My career: Bob Erens
Bob Erens works in the Policy Innovation Research Unit at theLondonSchoolof Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and is also a research fellow in the Centre for Sexual Health & HIV Research at UCL.
As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
My passion was playing basketball, and my dream was to play in the NBA (National Basketball Association). Despite practising every day, unfortunately I lacked the skills – and height – to reach the top.
When did you first turn towards a social research career?
The early 70s in the USwas an exciting time to complete high school and go to university. Political activism, led by young people, was in the air and there was a widespread feeling that significant social change was possible through collective action. So even someone like myself, whose main interests at the time were maths and basketball, could not help but become politicised and develop an interest in social issues, particularly around race and class. By the time I started university, I had decided to focus on the social sciences, with the vague ambition of gaining a greater understanding of the social problems of 20th centuryUS society. Later I came toLondon to broaden my horizons and to study social anthropology at the LSE.
What was your first professional job? And first project there?
My first social research job was at NatCen (then known as SCPR). Since this was the period of Thatcherism, many of SCPR’s projects at the time were concerned with the large number of unemployed people resulting from government policies and how to get them ‘off the dole’. My first few projects looked at peoples’ incomes after losing their jobs and the (mainly lack of) effectiveness of different government schemes at getting people back to work.
What has been your best professional moment?
It was a privilege to direct both the Health Research Group and the Survey Methods Unit at NatCen, and to work alongside the extremely talented and committed researchers in both those teams, as well as the many Operations staff at NatCen, who make an often unrecognised but enormous contribution to the success of the organisation’s surveys.
...and worst?
The ending of the Survey Methods Unit due to organisational restructuring. That’s when I moved to UCL initially and thereafter to LSHTM.
Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
I started out in social anthropology, and was always inspired by Claude Levi-Strauss, whose books introduced me to the sophistication of “tribal” societies.
Do you have a favourite quote?
"It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this." Bertrand Russell
What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
I know from experience that recruiting researchers with good statistical skills can be difficult. So my advice to any young person would be to focus on developing their quantitative skills, since these are in great demand, but in short supply. Also, be passionate about your work and about the power of research to impact on social policy.
Interview by William Solesbury
