From Genetics to Pedagogy: A Career Journey From Research Scientist to Educational Leadership
Session description and aim
This session traces my move from developmental genetics to educational leadership, and what that shift taught me about applying research habits to teaching, assessment and institutional change. I trained as a geneticist, studying how genes orchestrate the development of complex organisms, before moving into programme leadership and, eventually, into educational research and Brunel's first education-focused professorship. It's a story about specific choices, dead ends and the slow accumulation of experiences that shaped the journey, and about what carries over from bench science to leading change in a university.
Short biography
Dave Tree is Professor and Vice-Dean Education in the College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences and the first person at Brunel promoted to professor on the education-focused pathway. He trained originally as a developmental geneticist before moving into programme leadership and later into educational leadership and research. His current work centres on Integrated Programme Assessment, authentic assessment and assessment validity in the age of GenAI. He founded the IPA Network (IPAN), a QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project, and holds a Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, awarded in 2026.
Aims & Objectives
Aim: to give colleagues in academic development an honest account of one non-linear route into educational leadership and research, grounded in specific decisions rather than a tidy narrative arc.
Objective: by the end of the session, participants will be able to recognise habits of mind from research practice that transfer usefully into educational development work, and will have had a chance to think through their own career story.
This session is particularly relevant for colleagues considering their own career pathways and in supporting the career development of others.