CV – Siri Leknes’ Accomplishments & failures

Positions

Professor of Social and Affective Neuroscience
  • I unsuccessfully applied for at least four tenured positions in my department before I got this one in 2016
  • Norway doesn’t typically use a tenure track system, so you just have to try to stay funded through project grants until it’s your ‘turn’ to get a tenured job
Postdoctoral positions (2008-2016)
  • I chose to postdoc in Oslo to be near my family for the last years of my mothers life
  • I experienced a large adademic culture shock upon arrival in Oslo, and missed the thriving research environment of my D.Phil at FMRIB enormously
Dept. Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway
  • When invited to give a public job talk for my position, I was on leave with 6-week-old twin babies.
  • Despite working in the public sector of one of the world’s most family friendly countries, I did not dare risk asking for my job talk to be postponed until I had fully recovered from childbirth.
Universities of Gothenburg and Oslo
  • My first postdoc in Oslo was a complete disaster and it took years to recovery the confidence I lost during nine months with a bad mentor
  • I will forever be grateful to Håkan Olausson who gave me a job in Gothenburg and allowed me to ‘commute’ there once a month whilst remaining close to my family in Oslo