Gary McDowell is the founder of Lightoller LLC, a consultancy providing expertise on early career researchers, with the goal of working with organizations to help future generations of researchers reach their potential. Originally from Northern Ireland in the UK, Gary studied Chemistry and received a PhD in Oncology all at the University of Cambridge, U.K. He moved to the U.S. in 2011 to carry out postdoctoral training, first at Boston Children’s Hospital then at Tufts University. Gary helped organize a symposium in Boston in 2014 to give a voice to early career researchers, and was lead author on the resulting paper, “Shaping the Future of Research: a perspective from junior scientists”. Following meetings organized by junior researchers across the U.S. in 2015, in 2016 he co-founded the nonprofit organization Future of Research and began working full-time advocating for junior researchers. In 2017 he was appointed to the Next Generation Researchers Initiative, a committee mandated by the U.S. Congress under the 21st Century Cures act and convened by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, examining the policy and programmatic steps that the nation can undertake to ensure the success of the next generation of researchers in the biomedical and behavioral sciences in the U.S. The report, “Breaking Through” was published in April 2018. Since 2019 he has worked as a consultant focusing on advising institutions on how to better support future generations of researchers, and to provide early career researchers with tools and strategies to effect change.