In this episode of More Than Work, Rabiah sits down with Bhavana Solanky, a Senior Research Fellow and MRI Physicist at UCL's Queen Square MS Centre. Bhavana shares how a love of astrophysics — sparked by watching Armageddon as a teenager — led her to a career using physics to directly help people living with disease. She opens up about the role of MS patient involvement in shaping research, her family's deep-rooted culture of community service, and the values that guide both her science and her parenting. They also discuss AI's growing role in MRI, the challenges of raising digitally-native kids, Bhavana's unexpected new hobby of playing cricket, and her passionate commitment to inspiring the next generation of women in science.

00:00 Introduction to More Than Work

00:34 Meet Bhavana Solanky: MRI Physicist & Senior Research Fellow at UCL

01:45 What Is an MRI Physicist? The Camera Analogy Explained

03:22 15 Years at the Queen Square MS Centre: How She Got There

04:05 From Astrophysics to Medical Imaging: An Unexpected Journey

05:27 Joining UCL and Discovering the Power of MRI in MS

06:39 Rabiah Opens Up About Living with MS

08:03 Why Patient Involvement Matters in Research

10:29 AI in MRI: Reducing Noise, Boosting Accuracy & NHS Waiting Lists

17:07 Family Values: A Community-Minded Upbringing

20:27 Balancing Being a Scientist and a Mom

31:45 Learning Cricket (and Letting Her Kids Coach Her)

34:58 Women in Science: Breaking Stereotypes & Inspiring the Next Generation

39:56 Advice: Get Outside Your Comfort Zone

40:43 The Fun Five Questions

45:08 How to Connect with Bhavana

Note from Host:

I’m part of the MS Society UK’s Research Network which is a really cool opportunity to learn about upcoming research by working directly with researchers on their grant proposals, participating in focus groups and doing other things. When I met Bhavana on one of those calls, I was so curious about her because she was so “real” for a lack of a better word. And her research was so interesting, as much as I could understand it. I was so glad when she said she would join me on the pod. And what a journey she’s had really from looking at the stars to probably having seen the inside of my brain! Woah. I hope you enjoy listening and thanks for being here.

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Find Bhavana

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhavana-solanky/

Email: b dot solanky at ucl dot ac dot uk

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More than Work Social Media: @morethanworkpod (Facebook, Instagram) and @rabiahcomedy (TikTok)

Please review and follow anywhere you get podcasts. Thank you for listening. Have feedback? Email morethanworkpod(at)gmail.com!

This is More Than Work, the podcast reminding you that your self worth is

made up of more than your job title.

Each week I'll talk to a guest about how they discovered that for themselves.

You'll hear about what they did, what they're doing, and who they are.

I'm your host, Rabiah.

I work in IT, perform standup comedy, write, volunteer, and of course, podcast.

Thank you for listening.

Here we go.

Welcome back to More Than Work everyone.

So today my guest is Bavana.

She is a Senior Research Fellow, MRI Physicist at UCL.

And she's a mom, so we're gonna talk about all of that.

I actually met her through some work with the MS. Society UK and their Research

Network, and thought she was really awesome so, wanted to talk to her here.

I've not had an MRI physicist, nor did I even know it was a physicist, actually,

for a long time on the show before.

So, uh, Bhavana, um, first of all, welcome to More Than Work.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me on.

Yeah, I am excited to have you here.

So, uh, first of all, where am I talking to you from?

I am, um, over in London to southwest London, um, at home today.

Yeah,

Nice.

So you can yeah, be at home sometimes.

Sometimes you're in a lab, right?

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I'm not gonna try to explain your research.

Um, I don't think I'm a person to do that.

I can explain why you're doing the research, maybe, but not, not the

research, but yeah, so can you, first of all, like, I don't know if anyone

else would be surprised to hear like there's an MRI physicist, but can you

explain what that is first of all?

Okay, so my job's a bit like say, uh, when you have the old style of camera, you

have an SLR camera and you have to change things like your lens, whether you put a

flash on how you do your zoom, how much exposure you do, to get different types of

images and different types of scenarios.

So I'm similar with that with MRI.

So we use this big MRI machine.

For those of you that aren't familiar, you take images of anywhere in your body,

a bit like an x-ray, but it's more soft tissue, so, fat, muscle, brain, spinal

cords, all of those sorts of things.

And we take pictures inside the body.

But, uh, um, an MRI for this job is to, uh, take um, different pictures,

so to get different contrasts.

So you can see, for example, you can see the fluid in your brain or you

can see the tissue in your brain.

And, um, so you can highlight different things and get

different information that way.

So that's really cool then basically because different illnesses or

conditions can impact different parts of the brain, right?

Like I think I would think of the brain as just the brain, but then

you're saying, actually no, but there's like the different components in it.

Oh yeah, there's a lot of complexity in there.

So if there's, you know, if there's some damage to the brain, you know,

it's great to know where this damage is because different parts of the brain

are responsible for different things.

Um, uh, but also the way they would show up, the way they interact with

that huge magnet you go and lie inside of when you have an MRI, the way

they interact with that is what we're exploiting as an as MRI physicists.

We're trying to really make them show up, um, in our images.

That's really cool.

And so you've been, um, at the Queen Square MS Center for a long time, for over

15 years, so, How did you first, because I guess I, I guess what I'm thinking is, and

I think of that about this with any like doctor or, um, clinical like professional

that you could have, you could have probably just gone and made a lot of

money doing private medicine, maybe in the US or something like, uh, for example.

Or you can go and do research and have your career dedicated to that.

And so how did you make that decision?

And then how'd you end up with MS? Not

with ms, but

in, in, in ms. I'm not.

I'm not yeah

diagnosing you.

It's kind of by accident and it's kind of to do with my values, I guess.

I actually started out doing astrophysics.

Um,

Wow.

I watched Armageddon.

I dunno if there's a, there's a line in there where, uh, where

the astrophysicist is asked to like, basically save the world.

Being a naive 15, 16 year old, you know, 17-year-old.

I thought, oh, I wanna be an astrophysicist.

Yeah, I wanna save the world.

Uh, it was an amazing degree.

I got to go to Manchester, use these huge radio telescopes to look

at things really, really far away.

By the end of my degree, I was like, I really wanted,

looking at stars was amazing,

Can I just say, and learning about how the universe formed.

But I wanted to do something that more directly helped people.

And I think I was always brought up that way, you know, in, in this environment

where everybody is always helping people.

There's a big community.

And I wanted to do something that helped people more directly and

there's actually quite a bit of overlap between MRI physics, uh, because

you use radio waves essentially to look inside your body and looking

at galaxies really, really far away.

You're looking at radio waves and using these huge telescopes rather

than a little coil, a little satellite basically, that you put on your body.

And you're dealing with the data sometimes in quite similar ways.

So I thought, okay, I could take what I've learned and use it to help people.

Um, so that started me off in my research.

I did research in diabetes, liver disease, and stroke models.

Um, and then a job came up at UCL, at the Queen Square MS Centre.

I knew they were leading in MS research.

A leading group of, um, MRI physicists there as well.

So I thought it'd be an exciting place to be part of.

But what really sparked my curiosity was, um, they had this big MRI

scanner, very expensive piece of machinery, which was actually funded

at the time by the MS. Society.

I thought, why is charity investing so heavily in this machine?

And you know, and I've been there 15 years now and it's MRI is just absolutely

integral to MS diagnosis, it's monitoring, understanding the disease better.

And like you say, I've been there 15 years, still so much more to do.

So much more to learn.

So many different ways to push.

And I know you and I have had conversations as part

of your role in the research

Yeah.

and um.

And I dunno if you can tell from that how much I enjoy learning more about

the disease and trying to understand it and using my physics background

to be able to help do that as well.

Well, absolutely.

I mean, your passion for it resonated and, and we've talked, I've talked candidly

and I've talked on the podcast and, um, about, I, I do have Multiple Sclerosis.

I don't really, I did hide that for a long time or I didn't want people

to know, 'cause it was like I don't know, It's, it's tough, I mean, in

a way that people can look at you differently or think of you differently.

But when I met you, you were so interested in us.

And just to explain really quick, I guess for people listening is, um, the

MS society and any of them, so I have a friend who works for the one in, uh,

in California, a branch, but the MS Society UK has the Research Network and

so people living with MS, will be able to contribute to like patient public

information or public patient information.

It's PPI.

But basically talk to people like, um, Bhavana who are doing research

and basically help inform like how helpful the work is that they're

doing, and what is the patient perspective and what are the things

we're dealing with and stuff like that.

And it's an amazing opportunity to learn about what research is

happening, but also feel like we're kind of taking some control over this

thing we don't have control over.

And so I think you, Bhavana like listening to us and me experiencing calls with you,

I was really inspired like, oh, someone's giving their career to this thing I have

and a lot of other people have and really caring about us because you could just be

researching scans and like there's not a person in them, but I feel like you are

seeing a person and that's pretty awesome.

So yeah.

it's, it's, it's so fundamental, I guess, to what we do.

And like I said, that first thing that drove me into MRI was taking

the things that I enjoyed and knew and, and using it to, to help people.

And when you are sat in a lab, especially in MRI machine, um, you

can lose sight of that sometimes.

And so being able to engage with the community more directly and really

understand what's important to them.

Um, when it comes to something like an MRI as well, you know,

you've got, getting to the MRI.

You've got all the noise that involved.

So if you've ever had an MRI, you know, you have these loud thudding

noises, you, there's a lot of getting in and out the scanner, which, you

know, people with different abilities need to be able to do how long the

actual scan is and staying still.

These are the sort of, you know, human factors we need to consider.

We can't just look at it with physics alone because what you can do in

something that's very still, that's willing to lie there for three hours

is very different to what, you know, what the actual real situation is.

And also, you know, we work with, for example, we want to work with

the NHS to make them faster, cut down waiting lists, things like that.

So there's so many, so many different parts of it as an MRI physicist

that you could help impact and help make a real difference to.

And at the heart of it, it is helping understand disease and help monitoring

it, um, helped diagnose it and things and, and helping the people in the Research

Network and the communities that matter.

Yeah.

And, uh, well, and it's interesting you said too, to make it faster.

I mean, sometimes I, I've been in there a long time, you know, and

like, like people with MS, like, it's usually our brains are being looked at.

That means you're sliding in headfirst, you know, and so you're

just kind of confined in this.

I did call it a crypt one time, and the person said tunnel, and I was like

I call it a tube, but okay.

A tube.

So that's the better word for it, tube.

Yeah.

Just not referring to it that way, but you know, it was, I was young.

I was young, I was 40.

I'm just kidding.

But, um, no, but it's really, it's really cool.

And just also I think the fact that then you're also determining what

the best type of scan is, right.

So maybe.

Yeah.

There, like maybe some aren't necessary eventually and stuff.

I'm just curious, are you using AI at all in what you're doing?

I mean, has that impacted you.

So that's a, that's a huge, um, thing that's sort of, come on really fast.

And MRI is a great place to, to use AI actually.

So a lot of the major vendors who make MRI machines are already

incorporated AI into the machine.

Now, you know, the, they're, they're attempted to not do anything scary,

that don't wanna make a brain out of a stomach, for example.

That would be bad news.

you have two brains in the scan, like how it has multiple fingers.

Exactly.

So, you know, what we want to reduce is the noise in our image.

So they use a lot of the AI to reduce the noise rather than

makeup signal that's not there.

So that we're as accurate as we can be still when it comes

to diagnosis and precision.

Um, whilst boosting things like how sharp the image is, the resolution of the image.

Um, so we're using AI in, in that way already and is already like been taken

hold of and incorporated in the scanners.

So a lot of the modern scanners now already have these technologies embedded

in them to make it faster or sharper.

Um, but also, you know, there is a growing field of, you know, we've got

all these scans, we've got all these data, and maybe we could make it faster.

And maybe we could help AI make it faster.

Or maybe we, it could be help with, um, the bottleneck that occurs

when you have too many images.

If you go faster, you know, great, you're reducing waiting lists.

But on the other hand, there's only so many radiologists.

They're already very busy and can we help those radiologists, triage what

really needs, you know, an expert set of eyes and what actually is very basic

and, um, they'd be able to rely on it.

And for that you need information.

For example, as a person with MS, you wouldn't want to think this

has only been tested in 10 people.

You'd want hundreds of people and you'd want to know that

it's very, very accurate.

And you know, it's up to us to help design those studies and, and boost

that accuracy and really interrogate the results before, uh, an organization

or institution like the NHS can, um, can really, um, take hold of that.

Um, so there's a lot of scope for AI in that as well, but, you know,

I wouldn't, I wouldn't go along with these things that, oh just upload your

image anywhere and, um, somebody can tell you what, what is wrong with you.

You, you really need the expertise behind it

Yeah, no.

as well.

I, I mean, it's like the whole WebMD thing we were doing,

you know, like 15 years ago.

Like, oh, I'm gonna look up, and everyone ends up with these hor horrific illnesses

because they have a head cold, You know?

And I mean, it's natural to do that.

I still do that.

I still look up things and, but yeah, you don't wanna, you don't wanna just be like,

oh, I was diagnosed by ChatGPT, who I'm also in love with and whatever, you know.

There are people doing this now...

Who is also your therapist,

who's also your therapist.

Yeah.

That's like, I don't know, man.

I don't, I don't think so.

I want my therapist to challenge me not agree with me on everything.

Like, you're right, Robbie.

Well, that's all I needed to know, you know?

Um, it's ridiculous.

So, um, just going back to the astrophysicist, like you studying

astrophysics and everything.

I know, I know there was one famous one which was um, Brian May from Queen.

I learned that on a tour in Tenerife.

And then you were saying there's also another famous astrophysicist...

Yeah, Brian

Cox, um, he was in dv.

Yeah.

We didn't realize he was famous at the time when he was teaching us, I

think it was advanced particle physics actually, it wasn't even astrophysics.

And, um, we thought, oh, we, we were a bit stuck on an exam

that we'll try and email him.

We realized he'd been on Top of the Pops, so after that, if we

failed an exam, it was definitely, things can only get better.

yeah.

Yeah.

That's so wild, right?

Just to have like these I know.

And I, I, um, I took a class.

When I was at university, I was at UC San Diego, and in my college that

I was in, you had to take like other disciplines besides your major, but

they were all intro classes that anyone could handle essentially.

And so I took this one about space and Sally Ride the

astronaut was my instructor.

Oh wow.

and I got yelled at by her because my friend wouldn't shut up.

she made an impression.

I am, someone did, I mean, this woman went to space.

I was like, fascinated.

And my friend just kept talking and like, I was like, can you stop?

And then finally she tells me to be quiet and I turned so red and

whatever, and I just will never forget like, I so disappointed Sally Ride.

You know?

It was awful.

It was horrible.

But um, you, do you, are you still interested in space and I mean,

or is it more just like, oh, the stars are pretty kind of thing now?

I mean.

I, I feel like it's, you know what?

I, I, it sort of died down a little bit.

If I could turn my screen around right now, you'd see I've

just got stars in front of me

Oh, cool.

and it says Dream big little one.

'cause this used to be the nursery.

Um, and so I've, I think I've gone back more into it as I, you know, you, I, I

realize like you're back in that world when you start having kids with their

curiosity and knowing about the world.

And it takes me back to all those questions I had when I did

astrophysics and I, I wanted to know how stars were formed and how far

away something is, and just random

Yeah.

Yeah, of course.

you know, no, no particular, oh, I want to.

Do something specific.

I think it was just curiosity about the world and, and when you have

little kids in your life, that kind of comes back to you again.

Yeah, I'm, well, yeah, I mean, I, I have friends with kids and there's definitely

like this nice thing about just having some fact that's interesting to them, you

know, and like you have this information.

But also like experiencing them asking the questions like you're saying.

I mean, it's really cool because I know some people don't really

like kids, but I think kids are really the best of, of who we are.

Like, because they're, they don't know yet.

They don't have like these strong opinions about things formed or whatever.

They're, they're learning, you know, and they're, and it's, it's pretty cool.

Like they're seeing things for the first time all the time.

We rarely get to do that anymore, you know.

They can be fascinated by the smallest things, right?

yeah.

it's super cool.

Um, so just with, with your work though, in the lab, so you, one thing

you mentioned was that, um, was that part of it is related to your values.

So was your upbringing such that, like did your parents, were they involved in

the community or were they, uh, scholars or, or what, what was it you think that

built you up to have those values of?

I always saw them helping and not in an official capacity.

Um, my dad was an engineer by the time I, you know, I'm old enough to have memories.

He, he'd been made redundant.

He worked in a factory.

My mom was a housewife at the time she had worked.

Um, you know, when, um, they both moved over from India.

They'd both been working here.

So they worked really, really hard and they, and they built

up a good community around us.

But I remember people coming, 'cause my dad had a good, um,

um, a good standard of English.

Um, he was very confident in it.

So he'd be great at helping people in the community just with

their paperwork, for example.

And now, like I, I do, I do a bit of paperwork for my mom.

Um, she's quite elderly and she does direct payments and things like that.

And Rabiah, I have a PhD and I find some of these forms pretty tough.

You're like, you don't wanna get caught out, you don't wanna write wrong thing.

And, and, and I have know born here, grown up here.

I have a good standard of English.

Even I find them difficult.

And, and I remember my dad, like people coming to my dad being like,

can you help us with this form?

Can you help us with that form?

My mom, I'm one of five.

I'm the youngest of five.

Oh wow.

She was the neighborhood babysitter.

We had all the kids at our house.

She, she basically enabled so many women to work.

And, and keep their families going.

And you know, they just trusted her that okay, there's enough

people in this house that these kids will, will be looked after.

And it was amazing.

Like my mom had her, I think it must have been her 70th birthday party,

and, you know, we did the invite list.

Most people at the time were under the age of 40.

They were all the kids she'd looked after who came back and were like,

oh yeah, your mom, you know, we used to have the best time at your house.

And, you know, with five kids as well as a lot of, a lot of entertainment

for all the children as well, so.

I just saw that they, that they built this around them and they

were sur we were surrounded by people who helped each other.

Um, so it wasn't like, you know, yes they helped with charities and

things like that, but it wasn't this massive, massive thing.

It was just ingrained in every day.

You know, if somebody was having a hard time, you go over with

a meal, that sort of thing.

Just like everyday community things and it, and I think that really set in

this, and I think if you look at all of what me and my siblings ended up doing

in one way or another, we all ended up have doing jobs where you help people.

Awesome.

I mean that's, that's great.

And that's just, that's cool just to have experience seeing that, you know,

as part of like normalcy for you, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's really cool.

Well, so it's, it's super clear that you're passionate about

your work and like why you, you moved into what you did, which.

Is really what this podcast is about.

But then outside of work, I mean, you did mention being a mom.

I think a lot of people don't really think about that as being also a job.

I mean, it's not a job in the sense that you got hired, you hired yourself,

kind of, but, um, you know, you, you have that and then you do a lot of

activities around raising your kids.

And so do you wanna talk about how that is part of your balance outside of work and?

Yeah.

Yeah, it's, it's a really important part, I think.

It helps me, um, it can be really isolating being a mom actually.

And I had this huge identity of being a scientist and

career person and all of that.

Um, and when I had my first child, it really was a shock to the system

and having and building a network of other, um, moms, like-minded moms.

It is, it is just really, really helpful and it, that having that support system.

Doing the job where there's no one to really guide you because, um, yes, we

all have our parents and we all have the way we brought, we've been brought

up, but you know, each generation has a different set of challenges

yeah.

to, to navigate.

You know, my mom will be like, oh, you have this job and then you

have to do this, and now you're responsible for that education as well.

Uh, whereas my mom was pretty hands off about our education, so, um so,

yeah, there's a, there's a lot there.

And I'm part of the, um, I help with the PSA as well, which is

a Parent School Association.

So that helps organize events for the school and things like the Christmas

fair, summer fair, being class rep, um, selling uniform and things.

And I just feel it gives me a really nice, um, really nice group

of parents that I meet who are quite like-minded, similar values.

You work together with them on something and I work part-time as

well, so I'll take some of my one day off and help with the PSA if I can.

And you know, sometimes it's as weird as like, I'm not creative, but building

baskets for the raffle prize or something.

And other times it's a bit more aligned with what I'm actually doing, like going

into school and talking about being a scientist or being a, you know, a

female scientist and things like that.

Or talking about like, I, I grew up Hindu, talking about Hinduism, things like that.

So I, I love being able to exchange with the schools and I do a lot of

outreach as well as part of my job.

I really liked, you know getting the opportunity and taking the

opportunity to sort of help inspire the next generation and really watch

your curiosity just thrive and grow.

It's a, it's a really magical thing.

Yeah.

No, that's really cool.

And I, I was, I've quite a few friends with kids and, and so I think just

either having just observed, you know, just maybe I'm sitting there and

watching what's going on or talking to them, there is so much work involved.

And I have a good friend who, um, works on a similar thing to the PSA, it's

called something else in the States, but, um, she wants to be involved and

see, you know, her kids growing up.

And, and it's, it's a challenge though because it's taking a lot of time and

we were talking too about how, like what did our parents do to raise us

and like how do you, what, like what do you do to raise your kids in a way

that, you know, sets them up well and, and they are raised to be good people,

you know, good human beings and stuff?

And I was talking to my friend, I was telling her, well, I think one

challenge there is now that our parents didn't have, and I'm, I assume we're

kind of in a similar age group, is just that like our parents were one

of our only sources of information until we were a certain age, right?

And then it was like

books and

that was, you know, another

kids and older siblings maybe when you learn the naughty stuff.

But that's it.

I mean, you had older siblings, you know, you learn things.

You probably knew things faster than they did just because

they were talking about them.

But now kids have so many inputs, there's so much information coming at them.

They have their iPads.

Some people are like, I don't get my kid an iPad.

Fine, but other people do, and I think they need to learn those skills.

Um, there's YouTube.

YouTube kids is crazy.

I think it's actually worse than whatever's on YouTube personally.

Like it's so weird.

Um, it's like wild, right?

It's, yeah.

Anyway, um, that's just my opinion as someone who's seen

it over the shoulders of a

kid.

Um, but I think there's just so much different information coming at them

and, and I think that like, that's gotta be a big challenge for parents

to figure out how to help address questions or help, like kind of

redirect if there's information they're getting that maybe isn't even kind

or healthy for them to have, right?

Yeah, definitely.

It's like the playground multiplied by, you know, a hundred thousand.

Um, so it is, it is really scary.

But, and at the same time, you kind of have to accept that they

are, they are digital natives.

This is the world.

And you have to, you have to parent for the future, I guess.

Um, you have to parent knowing that this is the world they're going to grow up in.

And I guess our struggle is giving them the tools to navigate that when we, we are

not really, really sure what they are yet.

Um, you know, so far my kids are in primary school, so I've been able to

protect them somewhat and um luckily, you know, my, my nieces are are very

careful with what they put on the net and what they look at as well

so influence wise, um, we've been quite lucky so far, touch wood Um, but

you know, I have said you are gonna be shown things that make you feel

uncomfortable and they, and you might know that you're not meant to look at

it, but you know, it's like a car crash.

You will keep on looking,

Yeah.

feel bad.

Come and tell me.

Yeah.

You won't be in trouble just trying to keep that communication open

without being like, absolutely, go on there, look at whatever you

want, and then kind of tell me about

Yeah.

Uh, that's not what I'm trying to say.

It is more, you know, these things will happen and being able to have that

conversation afterwards and have more than one conversation, I think as well

about it is, it is quite important.

But I mean, I'm still learning.

Yeah, well, like not having, giving them shame or something, or whatever.

It depends on what we're talking about, but just, there's all

kinds of stuff you could see.

There's all kinds of stuff, right?

Yeah, I feel like my sister, she has three kids and the oldest one's 21 now, so

they're, she's gone through a lot of it.

Um, and the youngest one's 16, but I think she's done a good job of, they

are open with her, you know, and so um, I think then that allows them,

even if they do make a mistake or even if they do something that's they're

allowed to do, but maybe, you know, not in the right way or something, I don't

know, um, I think they'll talk to her.

And I think that is a super important thing is like having the communication.

Um, do you think that

the work you're doing influences like some of your thinking around parenting or

that, or like your work like seeing your kids growing up has an effect on your

work at all, like in some way, maybe that?

I, I, I think they both, I mean, you know, obviously central to my world is my kids,

but they're both very important to me.

My job is very important to me as well.

I think they do view me as a mom and a scientist, like I think they do.

I'm not just mom to them.

They do realize I have this

Yeah.

thing that I do and, and they're very welcome in my world.

Like, you know, once we went to watch a film and it, it was an outdoor cinema.

It was summer holidays.

Absolute fail.

Didn't check the weather.

Rained down on us.

Happened to be near work.

I was like, let's go look at some fruit.

Um, I showed 'em some MRI of some fruit.

They were guessing what it was.

Is that broccoli, like broccoli's great.

It looks like a firework when you go through it.

oh, nice.

and um, you know, and, and so they were looking at, oh, why does

a coconut look the way it does?

You know, why does a pomegranate look the way it does?

And, and things like that.

And they've been there when I, you know.

I've, I've sat there looking at brain images and they're in the

background and, and now they, you know, they, they, they, they can

tell me if my image is good or not.

You know, they, they want, and it's not that I've sat there and been like,

oh, you must be into imaging because, uh, you know, I don't really mind what

they're into as long as it's not slime.

Um, slime is messy and it gets everywhere.

Were they making slime at one point?

I know my niece and nephews were like, making slime

I thought that would be a good lockdown idea

it, no,

it's crazy.

Yeah.

And, um, yeah, so they are, they're, they're very much, they're very much

like, have a kind of, you know, overview of, of what I'm doing and where I'm

going and if I'm going to be working late and sort of what I'm working on.

Um, but I, I wouldn't say it's like, it's not like we sit there at the

dining table talking about MRI.

It's just if it comes up, but also the other way around, like, I did a study

on, um, ultra high process food, uh, with Chris van Tulleken and he did like

a, he did a four, was it a four week, I think, um, ultra high processed food diet.

Okay.

Um, and I, and I looked at some of the data from that, and I remember

being absolutely shocked at what we saw within an n equals one.

You know, just one sample.

The, the, the amount, the amount of changes we saw in the brain.

And the data I looked at, I actually questioned it and went back and made

sure it was acquired the way it should have been because the change was so big.

Um, and, and that definitely, you know, brought it home that, you

know, ultra high processed food is something that I can try and minimize.

You can't, you can't eliminate it.

Well, maybe you can, but I don't have the energy and time to do that.

But, um, we, you know, we made quite a few changes at home to try and

reduce the ultra high processed food, and that was a direct result of, of

what I was learning through work.

Um, things like the more and more conferences I go to and autoimmune

diseases I am exposed to listen to about vitamin D, things like that.

It's always been a big thing to me.

Go outside, get a walk every day, have your vitamins.

Um, which, you know, I, I'd say I was probably brought up the

same, but it, it brought a, it brought another dimension to it.

The, the importance of it, um, was there as well.

So there def, there definitely is an interplay to how I parent and, you

know, what I, what I put my values in.

But also, um, I work with a lot of, you know, very clever people, I guess.

Um, and, I feel the best ideas come when people come from one field

into another one and they look at something completely different.

So I really try to ensure that my children get lots of opportunities

to just be exposed to lots of different things and they can be free.

Just going to the museum.

And there's a lot of things I was not exposed to as a child.

Like music, for example.

Uh, I wasn't very sporty either.

So sports.

So, you know, bringing one thing in with another.

And watching that interplay happen, um, just encouraging curiosity

and letting them think outside the box I think is really important.

Yeah, that's great.

And I think like, I mean really it's curiosity has driven part of your career

Oh, yeah.

right?

And so

like you see the value in that.

And so then you have an interest in cricket too, right?

Which I've found out is

new.

This is quite new.

So my interest in cricket also stems from the family life.

So, um, I, um, you know, one of the most, um, some people may find this enjoyable.

I, I am not the parent that watches their kids, do lots of sports and things.

Yay.

And I do feel for my mom having had five kids and watches do

sports day and fail miserably.

Um, but, um, you know, I, I'm, I'm there taking the kids to cricket every Sunday.

Um, and my partner, he's, um, he's coaching the cricket team.

He was a, he was really into cricket.

He's the one who was like, my kids need to do cricket.

All right.

That's what you wanna do.

Um, it's, it's a good weather sport.

I like that.

It's in a big greenfield, um, full of like, it's, it's a

beautiful, beautiful place.

We go to Hampton Wick, uh, Royal Cricket Club.

And so son's doing one, kid's doing one, partner's doing the, uh, coach.

I'm just sat there and I'm thinking there's two, two and a half

hours this, this is getting...

yeah.

It's nice to have a bit of time yourself also getting a little bit boring.

In the far corner, one of the coaches has stepped up and he is coaching

the women, just women's cricket.

So I, I went over, I joined them.

I, I'm, I'm not a sporty person,

Oh wow.

But, so much fun.

And I, and I, I challenged myself.

And I thought, if I can do this, which is so outside of my comfort zone, so outside

who I am as a person, to be honest.

Team sport?

Um, you know, I was, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a, I'm a, um, I

wasn't great at PE at school.

I was always like, picked last

to to do anything.

So it wasn't something I identified with or something that I have confidence in.

And I thought just, you know, if they can get out there and do that,

then surely they can see their mom get out there and do something she's

rubbish at, to the point where, no, we're practicing at home now.

They're like, mom, you need to open your eyes to catch the ball.

And they're, they're trying to coach me on something and it's so nice.

It's so nice to see them be the expert now and try and tell me what to do and

I can hear my own voice back sometimes.

Yeah.

Must be kinder.

Um.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, and and, and it's great to see them try and teach me and, and get into that.

And, and it's, it's a lovely community as well, actually.

The cricketer community is, is a really nice place to be, really nice to hang out.

And it's, it's just something new I've sort of taken on, um, last summer

and I'm, I'm hoping to stick at it.

I don't think I'll ever be any good, but, um, it's good fun.

I'll stick with it and keep going outside my comfort zone.

Yeah it's something else to do.

And then one thing, that you talked about a little bit was just that you speak in,

in schools about being a woman in science, but how passionate are you about that?

Because I've, I've spent my career in IT, most of it.

And as, as a woman, that's sometimes difficult and you're

sometimes the only person.

And now even in comedy, I'm sometimes the only woman in the room.

And so there are a

lot of spaces where women are underrepresented, and so science

is definitely one as well.

Yeah, I think, I mean, I was, I was a handful of girls in my course

when I did physics and astrophysics.

It was very male dominated.

Um, and I, I always got the looks, you know.

You're at a bar, what do you do?

I'm, I'm a physicist, I'm an astrophysicist.

I mean, there, there's no better way to get people away

from you.

How not to make friends.

But, um, and I, I wanted to change that, you know, how people are viewed for

being a scientist or being a woman in, in science or being a woman doing physics.

Um, and I, I really wanted to challenge, um, stereotypes as well.

So, UCL is a great place for that.

They really encourage us to do outreach and get involved.

So I've had really great opportunities to do things like go into the

schools, talk about the work I do to primary school age children.

I've worked with, um, children from disadvantaged backgrounds

and as part into science.

And that's a scheme where, um, you know, people who may not have mentors or,

or the role models in their life, I had my big sisters, to be honest, like

my eldest sister is, you know, eight and a half, nine years older than me.

And, and she did science and went off to do a PhD and all my

other, my other sisters did too.

So they, I had, I had those role models and I probably took that for granted.

So when I did, went and did physics and I was the only girl,

I did not feel intimidated.

I, and I felt like I could take up space, but I'd seen other people do that.

I'd seen that that's a, a valid thing to do.

Whereas, you know, maybe some people aren't exposed to those

role models that early on.

So it's a space where, you know, 16, 17 year olds come into our lab

and we, we talk to 'em about what we do, the different elements of it.

Like one huge thing that, you know, people might not realize is.

You know, as a, as a, you know, when I was 21 and I graduated, I realized, oh,

I could do a PhD and I get to travel.

I get to go to conferences and, and see the world.

And it was, it was really exciting to me to be able to do that and, and

something I never really thought I'd do.

Um, I'd have a, the opportunity to do, um, and to get the opportunity

to do that and put a face to, you know, female scientists growing up.

I, yes, I had my sisters, but in the wider, you know, on tv I didn't see it.

When I went to my course, there wasn't many girls.

Um, when I did my PhD, I started with four other, um, white males.

Um, and, um, had a great time to be honest.

Um, there were still lots of, um, you know, that we had a center

where, you know, us girls, we used to get together and watch Desperate

Housewives on a, on a Wednesday.

I, I mean, it was, it was so good.

We, it was the most unexpected things for, for, for these women in physics to

be doing, and we were like little family.

We were so close knit.

And, uh, you know, all, all the guys around us were lovely.

You know, there was a, there were, there was nothing wrong with 'em,

but it was lovely to create our own space amongst that as well.

So I do things like Soapbox Science, which is just, it is quite nerve wracking.

No slides or anything.

You stand on a soapbox or in my case at the South Bank and, and

talk about your job and what

Oh wow.

and how MRI works without anything else.

Um, and it's, it's, it.

It's so rewarding.

I had a 16-year-old who then wanted to come to the lab.

And, um, came and spent a day with us to see what we did.

And her mom wrote to us afterwards, beautiful note saying she has

not stopped talking about MRI.

She, you have absolutely inspired her.

Thank you so much for.

And, and all of us in the lab we're so happy to do it, so happy to see, you

know, young people interested in it and, um, and a young woman as well to, to be

like, yeah, that's something I can do.

Uh, that, that's a, that's a really, um, important thing for me, um,

to be able to do and say and, um, and for, you know, even my friend,

my daughter's friends, to realize, okay, yeah, this is something women.

Can do.

Um, they're not weird species.

It's a valid career.

Yeah.

Oh, that's great.

Yeah.

'cause I mean, there is a thing about representation and just seeing

someone like you doing something that that helps you see that you

could do it and you know, there's gotta be someone who does that first.

But then the fact that you are going around and being generous with your

time and sharing that to help build a future, you know, of people, especially

of young women in this case, like seeing themselves in science is, is super.

Um, 'cause that'll help also with more equity and research.

Right.

And

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

studied.

Um, that's awesome.

Well, cool.

Uh, well, one thing I like to ask every guest is just like, do you have any

advice or mantra that you'd like to share?

Just that you kind of comes to you to, to share with people?

I don't think I'm the person you should go to for advice, but um, I would

say get outside your comfort zone.

Do things that are unexpected and if you've got young people around

you, just encourage that curiosity.

Um, because it, it, it's so important, uh, at growing the next generation.

If, and if anybody's interested in the science we spoke about today

and they wanted to volunteer and, and help science in their own little

way, there's always a space for you.

Um, we'd love to hear from you as well.

Awesome.

No, that's, that's great.

Yeah.

And I agree about getting outside your comfort zone.

So next we have the fun five.

And it's five questions I ask every guest.

They're fun for me.

If they're fun for you, I, I dunno, you know, it's up and down on that one.

Um, so the first one is, what's the oldest T-shirt you have and still wear?

So actually I just gave it away.

It was full of holes and it, it was time.

It was time, but it was a a t-shirt that I'd actually bought for my

other half, um, when I was expecting.

And it said Daddy to be on it, and it had these two baby feet on

it, and it was, it was emblazoned with the words daddy's feet.

Very, very not something he would ever wear.

So anyway, I ended up adopting it.

It comes up to my knees.

So I ended up being my pajamas and I'd do my workouts and I'd answer the door much

to the bemusement of delivery drivers.

And unfortunately it was time to, to give it up.

It was full of holes.

But yeah, that was my oldest

Nice.

I like that.

I like that.

I like anytime too, you give someone something that they ended up giving to

you, you're like, oh, it was a good gift.

Um, so if every day was really Groundhog's Day, like in the Bill Murray movie, right,

where he wakes up to the same song every day, what song would you wake up to?

Alicia Keys, Girl on Fire.

That's right.

Definitely very empowering.

Love her voice as well.

For sure it is.

Yeah.

My mom and I were in the car recently, um, when I was back visiting in the States

and Alicia Keys came on and my mom's like, oh, I haven't heard her in so long, and it

was so refreshing to hear her, her voice.

She's really amazing.

Alright.

All right.

Coffee or tea or neither?

Tea doesn't gimme the jitters.

I mean, it feels like a warm hug.

Definitely a tea person.

Okay.

Can you think of like a time when you laughed, already cried, or just something

that makes you just like crack up?

Uh, this is gonna sound so typical parent, but my kids absolutely crack me up.

Absolutely crack me up.

For, like, for example, recently we, we went to John Lewis to look at washing

machines and, and tumble dryers.

And there's this washing machine where you load all the detergent in

and, and the, the fabric conditioner and it measures your ear out for you.

And I thought.

I don't understand why you need this.

Like, this is not why I don't do my laundry.

I don't understand what friction, this is really minimizing.

But anyway, it's, it's the one we went for for other reasons.

Right?

And then, um, I went to pick up my son when it got, when it arrived.

I went to pick him up from school and he was crying 'cause

I bought the wrong snack.

He stopped suddenly.

He goes, mommy, have you done the laundry today?

I was like, no, I haven't.

And he came home absolutely happy as a bunny and did the laundry and this.

Is why you have a washing machine that measures the fabric conditioner out for

you because he can now do it on his own.

And he's so happy.

He's so happy.

Just fascinated by these, by the weirdest things, you know?

I was like, oh no, we need to shell out for a washing machine.

And to him, it's the biggest thing ever to have the, and he sat

there watching, watching the spin, just joy, complete joy for him.

Things like that just make me laugh.

it's a kid being able to do laundry, which is kind of good 'cause a lot

of kids never do laundry actually.

Yeah, exactly.

Now he comes outside.

Well, if you eat that, you can do the laundry.

You can load the washing machine and you can then watch it for 10 minutes.

Go around.

That's amazing.

I like it.

And maybe he, maybe he'll figure out why socks disappear.

Where they disappear.

Where do they go?

Why and where?

Yeah.

So maybe that could be something he can, he can run some experiments.

Um, okay.

Last one.

Who inspires you right now?

Um, so many people, so many people, honest, anybody who like lives a life to

their own beat, really it does things a little bit differently to achieve their

aims on their, like with their rules.

I'm not trying to conform to the way things should be done

and being constricted by that.

Um, anybody who, you know, I love hearing about people's life stories

and how they got to where they did in a weird and wonderful way.

Um, there's all sort of stories and people I find inspiring.

Cool.

Well, awesome.

And I do too, that's one reason I do this.

Yeah.

Is there anything you want people to do to like look you up?

Like if someone just hears, maybe they hear their kids' interested in science or

they wanna know more about you, or they want you on their podcast, where should

they go to find you and, and your work?

Oh, absolutely.

Just connect with me on LinkedIn.

Send me a message there.

Um, or, um, email me at UCL.

b dot solanky at ucl

dot ac dot uk.

Um, and yeah, get in touch, or we'd be happy to hear from you.

Cool.

Alright, well Bhavana, thanks so much for being on More than Work.

It was really great to get to know you more and know

more about what you're doing.

So thank you.

Thank you for having me.

It's been great.

Cool.

Thanks for listening.

You can learn more about the guest and what was talked about in the show notes.

Joe Maffia created the music you're listening to.

You can find him on Spotify at Joe M-A-F-F-I-A.

Rob Metke does all the design for which I'm so grateful.

You can find him online by searching Rob, M-E-T-K-E.

Please leave a review if you like the show and get in touch if you

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The pod is on all the social channels at at More Than Work Pod

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While being kind to others, don't forget to be kind to yourself.