Interview with Prof. Alex Fornito, 2024 Winner of the Mentor Award

Authors: Audrey Luo & Ashley Tyrer

Editors: Elisa Guma, Kevin Sitek, & Simon R. Steinkamp

Dr. Alex Fornito is the recipient of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Mentor Award at the 2024 annual meeting held in Seoul, South Korea. He is a Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences and the Head of the Brain Mapping and Modelling Research Program and Neural Systems and Behaviour Lab at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He is also currently a Laureate Fellow of the Australian Research Council. Dr. Fornito completed his Clinical Masters (Neuropsychology) and PhD in 2007 in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He then completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Dr. Fornito leads a highly interdisciplinary team that brings together people from diverse backgrounds in psychology, physics, engineering, medicine, and biology. His lab’s primary research focus is to gain a fundamental understanding of the biological basis of behavior in health and disease. His team maps and models brain connectivity through four key pillars of investigation: cognitive and clinical neuroscience, neurogenetics, methods development, and mathematical modelling. 
We are very grateful for the time he took to answer a few of our questions. You can also check out our previous interview with Dr. Fornito showcasing his OHBM 2020 Keynote lecture here, as well as his interview on the OHBM Neurosalience podcast from 2021.

1. What is your approach to mentorship, and how did this develop over time?

I was fortunate enough to receive excellent mentorship from multiple outstanding scientists over my career. I have tried to adapt and develop the best elements of their approaches to my own style, which is centered on three key priorities: 

1. The wellbeing of each individual and of the team as a whole. At the individual level, I try to flexibly work with each person to adapt work practices in a way that best suits them and which helps them realise their ambitions in a productive and balanced way, whilst also being mindful of the unique professional and personal challenges that they may be facing. At the team level, we run multiple initiatives to foster a positive social environment and hold regular recreational activities to promote team cohesion. This cohesion is very important. If one of us succeeds, we all succeed; if one of us struggles, we work together where possible to address the challenge. We also hold regular feedback surveys and discussion groups to evaluate how we can improve the operations of the lab and make the workplace a better environment.

2. Open collaboration. Scientific discussions should be frank and fearless, and team members need to feel free to constructively critique ideas and disagree with each other––including with me! It is critical that team members feel like they can challenge my ideas and that they are comfortable with being challenged by myself and/or others. In this way, I view mentor and mentee as equals––mentors may have more experience, but mentees are often closest to the work and have detailed knowledge of the problem domain. Successful collaboration occurs when these two perspectives can be brought together in productive ways.

3. Mutual accountability. I try to meet with team members regularly to track progress and aim to be as responsive as possible to requests for assistance, feedback, and the like. I also try to offer detailed feedback on manuscripts, presentations, and so on. In my own career, I have found that I learned the most when receiving such feedback. Team members strive to do the same. This mutual accountability ensures that we work together effectively and that everyone contributes.

2. Who have been influential mentors for you, and how have they influenced your own style of mentoring?

During my PhD I was mentored by Christos Pantelis, Murat Yucel, and Stephen Wood. Christos was the lab head and fostered a positive, collaborative environment that has strongly shaped my own approach to team building. Murat and Stephen worked with me more closely on the details of my project. They showed me how important it is to provide in-depth feedback, to cultivate an open, collaborative relationship between mentor and mentee, and to help mentees realise both their professional and personal goals. I continued to work closely with Murat for over ten years after my PhD and he had a major influence on my approach to mentorship of both individuals and broader teams.

During my postdoc, I was supervised by Ed Bullmore. Ed was wonderfully supportive and showed me how important it is to create opportunities for EMCRs (Early- and Mid-Career Researchers). My time in his lab greatly expanded my scientific horizons and inspired me to explore concepts from disciplines outside those traditionally associated with neuroscience. This approach has profoundly impacted my scientific research. To this day, I have the most fun when working with team members who can contribute different types of expertise to solve an interesting scientific problem.

3. What advice would you offer to new Principal Investigators (PIs) on becoming effective and supportive mentors?

I can’t claim to know more about effective mentoring than anyone else. It is rare for scientists to be trained in mentoring and most of us figure it out on the fly by trying to emulate others and learning from mistakes. I can only offer some insights that I have gleaned from this process of trial-and-error.

As a mentor, it is your role to facilitate the goals and aspirations of your mentee wherever possible and reasonable, even if they conflict with your own priorities. 

Try to cultivate open, trusting relationships. In other words: collaborate with, rather than manage, your mentees, such that you both feel like you are on an equal footing (to the extent possible).

Address problems or difficult situations as they arise in a respectful, constructive, and empathetic manner. 

Personnel selection is critical. I have been fortunate enough to work with an incredible group of brilliant EMCRs who also happen to be wonderful people. Screen potential team members thoroughly and only take people who you think will align with the lab culture that you are trying to build. 

The buck stops with you. As leader of the team, it is your responsibility to cultivate a positive environment and strategies for success. Avoid the blame game and be solution-focused in your approach to challenges. 

4. How do you tailor your mentorship to the needs of individual mentees?

We are quite flexible in our work arrangements and try to accommodate people’s preferences where possible. I try to hold weekly one-on-one or team supervision meetings with each team member to discuss scientific issues. These are complemented by less frequent check-ins to discuss issues related to wellbeing and career aspirations. Whenever issues arise, we try to collaboratively identify appropriate plans tailored to the individual.