Anuradha’s interest in biosciences began early; however, she was more inclined towards a career in Medicine. Yet financial constraints led her to choose a parallel path towards being a “doctor”. She remembers telling her father,“I will become a doctor, but not through the usual path”, and feeling content rather than disappointed with her choice at the time. Today, she calls this decision “perfect”. She went on to major in zoology from the University of Pune, completed a masters in health sciences. A PhD at the DBT- National Centre for Cell Sciences (NCCS), Pune, followed, and immediately after, in 2011, she started her postdoctoral journey at Symbiosis School of Biological Sciences – a step that would fundamentally shape her career in science.
The unexpected leap from “researcher” to “director”
For Anuradha, it would be right to say that leadership found her before she went looking for it. While she owns it effortlessly, and acknowledges the responsibility that came with becoming the “woman” at the head of the table, she recalls experiencing a cocktail of doubt and determination when she was first offered the role in 2021. “Can I handle this? Can I do justice to the role? Would other faculty see me as the right leader”?
For about six months Anuradha interrogated her own suitability for the role, perhaps shaped by an academic culture that is conditioned to equate leadership with seniority and number of years spent in the system.
I realised being a director is not just administrative; it’s a demanding vision-setting position. I had to develop a vision, not only as a leader but focusing on institution building, mentoring students and young faculty, and most importantly, creating an enabling environment for the next generation of scientists”.
Mentorship: The undercurrents that map the academic ecosystem
Formal mentors like teachers offer structured academic guidance, but colleagues, friends, parents, or relatives offer something more crucial which Anuradha calls “navigational mentorship” that helps you move through systems. She also shares with us what emotional mentorship means, “It’s an unwavering belief, probably nurtured by parents, that you can succeed. We all go through phases of doubt, where belief in ourselves falters. This kind of mentorship fosters emotional resilience, and forms an essential part of your navigational toolkit to move through not only the academic landscape but through life itself”. Emotional mentorship, she notes, is subtler but essential, especially for young women researchers.
She also speaks passionately about another layer of mentorship that she called “sponsorship”. These come from people who might advocate for you in rooms where you are not present.
Under her leadership, Anuradha tries to deliberately create such opportunities for younger faculty including Assistant Professors, Postdocs, teaching associates, or research associates, bringing them into administrative discussions and meeting rooms that traditionally tend to overlook them.
Women leading women
With leaders like Vidya Yeravdekar at the helm of Symbiosis serving as its Principal Director and Pro Vice Chancellor, Anuradha senses the beginnings of a systemic transition in academia. In this context, she emphasises the importance of fostering a transgenerational mentorship to make academic leadership a realisation for women. She says, intelligent, hardworking women get stuck because they don’t know how to navigate. This is where handholding is needed — one generation of women guiding the next”.
She herself remembers being asked to pause, take it slow, or to wait for her turn, while opportunities were passed on to men in the system.
Giving the opportunity to our women academics to sit at the table and be heard —seeing how people discuss things — is critical”.
Her own mentorship is rooted in this awareness – especially in her lab with an all-women PhD cohort, many of whom have carried her mentorship into their postdoctoral careers abroad. “Mentorship is a continuous process, not a six-month programme”.
Mastering the art of institution-building
As the head of two prominent schools of bioscience research, Anuradha’s leadership rests on two pillars: Microfocus and macrovision. While reflecting on the dynamic nature of her role, Anuradha explains, “Micro focus involves curriculum development and understanding where the institution stands relative to other institutes and academic entities in the country, whereas macro vision is about holding the future of biosciences in perspective when thinking of how to position the university as a good research institution.”
While discussing the myriad challenges of her role, ranging from navigating academic administration, managing and securing funds and infrastructure, policy-making, attracting students, and handling accreditations requirements, Anuradha emphasises her vision for the School – a space where teaching anchors cutting-edge research. Private universities, she notes, are primarily teaching-focused centres, but research evolves slowly as capacity builds.
Anuradha’s story of being a woman academic leader from a private university adds an often-overlooked detail to our series on resilience and representation in research. Much of the scientific leadership discourse in the country centres around men, and the small minority of women leaders we have are also from public/government institutes, while women leaders from private universities almost always miss the spotlight.
Anuradha candidly addresses the challenges within a private academic ecosystem. Balancing teaching, research, admissions, and accreditation data is demanding. As admissions form the main focus of private universities, building a strong network becomes critical to attract students. She shares that young faculty in private universities are often faced with heavy teaching loads while simultaneously building labs, and may find this balancing act overwhelming.
She also highlights the visibility barrier, “building your academic identity not only within the university but outside can be daunting for faculty in private universities.For example, I work in stem cell biology — I’ve been in this field for 14 years. There’s a major conference in this field, yet we’re never invited as speakers. Never”!
Work-life integration, skilling, anchoring
If “work-life balance” is what we expected to hear from her, we were surprised to hear her say,
There can never be a work-life balance — it’s more about work-life integration. How can you integrate the two? That’s what’s really important. Prioritisation matters”.
She adds that skilling is crucial – upskilling, reskilling, and transferring skills. Additionally, learning to translate personal qualities into professional strengths helps immensely, particularly those like patience, conflict resolution, and time management. She stresses the need to identify what grounds you — an emotional anchor.
You have to be grounded and develop empathy. That’s how you retain people. They work hard because they feel valued. Empathy motivates commitment”.
Visibility matters
On women collectives in academia like POWERBio and WomenLift Health, Anuradha believes these are not just support groups, but strategic agents that catalyse structural transformation in academic spaces, creating more equitable environments for women.
I think such groups play a critical role in enhancing or elevating visibility for women researchers. Because, if you can’t see, you can’t believe”.
She sees them as spaces where women can learn from each other to upskill, advocate, negotiate, and influence institutional policies, from flexible work arrangements to equitable funding and promotion systems.
“If such groups convert their shared experiences into collective action dismantling structural and mental barriers, that would be fantastic.”
Anuradha leads with clarity, mentors with care, and is building institutions with a vision to bring many others like herself along. In a system that is still learning how to imagine women at the head of the table, Anuradha Vaidya’s story shows how women can be excellent leaders while steadily reshaping the set narratives of our academic ecosystems. We hope that her story inspires a generation of women who will no longer ask, “Is this role meant for me?” but instead say, “I see her. I can do this too”.
indiabioscience.org (Article Sourced Website)
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