellent research while being excellent teachers and mentors and providing strong service and leadership.
“My advice is to live your values. Changing your path is not failing, it’s moving forward.”—Cather Simpson
That period of my career taught me that even if I’m discouraged and feel like I’m failing, if I’m being true to my values then I’m on the right path. So sometimes when I’m feeling overwhelmed, unsuccessful and like everything I’m doing is failing, I will look at my to-do list with a critical eye and ask—am I doing what I believe in? If the answer is “No, I’m not,” then it's time to change what I’m doing.
One of my team members quit her job as a highly paid engineer at one of our startups to become an outdoor expedition–type counselor for young people. Another got an M.Sc. in physics and then became a high school teacher. A Ph.D. graduate went to law school to become a patent lawyer. Another has just stepped onto the academic path with a lecturer position at Oxford University, UK. They each made the right choice, for them. My advice is to live your values. Changing your path is not failing, it’s moving forward.
What is one piece of advice that you wish you were given as a student/early in your career?
I wish someone had told me to do fewer things, but do each one of them better. Sometimes, I said yes because I was flattered to be asked and didn’t want to let people down because I was the only woman and that felt like a responsibility. None of those are good reasons to agree to do something.
Along the way, I got a couple of pieces of good advice that really helped here. The first is to wait 24 hours before answering a request to do something. For me, the waiting period allows those less-rational responses to abate, and I can look more logically at whether the activity is something that aligns with my values and is something I think I can do well.
“I wish someone had told me to do fewer things, but do each one of them better.”—Cather Simpson
The second is to never say yes without deciding what activity in my current portfolio I will stop in order to accommodate the new time commitment. It’s got to be something that makes me knock something else of out my commitment list. I can’t say I never get overcommitted or agree to do things I wish I hadn’t, but it’s less often and less stressful when I do.
If you weren’t in the sciences, what would be your dream career?
I am not built for my dream career, which was to be a professional basketball player. I played point guard and really loved the grace and physicality of the game, and how much fast thinking and precise execution mattered. I also loved the team aspect, but I’m short and wasn’t talented enough. Sigh. I so very badly wanted to “be like Mike!”
Over the last five years or so, I’ve been sitting on boards in addition to my “day job” as a physics professor. Sitting on a board suits my point-guard style, actually. I like helping to set up the play, maybe passing the ball and then cheering when someone else scores, and that’s kind of what a director of a company or institution does.
If I couldn’t be a scientist today, I think I’d continue to grow as a director but would also give a try at becoming a writer. There’s a series of short stories I’ve been thinking about writing, and then maybe move into novels.