Faces of Reading

I have been teaching pharmacy students since the Reading School of Pharmacy was established, with our first intake of less than 50 students in 2005. Now I am very happy to see how it developed into a very successful department delivering many undergraduate and postgraduate programs with several hundred students each year. 

Currently, I am Professor of Formulation Science and I teach undergraduate and postgraduate students and also contribute to the Graduate School with a course on ‘How to write a paper’. In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I supervise a large and very interdisciplinary research group, which includes postgraduate students and researchers from many countries. I am also a Programme Director for MSc by Research for 3 different programmes in Pharmacy and in this role, I oversee the delivery of teaching to our taught postgraduate students. 

I widely collaborate with researchers from many countries, which means that each year I travel to different institutions to deliver lectures, conduct joint experiments and attend research conferences and meetings. I am glad that the University of Reading provides a flexible working environment that helps to manage all my academic activities, including teaching, research, administration, and visits to collaborators in many countries. 

I grew up in the rural countryside of Taiwan. Though Taiwan is known for its democracy and LGBTQ rights, Taiwan was more traditional 25 years ago. Since I was little, I was unfairly mistreated by my elementary school teachers due to my family background and personality traits. Seeing my teachers conduct themselves in this way made me want to become a teacher so that I could bring a better and positive energy towards my students. As a kid, I even told myself, one day, when I become a good teacher, I would replace a bad teacher, so this world can become a better place. 

In 2013, I embarked on my PhD journey in Finance at the Australian National University (ANU). Following this, I was appointed as a Lecturer in Real Estate Finance at Henley Business School. I am committed to continual improvement as a passionate educator and researcher at Henley Business School. One of my teaching philosophies is to ensure that we create a safe, happy, and inclusive environment for our students to study. I believe that each of our students has their potential and I aim to help them reach their potential.  has helped me reach my current role as Deputy Director of Studies for Real Estate and Planning. 

As an early career researcher, I have so many new things to learn. In additional to the academic support from my mentor, many of my colleagues provide me with helpful guidance and support to develop my research and teaching profiles.  

The University of Reading values diversity and inclusion. In my department, the members of staff are from around the globe including Argentina, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, UK, US and more. I enjoy working in this diverse environment and being part of this community and network indeed gives me a chance to develop international collaboration. I highly recommend Reading for either study or work!

For example, there are days when I work at home so I can pick up my five-year-old son from school. My electric car cuts down on carbon emissions but unfortunately not on travel time; I still have at least an hour-long commute each way, so being able to work from home on certain days really helps to fit everything in.

There’s a lot of support for doing things differently at the University, and from my mentor and manager. In addition to flexible working, I also benefit from interdisciplinary research interactions through my work with the Centre for Past Climate Change, and I’m co-chair of the Equality and Diversity Committee in the School of Mathematical, Physical, and Computational Science.

Read more about flexible working in the School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences.

It's particularly satisfying to make a custom piece of glassware for researchers and get involved in the design process, which can involve multiple iterations to achieve a successful result.

I've got a very friendly working environment. Diversity and inclusion is something the University wholeheartedly embraces, which is great.

I'm asexual and have been involved in visibility work for AVEN (the Asexual Visibility and Education Network), of which I'm a member. This has involved TV and radio appearances, and contributing to newspaper and magazine articles.

When the University was applying to become a Stonewall Diversity Champion, I went to meetings to raise awareness of the asexual community. This resulted in the Staff and RUSU LGBTQIA+ organisations holding an Asexual Awareness Week, to which I was happy to contribute.

Asexual people are thought to make up about 1% of the population, which means there could be somewhere between 30 and 40 asexual people working at the University, even more in the student population.

I think it's important there's visibility for asexual people, and those who think they may be asexual, in particular, to have someone to talk to who is asexual.