A Warwick First: Technical Specialist Promoted to Professorial Level
The first promotion of a technical specialist to Strategic Specialist, an equivalent of a professorial level, at the 天美传媒 marks an important milestone for technical careers. In this interview, Dinu Iuga reflects on what this promotion means, his contribution to the development of a national nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) facility, and the importance of recognising the technical work that enables research.
What does your promotion to professorial equivalent mean to you, and what does it represent for the wider technical community?
It is a major achievement and an acknowledgement of my performance. However, I see it mostly as encouragement to continue the work. The development of a new facility or instrument often begins with an ambitious research vision, which can lead to funding and wider recognition, but securing the funding and installing the instruments is not the end of the process. It is the beginning. Bringing that vision to life then depends on the technical community鈥檚 expertise in installing, maintaining and developing the equipment so that it performs reliably and delivers its intended research potential. And often it isn鈥檛 easy, there can be many challenges in an unexplored territory of research, and you have to learn as you go along.
This recognition shows that the University, research funders and academic leaders are beginning to understand the role technical professionals play in making research happen. If things are only written on paper, they stay on paper. Measurements and experiments take place in the real world, and our role is to make those things happen.
Can you describe your career at Warwick and how the NMR facility developed?
I joined the University in 2009 as an Associate Professor and Technical Lead for the development of a new UK facility based around an 850 MHz NMR instrument.
At that time, it was close to the highest-field NMR instrument in the world. The equipment cost around 拢4 million, and my role was to implement it and establish the facility.
The facility welcomed its first users in 2010. The initial funding was for five years, and the facility brought together professors from several UK universities. During that period, we established ourselves as a national facility. We then secured further funding, which allowed us to consolidate our position and welcome more external users.
We later secured around 拢7 million for a 1 GHz instrument. That required a building extension, and our team also grew, with the appointment of dedicated administrative support and another facility manager. More recently, we secured approximately 拢17 million for a 1.2 GHz instrument, which required another extension and a major expansion of the infrastructure.
What did that journey involve, and what was your role?
The ambition began around 2015, when approximately 50 professors from 24 UK universities submitted a community statement expressing a desire for such an instrument. It took about ten years from that statement to the instrument being installed and brought into operation. But for us technical staff, that is not the end of the road, the work is just starting. This instrument is the pinnacle of NMR instrumentation and we have some unique in the world capabilities, so we have to learn its potential and prove its usefulness.
I was involved from the early design meetings onwards. We had to make sure the building met the instrument鈥檚 requirements, including gas supplies and temperature stability, while also ensuring that the new space connected properly with the existing facility. I worked with designers, builders and major contractors. A significant part of the challenge was the plant room and the infrastructure needed to support the instrument.
Securing the funding and demonstrating that the facility is needed depends on the wider NMR community and the many users who come to the facility each year. It was definitely a team effort.
How does technical work contribute to research, and what achievements are you particularly proud of?
Technical work is not always quantifiable in the same way as academic work, but it is measurable through its impact. I have repaired, calibrated and implemented equipment, and designed new approaches. That work has contributed to publications, and I can identify my contribution to many of the experiments and results.
One area is the development of high-speed NMR experiments. We began working with 1 mm and 0.8 mm rotors, but the work progressed to rotors measuring 0.38 mm. These enable very fast spinning, but they are extremely difficult to handle and pack.
In a few NMR experiments, the rotor has to be aligned to the magic angle of 54.74 degrees with very high precision.
A difference of around one-hundredth of a degree can determine whether the experiment works. When it does work, it is beautiful. You can see the result of quantum transitions cancelling each other at atomic level because you have made an extremely precise adjustment. That is very rewarding, although it requires a great deal of patience.
What advice would you give technical professionals applying for promotion?
Keep a detailed record of your work and its impact. Technical staff often train many doctoral students, even though those students are not formally assigned to them. That training should be documented, especially when it contributes to a publication or another research outcome.
You should also record your involvement in collaborative research. A project may begin when a student explains what they want to do, and the technical professional provides advice about how to make the experiment work. That can develop into a research collaboration. It is important to record the specific contribution made to the research and to any resulting publications.
How have professional networks and technical career pathways helped to change perceptions of technical work?
National networks are important to connect the community working with similar equipment. Meetings I have attended that involve NMR laboratory managers and wider technical communities have been useful. At first, you may simply listen, but over time you begin to interact with people and recognise that others face similar problems. These networks help technical professionals share experiences and understand that they are part of a wider community.
Technical professionals should be able to define success within their existing roles. Success should not have to mean leaving for a better-paid job in industry or academia. A technical professional should be able to stay in their role, develop their expertise and still progress and achieve recognition.
I began as an associate professor, but there was no suitable route for promotion because my role could not be compared directly with that of a conventional associate professor. I did not have academic grants or formally assigned PhD students. The role I have has in reality been a technical specialist role from the beginning. The technical promotional pathway implemented by the 天美传媒 in 2023 created an opportunity to recognise my responsibilities and contribution, and it made this promotion possible.