In the sixth and final episode of The Last few miles: planning for the late stage career in science, Julie Gould unpicks some of the generational tensions that can arise in academia when a colleague approaches retirement.

Inger Mewburn, who leads research and development training at the Australian National University in Canberra, tells her: “There’s a fine line between being around and being valued, to being around and kind of being a pain in the ass and no one will tell you to go away.”

Gould also talks to scientists who, despite reaching retirement age, continue to engage with younger colleagues, enjoying positive interactions at conferences and co-authoring papers.

They include Heather Middleton, who started trawling England’s Jurassic Coast in her 60s, looking for specimens that might lead to a deeper understanding of palaeontology. Middleton, who is approaching her 80th birthday, taught science in schools and colleges, and in retirement balances her fossil-hunting, (and the collaboration opportunities it brings), with family holidays, grandchildren, friends and Tai Chi. “It’s a great balance, which I hope other retiring scientists will be able to enjoy such opportunities that I’ve had,” she says.

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The list of things to organize as retirement from academia approaches can feel daunting. In the fourth episode of The last few miles, a six-part podcast series about the late career stage in science, researchers talk about health, housing and financial planning.

Carol Shoshkes Reiss, an immunologist at New York University, explains how her institution assigns individual wealth managers to advise on retirement investments and budgeting.

Inger Mewburn, who leads researcher training at the Australian National University in Canberra, chose a private accountant to manage her finances, who probes not only her approach to risk around investments, but also potential retirement dates and her income expectations.

Entomologist Matan Shelomi, associate professor at the National Taiwan University in Taipei and originally a citizen of the United States, describes how he has had to amend his retirement plans as an expat academic.

Gerontologist Stacey Gordon works with Shoshkes Reiss at New York University as part of a personalised program to support individuals with the mental and social aspects of their retirement, helping colleagues to find purpose and meaning in retirement.

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The idea that retirement marks the end of employment and the beginning of a life of leisure is one that many academics feel is outdated.

Roger Baldwin, a retired researcher of higher education at Michigan State University in East Lansing and chair of the US Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE), a membership organization based in Los Angeles, California, describes it instead as “an open ended period after one’s main professional employment that has almost infinite potential opportunities” — academic or otherwise.

Some take on the role of an emeritus professor, an honorary title that grants the holder continued involvement with their university. Shirley Tilghman, a molecular biologist and emeritus professor at Princeton University in New Jersey, continues to serve on university boards and advise on science policy.

Carlos García Canal, a physicist at the University of La Plata in Argentina, took the emeritus title after forced retirement 15 years ago (aged 65) so that he could continue teaching at the institution.

An alternative option for academics is an adjunct professorship, which human molecular biologist and geneticist Juergen Reichardt selected. It enables him to continue in a research role at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia.

It can be difficult deciding whether to continue with a role in academia after retiring or to switch to something different. Health and family considerations can have a big impact on this decision. As Baldwin explains, it can be hard to balance the freedom and flexibility offered by retirement with continued academic commitments.

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In the final episode of this seven-part series about mentoring, Ruth Gotian and Christine Pfund outline their hopes for post-pandemic mentoring and the changing nature of other collaborative relationships in scientific research.

As lockdowns took hold and mentoring sessions went online, many conversations moved beyond workplace topics and led to honest exchanges about work-life balance for the first time, they say.

The most successful relationships were ones where mentors led by example by showing their own vulnerabilities as they juggled home schooling, running labs, and trying to publish, they add.

“The pandemic opened an opportunity for us to talk about what’s happening in our home life in a way that had never happened before,” says Pfund, a senior scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Gotian, chief learning officer and assistant professor of education in anaesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, anticipates a future where early career researchers cast their net more widely when selecting mentors.

“I think the pool of mentors has expanded exponentially, because we can easily and comfortably look outside of our department, outside of our institution and outside of our industryNo longer do we have to meet in person,” she says.

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Reverse mentoring, peer-to-peer, group sessions. Choose one or more to tackle a tough career transition.

Andy Morris, employability mentoring manager at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, describes himself as a professional Cupid, connecting students who are seeking careers in industry with mentors who can help them achieve their goals.

He tells Julie Gould how the employability mentors he works with in industry differ from the employer mentoring offered to researchers when they join an organization or take on a new role.

Lucia Prieto-Gordino joined a mentoring programme after becoming a group leader at the Francis Crick Institute in London in 2018.

“You unavoidably encounter situations that you have never encountered before. And your mentor is there to help you navigate those situations with their experience,” she says.

And Carol Zuegner, an associate professor of journalism at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, describes the reverse mentoring sessions held with former students to help her navigate the digital age.

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