Brighouse to (almost) Brigus. A first generation, working class students journey from small town Yorkshire to MUN Department Head.

Dr. Mark Berry
Head and Professor
Department of Biochemistry

Date: October, 3 2024
Time: 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. 
Room: CSF 1302

Abstract:

How did your professors end up as University Faculty? Why did they come to MUN? Why did they choose their particular career path? Presumably they were all “straight A” students. The answers to these questions are highly variable and unique to each professor. This seminar is the first in a series of talks that will be scattered through the regular seminar series and explore how your HuBi professors ended up here. For the first one Dr. Berry will share his personal education and career path going from his childhood small industrial hometown (that Newfoundland’s Brigus is named after) to being a first generation University student in peak Thatcher years, and eventually joining MUN as the Head of Biochemistry in 2014. His journey passes through a polytechnic (post-92 University); the Canadian prairies; the US midwest; a biopharma company; unemployment; pharmacology, psychiatry, chemistry, and toxicology departments; and a 1-year “precarious” contract position, with occasional detours through the backstreets of mental health. To finish the seminar, Dr. Berry will briefly answer the question “Just what does a Department Head do on a sabbatical”.