Professor Emeritus Peter Hogg

What do you do in your current role/area of expertise?

I retired in 2020 and on retirement I was Professor of Radiography. Prior to retirement in my last job, I undertook the following roles throughout my career:

Research Dean for Health and Society – leadership role.

Collaborative research with clinical centres into 1. Breast cancer diagnosis and 2. Optimisation of dose and image quality in x-ray imaging; I published journal papers, books and presented conference papers.

I taught on BSc Radiography, various computer courses and MSc Nuclear Medicine. I supervised PhDs. I had various professional roles outside of the University of Salford, doing things with and for the Society and College of Radiographers (SCoR), European Federation Radiographer Societies (EFRS), European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), and was an honorary member of four universities (e.g. Visiting Professor – Netherlands). The work involved quite a bit of travel abroad.  I often worked about 60 hours a week, on average, but only paid for 40 as many will know overtime isn’t paid in academic roles.

What steps did you take to get to this role?

I first made the decision to go into education while training as a radiographer between ages of 18 and 21.

As I progressed in my early career while working at a research institute between the ages of 24 and 28, I made the decision to make research a major part of my work.

The steps I took to get into education and research are as follows:

Immediately after qualifying at 21, I undertook training / courses in radiation protection and nuclear medicine (I had qualifications in these by the time I was 24).

Between 24 and 28 years of age, I completed a clinical teaching certificate and a general teaching qualification (which I completed in my own time at night school).

At 24 and with the support of my clinical line manager, I started teaching on the nuclear medicine course at the Middlesex Hospital; I also took on the informal role of teaching any students and staff who visited the nuclear medicine research institute.

At 29 years old I took on a part time job of teaching in a school of radiography for 3 days a week; at the same time I had a clinical role for 3 days week.

By 33 I had acquired a BSc and two further general teaching qualifications (night school).

At 31 years old, I gained my first full time lecturer position.

Between the ages of 32 and 36, I completed another general teaching qualification and a philosophy research degree in computing.

By 36 my job had become teaching and research, and it was heavy going; it was more than a full-time job (but I loved it immensely!).

What support did you have along the way or would have been helpful to have had?

I have had a number of people be key in supporting my early career.  This included a  Physicist mentor between the ages of 21 and 24. I was very fortunate to have a succession of supportive line managers who supported my interest in education whilst in clinical practice. I also had close involvement with the British Nuclear Medicine Society (BNMS) and SCoR who were very supportive of me and gave me opportunities to contribute nationally and develop as a professional.

I would have liked more ‘employer time’ to study as a high amount of my studying was in my own time. I also would have liked more mentors as my career progressed.

What is the most rewarding thing about your role?

The most rewarding aspects of my role has been making a positive difference to patients and student lives as well as the lives of radiographers – notably through teaching and research.

What advice can you give to others who might want to work towards this role or follow a similar pathway?

Get a suitable mentor to help guide you. Whilst I had a mentor in my very early career, I didn’t really find another one to help me as my career progressed.  I suspect I did far too much to get to where I wanted to get, meaning I used huge amounts of my personal life to do this.

Not everybody might be willing or able to devote such a large amount of their personal life to get to where they want to be and having a mentor can help you to focus on what you want to do, and how to get to where you want to be. This is something which I tried to help others with; by the time I was 39 and until my retirement I had many mentees, helping others to develop their teaching/research/academic careers.