In July 2023, Zen Faulkes took on the position of DORA Program Director. Read DORA’s welcoming announcement here. For more information about his background and passion for DORA’s mission read his opening statement below:
Hello! I’m Zen Faulkes, and I began as DORA’s Program Director at the start of July.
Before I say anything about myself, I want to thank Haley Hazlett, who served as Acting Program Director for many months while this job search was being conducted. She not only kept the boat afloat, as they say, but was able to steer it and keep it sailing towards the organization’s goals. Haley has now stepped back to the role of DORA’s Program Manager and DORA is now operating at full power for the first time in a while!
Before joining DORA, I took a very traditional academic career path. I made it to the rank of tenured full professor at a university. I did all the things professors usually do: teach students, publish papers, and sit on committees. My scientific work is in comparative biology, mostly working with crustaceans, like crabs and crayfish.
But throughout my university career, I was also always interested in “how researchers do things” – a field that is sometimes called “science of science” or “metascience.” I wrote about things like conference posters, authorship disputes, and tracked academic hoaxes alongside my technical work. My interest in these kinds of issues led me to apply to this position at DORA.
DORA is an organization for academics, particularly early career academics. These are my people. I saw in DORA an opportunity where I could help my colleagues in a way that maybe I couldn’t as a professor.
Since joining the organization, I have learned a lot, been in a lot of video calls, and started meeting many people interested in research assessment. We are going to try a lot of new things, and I am very excited to share what we at DORA have in store.
But forgive me if I save some of those announcements for future posts. 😉
-Zen Faulkes
We are very excited to welcome Zen as the new DORA Program Director and look forward to seeing all he contributes to DORA.
