About Dr Emma WilliamsThe researcher development consultant who has worn the lab coat
I design and deliver bespoke workshops, programmes and coaching for researchers and the universities that support them. Built for you every time, never off the shelf.
The Dr is in physics: a degree, a PhD and a postdoc in MRI, all at Cambridge. Since 2002 I've spent 24 years in researcher development, starting by building the University of Cambridge's researcher development programme in its early days. Researchers are too talented to be stuck, and I'm determined to gift the world the brightest and best.
- 24 years in researcher development
- Four books on research careers
- 400+ women through UNIque
- Physicist, coach, LEGO Serious Play facilitator
Who I work with
Researchers, and the people who develop them
Researchers in the driving seat of their careers, and the people who want that for them too.
If you develop researchers
You're a stretched researcher developer with a programme to run, a budget to defend and researchers who deserve the best. I'm the partner who gets it right without needing to be managed: workshops, leadership programmes, coaching, facilitation and evaluation, designed around your researchers and your brief.
If you're a researcher
You might be finishing a PhD, mid-way through a postdoc or applying for a lectureship, with a contract clock, a fellowship call or a decision you keep putting off. I was a postdoc myself. I know the crossroads from the inside, and I have no stake in whether you stay or go.
Why I do this
Our world needs researchers in every sphere
They're super literate, super numerate, problem solving, project managing warriors.
Researchers who take their careers through research masters and PhDs are deep experts and qualified problem solvers. Postdocs then turn the dial to max. Their careers are vocational and seldom straightforward, and the journey to proactive, positive careers takes a passionate advocate.
That's where I come in. My purpose is to gift the world the brightest and best, inside academia and far beyond it.
My story
From a very large magnet to the empty white space
I'd wanted to be a scientist since around age 4. Fast forward 24 years and I'd been there, worn the lab coat.
Physics at Cambridge, then a PhD and postdoc in MRI. I was the MRI physicist at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, at the end of neurointensive care, so the lab coat was often scrubs. Very practical when you're climbing the magnet for a helium fill.
Three years into my postdoc, pregnant with my first child, I broke my ankle at 34 weeks. Six weeks of sitting still made me face it: I'd become what I set out to be, and the postdoc had given me all it could. I made that decision alone, tethered by sunk costs, my expectations, other people's expectations and my physicist identity.
Researcher developers often say "I fell into this career"
So did I. In 2002 an advert to train PhD students took me somewhere completely different. There was no support for someone like me, so I made a career in that empty white space. My old research boss called it turning to the dark side.
At Cambridge I went from ad hoc teaching skills trainer to Graduate Development Programme Lead, then co-Head of Academic Development. Universities are complex, bonkers places. But I love them.
- 2008
In a committee room during a reorganisation, a speaker said "we come to work because we love it". I'd built great programmes for researchers, but promotion had taken me into management and paperwork, far from the coalface. It wasn't where the joy was.
- 2009
I went solo, to work directly with researchers and the people who support them. It was harder than I thought.
- 2014
I joined Sharon Gaskin's Trainer Talk community, and finally became a business owner rather than a trainer on my own. My own development has been built into the business ever since.
- Now
24 years in researcher development, working with universities, research institutes and funders across the UK and beyond.
How I work
Your challenge, the right tools
I take the challenge you bring and solve it with whichever tools fit the occasion. A broad toolkit means I can be flexible and responsive, and intuitive in the moment when it's needed.
The Researcher Canvas
A visual tool to explore your research and career.
Peak to Peak
A career model focusing on moving on at the right time: from peak to peak, avoiding the plateau and, at all costs, the plummet.
The Thinking Environment
Nancy Kline's approach, built on a belief I share: universities should be places where everyone can do their best thinking.
LEGO Serious Play
Hands do the thinking: everyone builds their answer in bricks, so every voice in the room is heard, not just the loudest.
Also in the kit: Belbin Team Roles and MBTI (I'm accredited in both), White-Space Mapping and FOAM. I'm an ILM Level 7 Executive Coach, a certified LEGO Serious Play facilitator, and working towards certified Time to Think Facilitator.
What I stand for
Three values, in practice
Values only count if you can see them in how someone works.
Trusted by universities
What my university partners say
The three things researcher developers ask before they book, answered by people who book me.
"Emma brings deep subject knowledge to her work, and her background in STEM and Physics enables her to relate authentically to the experiences of our women in STEM participants. She is a trusted and valued partner."
"This is our most popular programme, consistently oversubscribed, and it boasts an exceptional retention rate of over 80%, a figure that is virtually unheard of in the current climate."
"Materials provided as well, which was amazing. Emma was so on top of everything I had minimal input!"
Universities and organisations I've worked with include King's College London, Queen Mary University of London, Imperial College London, UCL, the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, York, Bath, Exeter and Surrey, Cardiff University, Edinburgh Napier University, Queen's University Belfast, the University of Strathclyde, the Open University, the White Rose University Consortium, Lancaster's Envision DTP, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Babraham Institute, STFC, UKHSA, the British Academy, Cancer Research UK, the Physiological Society, Politecnico di Milano and CWI Amsterdam.
Books and bricks
The substance behind the bricks
Creative in the room, with the experience to back it up.
Four books
- What Every Postdoc Needs to Know (with Liz Elvidge and Carol Spencely), which the University of Oxford's Careers Service calls "the postdoc bible"
- The UNIque Guide for Women, an Amazon bestseller
- Leaving Academia, an Amazon bestseller, highlighted by Nature as one of nine career guides for researchers and a Business Book Awards 2025 finalist
- Get That Fellowship with the Researcher Canvas
Recognition and writing
- Inspirational Women in STEM and Construction Award, 2025
- Coach on the British Academy Elevate Leadership Programme
- Featured in Nature, and a Nature careers webcast for early career scientists
- Writing for Times Higher Education, including "Is the 'sunk cost fallacy' sinking your career?", plus Entrepreneur and CEOWORLD magazine
"Emma mentioned some skills and experiences I wasn't considering them to be useful in the application."
"As a result, I feel much more confident about the steps I need to take to shape my career."
"Emma was brilliant - clear explanations and very engaging."
Beyond the labels
Emma in 10
Coach. Coffee lover. Author. Archer. Puzzler. Physicist. Labels can't fully describe the UNIque you or me, but here are ten.
Academic credentials (because, uni)
Natural Sciences at Cambridge, specialising in physics, then a PhD in medical physics specialising in MRI. The second was much more fun than the first.
Science in pyjamas
I wore scrubs during my postdoc at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre. Science in pyjamas with a very large magnet.
The dark side
Cambridge was also home to my professional services career, developing everyone from graduate students to academics. My old research boss called it "turning to the dark side".
Bricks, seriously
I'm a certified LEGO Serious Play facilitator. Same magic every time when hands start doing the thinking hands know how to do.
Coach
I'm a qualified ILM Level 7 executive coach. My dissertation asked whether "executive" was a good word in HE circles!
No I in team
I'm accredited in Belbin Team Roles and MBTI. Profiling can be great data to unlock career puzzles with.
Bestseller
Four books, two of them Amazon bestsellers: The UNIque Guide for Women and Leaving Academia.
The house of nerd
Three "grown up" sons, a mathematician husband (Richard Williams PhD, to go with Emma Williams PhD, naturally), five chickens and two house rabbits, Gimli and Aragorn.
Hawkeye / Katniss
I'm an archer. I shoot recurve and, more recently, longbow. My longbow is called Joy. I made her. I also coach beginners at my club.
Jigsaw addict
As a child I loved jigsaws so much my parents kept having to buy bigger ones. Now I'm experimenting with speed puzzling. Patterns and shapes coming together is a picture of how my brain works.
Not ready to talk yet?
Start where you are
Free resources, books and one-to-one coaching, from a few minutes to an hour.
Thinking of leaving academia?
A short quiz to help you see where you are, and which way you're leaning.
The books
Four books for researchers and the people who support them, on fellowships, postdoc life and moving on.
Your Next Move
One hour of career coaching, just between us. You leave knowing your next move and why it's yours.
Let's talk
Put your researchers in the driving seat of their careers
Tell me what you're trying to do for your researchers this year.
In 30 minutes we'll work out whether I'm the right partner and what it could look like. Bespoke, built around your researchers, never a script.
