Webinar: Postdoc to PI: Building the Foundation for an Independent Career
Wednesday 1st October, 3:00-4:00pm (BST), with Dr Sam Booker from the University of Edinburgh
Is your goal to lead your own lab?
If you're a PhD student or postdoc with ambitions of becoming a Principal Investigator, knowing how to prepare can be just as important as the goal itself.
In the second session of our Postdoc to PI series in partnership with the British Neuroscience Association, Dr Sam Booker (University of Edinburgh) shares practical insights on building the foundation for an independent academic career. This session focuses on preparation - developing the mindset, skills, and strategies that will set you up for success when the time comes to apply for independent roles.
Wednesday 1st October 2025, 3:00-4:00pm (BST)
What you’ll learn
We’ll explore five essential pillars of academic independence, why they matter, and how to start building them now:
- Research - Sharpen your focus and define your niche
- Funding - Learn the systems and strategies early
- Teaching & Supervision - Gain leadership through experience
- Community Engagement - Build visibility and meaningful connections
- Work–Life Balance - Prioritise wellbeing for long-term success
Join us for expert guidance, actionable tips, and the opportunity to ask your questions directly to an experienced academic.
Help shape the conversation
We’ll be covering a range of key topics - from securing funding, navigating teaching and growing your community. Got something specific you want us to cover? Let us know when you register!
Save your spot
Get expert guidance you can actually use, straight from someone who’s done it - register you place today!
About Dr Sam Booker
Sam completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Edinburgh with an Honours Degree in Pharmacology in 2008. From there, he moved to the University of Glasgow to undertake a PhD in the laboratory of Imre Vida, carrying out a variety of whole-cell patch clamp recording techniques on hippocampal interneurons. In 2011, he relocated with the laboratory to Berlin to take up a three-year postdoctoral position at the Charité Universitätsmedizin, remaining in the laboratory of Imre Vida. During this time, he further studied the role of hippocampal and cortical interneurons in local microcircuit formation, using a combination of whole-cell recordings, calcium imaging, and GABA uncaging.
From 2014 to 2021, Sam was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh in the laboratories of Peter Kind and David Wyllie, with a primary focus on understanding synaptic mechanisms in the early brain that contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders. For this, the group established multiphoton imaging and uncaging combined with whole-cell and field recording.
In 2021, Sam was awarded a SIDB ESAT Fellowship to establish his own research group. The laboratory studies the fundamental mechanisms leading to plasticity of neurons in the developing brain, and how these are influenced by inhibitory signalling. For this, the group employs a combination of electrophysiology and neuroanatomy in cell and slice cultures, as well as acute brain slices from rodents and humans.
Dr Sam Booker, University of Edinburgh speaking at BNA 2025
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