Have you met our new animal welfare and behaviour lecturer, Dr Barbara Padalino?
Get to know her in this Q&A about her career, her role at UNE, and her advice to others thinking about a career in science.
Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got to where you are today?
I am from Italy and always had a passion for horses, so it was only natural that I started my studies in Veterinary Science at the University of Bari in Southern Italy. After completing my degree, I started my practice as an equine vet, specialising in improving the performance of racing horses. I was also invited to commence teaching at the vet school three months after I graduated.
I covered a large area with my practice, from Rome in central Italy to Taranto in the south and had the unique opportunity to combine my practical work with my research, where I was able to collect performance data on the racetrack and advised my clients on training methods and horse management.
In turn, I was able to demonstrate improved racing performance of the horses I worked with through my practice, which further improved my reputation and demand as an equine vet.
I had to change my focus in 2013 when political instability led to an economic crisis in Italy with the horse racing industry severely impacted. This led me to accept a PhD scholarship at the University of Sydney, which I commenced in 2014. I was soon after offered a job as a lecturer at Charles Sturt University at their Wagga Wagga campus and managed my teaching and research commitments to complete my PhD three months early! I then worked as an Assistant Professor in Animal Behaviour and Welfare at the City University of Hong Kong, where I developed all their teaching material. In 2019 I returned to Italy to an Associate Professor role in Bologna, before I accepted my current position as senior lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Welfare here at UNE.
Did you face any barriers and what motivated you to overcome them?
I became a single mother during the time of Italy’s economic crisis. When I asked one of my American professors for a job as an assistant, she told me that I was too talented to be an assistant and encouraged me to apply for scholarships for PhDs, which I did.
I ended up working and studying full time in unfamiliar countries without family support, but with the invaluable support of friends and colleagues. In Sydney and Wagga Wagga, I made lifelong friends, who helped me with caring for my child and without whom I wouldn’t have managed to achieve what I did.
Can you share some personal achievements with us that you are proud of?
My greatest personal achievement is having worked two highly demanding full-time jobs in Italy and here in Australia, while raising my son. This enabled me to spearhead my career and have a real impact in my field. For example, my research on improving the welfare of horses during transportation was incorporated into new regulations in Europe, while I worked as an expert for the European commission.
What would you, or are you telling young girls and women, who are thinking about a career in your field?
Be passionate!
If you are passionate about something, focus on it and stay up to date with developments in the field. If you can identify what the current problems are, you can hopefully focus your research on solving those problems. Policy makers and NGO’s want to see data and evidence. Doing high quality research and collecting strong evidence has enabled me to change international regulation in animal welfare, which may not have happened without the data from my research.
