What’s your job title and how long have you been at Loughborough?

I’m a Professor of Mathematical Cognition and have been at Loughborough for just over 15 years. I know that, because last year I was given a £150 voucher to celebrate. I spent it on plates.

Tell us what a typical day in your job looks like?

Normally, I start off with some coffee and do emails for half an hour or so. Then I get the train to Loughborough and cycle across town to campus. Maybe today was a typical day in the office. I had a meeting with a coauthor about a draft paper we’d received some reviews on, and then I read a section of a book. After that, I had lunch in the department, gave a two-hour lecture to our second-year undergraduates and finally met with a final-year project student.

What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on?

I have a tendency to think that whatever I’m currently working on is the most interesting thing I’ve ever done, which obviously can’t be right. Currently, I’m quite enthusiastic about a project I’m doing with Lara Alcock, which examines how prior belief influences logically reasoning in mathematics. It’s quite interesting psychologically (it’s not obvious whether probabilistic theories of day-to-day reasoning can/should apply to mathematics), but also philosophically (what does it mean for two known-to-be true mathematical statements to differ in believability?)

What is your proudest moment at Loughborough?

By far the proudest moment of my career was the 2018 USS pensions dispute. I was the Loughborough UCU branch chair at the time, and it felt like quite a big responsibility to lead the branch through a really difficult period. Universities UK were proposing to convert USS to a defined contribution scheme, which would have led to USS members being significantly poorer in retirement. Local members were fantastic. After a lot of effort from our branch committee, we obtained the fourth-highest turnout of any university in the industrial action ballot. The sense of solidarity on the picket lines was tangible, even (perhaps especially) when the “beast from the east” snowstorm arrived. As branch chair, I had to liaise with local management here at Loughborough, but also the national UCU leadership. Somehow we managed to maintain a really positive relationship on campus, despite many challenges. As a result, the then Vice Chancellor made a number of important national interventions supporting the union’s position. I think it’s well understood that all USS-eligible (grade 6 and above) staff at Loughborough today are meaningfully better off because of the action taken by UCU members during that period. But it’s much less well understood that the University itself is also in a much better financial position because of what we did: if the UUK plan had been implemented, then Loughborough would be spending about £3.8m/year more on pension contributions than it currently is (18% of salary rather than 14.5%). That’s about 60 lecturer salaries. You should never believe people who say that collective action doesn’t work.

Which University value do you most resonate with and why?

I actually think the University motto is much better than any of the values: by truth, wisdom and labour. That nicely encapsulates what academia should be about.

Tell us something you do outside of work that we might not know about?

According to chess.com, I’m currently the 13,554th best blitz chess player in the world (that’s the version where each player gets 3 or 5 minutes for all their moves). It occurred to me recently that I’m probably better at chess than I am at being an academic, and that, therefore, maybe I should spend less time on work and more on chess.

What is your favourite quote?

“See it, say it, sorted.”

If you would like to feature in ‘5 Minutes With’, or you work with someone who you think would be great to include, please email Lilia Boukikova at L.Boukikova@lboro.ac.uk