For Postdoc Appreciation Week 2026 (PAW_NL), we highlight Fabio Porru, a postdoctoral researcher at Amsterdam Public Health (APH), working at the Department of Medical Psychology, Amsterdam UMC. Fabio’s story illustrates how social engagement and nurturing his passion help him build a meaningful academic career.
Hundreds of mental health stories
Fabio’s first research internship as a medical student, ten years ago in the Netherlands, focused on public health questions related to depressive symptoms and work, and sparked his deep interest in mental health. Afterwards back in Italy, he started a personal social media project on mental health to share knowledge and reflections. In response, he received hundreds of stories from people about their own mental health struggles, which ultimately became an important foundation for his later PhD research on student wellbeing.
Nowadays, he is also active on social media under the name “Happydemiologist”, where he shares mental and public health research in an accessible way and sparks curiosity about topics people might otherwise consider abstract or distant.
Listening to resident doctors
Fabio is now part of the Professional Performance and Compassionate Care research team led by Professor Kiki Lombarts. His current project focuses on modernizing an almost twenty-year-old questionnaire used in medical residency programs to assess the quality of the learning climate: “You cannot use the same tool 20 years later, because expectations, values and needs may be quite different.” He updates the tool to better reflect today’s concerns around inclusiveness and social safety, actively seeking input from resident doctors: “It would be arrogant for me to tell them what they need. I want to hear their perspective and combine it into a new questionnaire that really captures their experience.” Alongside his research, he also teaches, viewing education as a powerful way to create impact more quickly.
Balancing care for others and self
Fabio describes himself as very social, and social contact gives him energy and often initiates meaningful projects. At the same time, he has learned to protect his own well-being and to communicate his limits: “If I want to have an impact, if I want to help people, I need to take care of myself. That means sometimes saying: I’m too busy right now, I’ll try to come back to you.” It’s an ongoing learning process that improves step by step over time. As once a professor told him during a difficult moment, he strongly believes that “the health of researchers is not less important then the research we do”.
Juggling the past, present and the future
Fabio is familiar with the structural challenges that come with being a postdoc. Projects are often short, one to one-and-a-half years, while the work continues beyond contract dates. He is currently in his fifth postdoc position, while still finalizing papers from earlier projects and developing grants. Each new role means joining a new team, learning new topics and methods, and delivering results quickly. “You’re constantly juggling the past, the present and the future,” and balancing previous commitments, current responsibilities and future ambitions is, for him, a core part of the postdoc experience.
Take care of health and passion
Fabio’s main advice to other postdocs is to take care of both their health and the passion that took them to take an academic career. Enthusiasm is an important indicator for him: “When I see my enthusiasm going down, I know I need to pick up something that gives me energy again. Of course, I want to be productive, but I also want to be happy. Afterall, if you lose your health or your passion, you also lose your productivity.”
Fabio Porru is active on social media as ‘Happydemiologist’:
Fun fact
A coffee for every situation: As an Italian, Fabio often hears jokes about Dutch coffee, but he says he has “a coffee for every situation”: in the morning he might want an espresso, when he’s working a lungo, and he’s perfectly fine with cappuccino after lunch. It’s all good.