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2025 International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Dr Deborah Vickers

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Could you explain what your job title is?

I am a principal research associate, which means I lead a research team and our goal is to use neuroscience techniques to help improve the hearing outcomes of people using hearing devices.   

What you do on a day-to-day basis?


Day to day, I work with my research team on a mixture of different research activities with children and adults. We make brain measurements to understand how people hear and run different listening and communication experiments – including using virtual reality headsets.

We are also in the process of setting up a master’s course, starting in October this year, so have been working on that. We are currently recruiting for this, so have been dealing with applicants and are generally preparing to get everything off the ground for when it starts.   

Another part of what I do is work policymakers, to try to make sure the research we’re doing is relevant for the NHS and to make the pathway through more streamlined. I also help NHS England with various things, for example, there is a National Registry for Hearing Implants that we are setting up with clinicians and patients and we are in the process of getting off the ground.

Overall, I do a mixture of research, presenting at conferences, teaching, writing and reading papers, management and engaging with policymakers.   

What is the hightlight of your job?


I think the hightlight is when we are successful in achieving our goals. If we can see that something we’ve implemented is actually having a positive effect on people’s lives, that is a real boost.  It’s also a highlight to work collaboratively with patients and clinicians to ensure our research is translated appropriately and when we receive positive feedback from that – it’s a real highlight!  

Could you outline how you got into this career?


Yes -I’ve had a bit of an unusual career pathway. From my state school, I went to do a degree in speech science, which is related to speech and language therapy. After that, I went into speech, hearing and language research. I took a couple of different research positions, as I wasn’t sure exactly which direction I wanted to go in and ended up doing a PhD part time alongside my work.  

I then moved to a position in industry, as the European Clinical Trials Manager for a cochlear implant company. Cochlear implants are devices for people with severe to profound deafness; they are an electrode that goes into the ear to help with hearing.  I worked in lots of different countries, helping with research and enabling research into improving device and assessment outcomes, which was really interesting. 

I then moved back into the field of academia by taking a lectureship at University College London. I worked in the hearing, audiology and speech and language therapy departments, with various professionals, and taught research methods and statistics and advances in hearing devices.    When an opportunity for some funding arose, I approached Manohar Bance, who is a Professor in the Clinical Neurosciences department at the University of Cambridge and we decided it was a great opportunity to strengthen the Cambridge Hearing Research profile. The funding was for a Medical Research Council senior fellowship designed specifically for people in hearing research to set up and lead a new lab in a new place. So that’s basically what brought me to Cambridge!  


In 2019, I established a research group, the SOUND (Sensory Optimisation Using Neuroscience for Devices) and initially did a lot of research, but since then, my role has migrated a bit and I now do some teaching and policy work as well.  

Can we find out more about any mentors that particularly inspired you?


Throughout my career journey, even from the early stages at school, there have been women in senior positions who went out of their way to offer encouragement. Such individuals play an important role in helping you to believe in yourself and providing a role model to aspire to. 

At University, I was inspired by a few women, particularly those who took time to enable others to develop.  I have also been mentored by two peer women scientists who offered great advice to help make positive and beneficial decisions that helped with career development. I now do the same for other women scientists in similar positions.


When I was in industry, there were some really influential women who were leading different departments and again, their approach was that of helping others, mentoring and offering encouragement The best approach for enabling people to achieve their goals. 

What challenges / difficulties have you faced as a female researcher?


There were definitely times, in the early stages, where I found it quite difficult. When I started out, the field was dominated by men, and it could be a bit intimidating.  I think the balance has changed a bit more nowadays and there is certainly a more even distribution of men and women.  It’s good to point out that as well as having supportive female mentors, there’ve also been male mentors who have been encouraging and supporting. Actually, a lot of them have had the attitude that it makes a no difference whether you are a man or a woman, it’s about your ability, which I think is obviously very valuable as well. I think the attitude of those around you can make a big difference.  

At the point I worked in Industry it was more balanced than academia and this changed my perspective, so when I returned back to academia, it made me realise that there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be more women working in the field.  Back then, there definitely weren’t so many women who had reached more senior levels but thankfully this is changing… 

Would you say it was valuable, gaining experience in both academia and industry?


Yes – they’re very different perspectives and that’s been very valuable. I think a lot of people who go into academia feel that if you go to industry, you can’t come back, which is not the case. I’ve spoken to a few postdoc groups, to express that you can chose to work in industry for a period of time and that experience is very valuable even if you decide to return to academia, in fact it is often beneficial.. For example, in my job, where I do a lot of translational research, actually linking with industry and understanding how it works has been a really important and valuable resource.  

To conclude, how important is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science?


I think it’s very important to realise that there’s actually a positive move to encourage girls and young women to consider a career in science. It also raises awareness of all those working in the field of science and technology and reminds them to think about inclusion of women and consideration of them in the workplace. I think nowadays attitudes are starting to change and people are thinking about whether we need to adapt and be flexible in our working practice.  Therefore, showing young women that actually the whole field of Science and Technology is considering how we can accommodate different working practices, adapt and consider they ways in which we work, is a positive thing.    

The NIHR Cambridge BRC is part of the NIHR and hosted by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with the University of Cambridge. We are at the heart of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Europe’s largest health research area.

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Happy #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience
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11 Feb

Happy #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience
For this global celebration of women in science, we interviewed 3 women from our Cambridge BRC. Look out for Jo McPeake's interview on our website in the coming days
@CUH_NHS @Cambridge_Uni @NIHRresearch @UNESCO @WomenScienceDay

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cambridgebrc NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre @cambridgebrc ·
11 Feb

Happy #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience
To celebrate this global day, we interviewed three women from our Cambridge BRC. Look out for Deborah's full interview on our website in the coming days..
@CUH_NHS @Cambridge_Uni @NIHRresearch @BEARS_CI @UNESCO @WomenScienceDay

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