Vicente Rodilla Alama

Vicente Rodilla Alama

I began working on a PhD thesis at the University of Valencia after I completed my degree, but I was approached by a Spanish company who offered me a nine-month teaching job in Ireland- nothing to do with research or PhDs- which I took because I saw an opportunity to improve my English.
I made contacts with lecturers at Trinity College, Dublin City University and University College Dublin. I was offered a small research grant from the Irish Cancer Society and a part-time teaching job at the Dublin College of Technology (DCU) at Kevin Street. I taught Nuclear Physics Applied to Biological Techniques and Cell and Molecular Biology laboratory practicals. I spent a couple of years between St. Luke Hospital, Dublin working on primary cultures of cancerous cells, teaching at DCU and also carrying out research towards my PhD. Somehow I ended up working as a Scientific Officer at the Nuclear Energy Board (Now the Radiological Protection Institute) of Ireland. There, I participated in research programmes on radioactive contamination on the marine environment as well as monitoring ionizing radiation which was of much interest after the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident.
I moved to the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) as a post-doctoral research fellow on a research project on renal biotransformation enzymes at the Dept. of Medicine & Therapeutics funded by the National Kidney Research Fund (UK). Two years later, I was awarded a prestigious Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in Toxicology from the Wellcome Trust to carry out research in metallothionein in human renal cells. Later I worked on other projects sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry (GaxoWellcome or Servier R&D, for example) always at the University of Aberdeen. I carried out research but I also taught Renal Pharmacology and Toxicology to Biomedical Science students, Renal Pharmacology to medical students as well as many other topics in a Master in Clinical Pharmacology. In my later years at the University of Aberdeen I ran a series of seminars on Statistics for PhD students at the Department.
I was offered a Lecturer position at the School of Applied Sciences at Robert Gordon University, also in Aberdeen, where I taught Environmental Toxicology as well as Human Physiology and Human and Animal Physiology.
After thirteen years abroad, I landed again in Valencia to join the newly created University Cardenal Herrera-CEU to teach Toxicology to Pharmacy and Veterinary students. Together with Dr Garcés I continued teaching statistics mainly to doctoral students. When the University started its new medical degree in English, I was asked to teach Introduction to Medicine and Research Methodology -a broad first year subject- and I started to teach Statistics and Epidemiology (I learned Epidemiology from lecturers at the Harvard School of Public Health) to first year medical students.
The international component is a major key in my career. I was Erasmus coordinator at Robert Gordon University and I was the first Erasmus coordinator for Veterinary students. From 2011 to 2020 I was International Relations Coordinator for the Faculty of Health Sciences at Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU. I have delivered lectures on various aspects of research, teaching or university life at several institutions abroad (Italy, USA, Philippines, Colombia, Norway, Germany, United Kingdom, etc.).