What can you do with a PhD from the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University? Find out here with news of four former PhD students who graduated between 2018 and 2020.

Two of our graduates now work for the Scottish Government: Dr John Mowbray (graduated 2018) and Dr Lyndsey Middleton (graduated in 2020).

• John is a Social Researcher in the Social Security Directorate. His research and evaluation work supports the development of low-income benefit policies such as the Scottish Government’s flagship Scottish Child Payment. John undertakes primary research and manages commissioned research projects. He also contributes to policy colleagues e.g. to help answer parliamentary questions, ministerial correspondence, and freedom of information requests. Prior to joining the Scottish Government, John worked in research roles for the NHS and the University of Glasgow.
• Lyndsey works as a Senior Assistant Statistician in the Evidence and Reporting Team of the National Performance Framework Unit. The National Performance Framework sets out aspirations for the well-being of Scotland’s population. Lyndsey is responsible for updating 81 National Indicators to measure performance across 11 National Outcomes. Lyndsey also supports work on the development of National Indicators. In addition, Lyndsey leads some projects related to data improvement and the presentation of information and evidence used, and reported on, in the National Performance Framework. There is also some exciting personal news from Lyndsey: she and her husband are expecting a baby in March 2023.

Dr Iris Buunk (graduated 2020) has moved on from her community engagement and comms role at LIBER and has recently been appointed Director of Scientific Information at the Universities of Applied Science in Western Switzerland (HES-SO), in Geneva. In this role Iris will facilitate the harmonisation and sharing of resources held by the 27 libraries of HES-SO, and this federation’s scientific information. She will be also taking over the management of scientific information at the HES-SO, located within the Information Science department of Haute Ecole de Gestion (HEG), Genève. There is further information about Iris’ new job in an announcement on the HEG web pages.

Like the others in her cohort, Dr Frances Ryan (graduated 2019) left Edinburgh Napier University after she completed her doctoral study. She held two post-doctoral researcher posts between 2019 and 2021; one was at the University of Dundee and then other at the University of Aberdeen. Last academic year, however, Frances returned to Edinburgh Napier University to embark on a career as a lecturer and – once again – join the Centre for Social Informatics. Since then Frances has been involved in teaching and research, including a project on the use of e-health tools and online information in the self-management of chronic illness.

Lyndsey Middleton, Iris Buunk, and Frances Ryan – still PhD students in 2016