On 5 July, MQ Mental Health Research invites you to join us in celebrating Research Appreciation Day – a day to honour how important research is. In the run up to the day, we’re celebrating a few of our recent research fellows to show you the wonderful humans behind the data.
Research Appreciation Day – Introducing Dr Moritz Herle
Name: Dr Moritz Herle, MQ 2022 Fellow, Kings College London, UK
Career Background: Research
Currently researching: Eating disorders, obesity and method development
What drew you to your field of research?
My research focusses on anything related to eating, such as eating behaviours, obesity and eating disorders.
One thing that drew me into this area is the universality of the topic. Food and eating are integral part to all of our lives, and I enjoy studying a topic that is relatable to everyone.
Who is your hero in research?
One of my research heroes is Professor Jane Wardle. She was one of my PhD supervisors, but sadly passed away in 2015.
Apart from her outstanding scientific leadership across a very wide range of topics, she also always demonstrated that research should be fun and her never ending curiosity remains a big inspiration of mine.
What’s the day-to-day life of working in research like?
In research, every day is different as tasks in research are incredibly various.
Different things I do might be day-to-day management of research projects, data analysis (debugging code, trying to decipher online statistical forums), student supervision and pastoral support, reviewing other researchers’ work, marking essays, preparing lecture slides for teaching, running focus groups with patients and participants, and brainstorming new ideas for future grant applications.
Tell us about your 2022 Fellows programme research – we’d love to know more!
I feel very privileged that MQ is supporting my MQ fellows project aiming to understand why people with lived experience of an eating disorder are at greater risk of self-harm and suicide.
This project is very important to me. Eating disorders remain the least understood and least funded psychiatric illness, even though they can be very tough for people and their families and friends.
What do you wish people understood about research?
I think many people still think that researchers are lone wolves that sit by themselves in an office and think.
In reality, research is very much team-based work with different people with different expertise working together, discussing and not always agreeing with each other.
Find out more about Research Appreciation Day.
