Beyond the Thesis With Papa PhD

In your life as a student or as a researcher, you may hear discouraging voices telling you you’re not good enough, not intelligent enough, or even not man enough for the task or project at hand. In today’s episode, we’re talking with Cindy Hovington, founder of CuriousNeuron.com, about why it is important to distance yourself from these opinions, to listen to your own inner voice and your own will...

How easy is it to be a female scientist? How easy is it to be a female founder and CEO? How easy is it to find work/life balance when you wear both of these hats and are building a family, too? In this episode, you will be hearing from Margaret Magdesian, founder and CEO of Ananda Devices, about her academic path, about how she transitioned to the biotech startup space, and about her answers to th...

What happens when you have all your ducks lined up and the universe throws you a curveball? That’s the moment when you have to regroup, reflect deeply on what you want the new path that is opening up to you to look like and trace a game plan that will allow you to come out winning. Drew Slack was well on his way towards a life in the professoriate when his curveball arrived. In today’s episode, we...

Can life be made exclusively of successes? Can you find fulfillment in a job that pays well but is not aligned with your values? Does every postdoc get to be a professor? In this episode of Papa PhD, we address all these important questions and much more, as we talk with Abel Polese about his academic career, about all the other things he has going on and about how he glues everything together to...

In today’s life, your ability to pivot and to embrace new projects is key. You are actually expected to change employment on a 3 to 5-year cycle in the current job market. These pivots can happen between academic positions, between academia and industry, and between non-academic jobs. This week, we’ll be hearing from Simon Moore, whose stellar academic career has led him into a successful and fulf...

Les cheminements que vous suivrez après vos études graduées peuvent prendre des tournants très variés. Il se peut que vous suiviez un parcours purement académique, une carrière en industrie ou que vous vous lanciez en entrepreneuriat. Quel que soit votre choix ou la passion qui vous motive, les habiletés et l’endurance que vous aurez acquises tout  au long de votre maîtrise ou de votre doctorat se...

Your dream job is out there somewhere. The one you were made for, the one you deserve. It may be one handshake away, one conversation away, one introduction away. So, make sure you give yourself the chance to attend events, to go to seminars in domains that interest you but are outside of your area of research. This will give you the opportunity to learn about career spaces adjacent to yours and t...

Life is not in black and white. Your life, who you are, is a patchwork stemming from your upbringing, your experiences, who you've met, the choices you've made. What you studied is also a piece of this patchwork, but it's not the whole thing. And the more you go into your adult life, the more you end up painting that mosaic to your iage and to your tastes. In this week's interview, you'll be heari...

Pourquoi faire une maîtrise ? Pourquoi faire un doctorat ? Tout ça peut paraître bien compliqué et bien difficile quand on termine notre baccalauréat. Une conversation avec un professeur sur un sujet qui vous intéresse peut changer votre perspective et vous projeter dans une aventure où votre détermination et votre persévérance seront mis à l’épreuve et d’où vous sortirez armés d’un ensemble d’hab...

Download "Tools for Your PhD Journey" Now ! If you decide to embark on the graduate studies journey, you may find yourself telling stories. Stories about ideas, stories about science, stories about stories. You will focus and research until late hours of the night to find that piece of information, to fill that gap in the narrative. You will crumple a whole chapter that isn’t working and restart f...

Leaving the bench doesn’t necessarily mean leaving science and the scientific community altogether. A rich universe of activities exists that are closely related to academia, be it within universities or in external organizations or governing bodies. Having gone through grad school and lived research from within, you are well placed to fulfill roles that bridge these two universes, be it in admini...

It's never too late to follow your calling. Depending on where you are in life, there are many ways you can reorient and choose a new path for yourself, be it getting a second degree, growing your minor or a hobby into your main focus or getting a certification in your domain of interest. This week, we'll hear about how our guest went from a bachelor's in theater to a PhD in neuroscience, and even...

Sometimes, when you finish your studies you get a job, or you start a business. Sometimes, you go back to school. Be it because you want to go to law school or med school, or because you want to access a domain that requires you to have a related degree, you may be headed back to the classroom after grad school. You’ll probably be a much better student than you were before, and your motivation for...

There is always one day when reality hits. Your well devised trip, that you’d been planning for months, or for years, falls short of your expectations, of what you had imagined. The disappointment you feel may bring you thoughts of packing up and heading back home… Or you can pick up your map and look for what other treasures your surroundings hold for you to discover. And you trace a new route an...

When talking about grad school, we often talk about the challenges of academic life, about mental health, and about physical health, but what about financial health? Academic accomplishments are paramount at this juncture in your life, but in the end, you want to be set up not only as a specialist in your domain, but you also want to come out of the process with a clean financial bill of health an...

Many of us leave home for grad school, to another city or even to another country. Some end up staying after graduation, some end up coming back home. Being an international student can be an experience in freedom and independence, but the fact that you are far from family and friends may be challenging, especially if you're having problems or difficulties adjusting to a new place, to a new cultur...

Imagine swimming 1.9 kilometers, then biking 90 kilometers through the hills of Mont-Tremblant, and then running a half-marathon. It may sound impossible or a task for super-humans... But people like you and me set out to do it, diligently train for months and months, and they do it - they complete an IronMan, or in this case a Half Ironman. And when they do, they push through physical pain, throu...

During grad school, your personal interests and strengths can serve as a blueprint for what comes after graduation and inform the career choices you will make once you’re on the job market. Your personal interests are also key for keeping a healthy balance between work and your personal life, during your studies. In this episode, we will be talking with Rob Hutcheson, who will share his insights a...

You don’t embark in a master’s or a PhD without confidence. A trust, a confidence that you can delve into the unknown of a master’s or a PhD project and come out with answers to questions no one has asked before. This confidence is what fueled you so far. And during this time, it has grown with you. It may have suffered some blows, and weakened, now and then, but it has become one of your greatest...

You’re finishing grad school, or you’ve just finished. Your project has brought you here and now – it had challenges, victories, failures, obstacles, successes. It has brought you excitement, frustration, exhilaration, anxiety, satisfaction. In it, you have asked questions, tested hypotheses, studied, discussed. But one question may still be unanswered – what comes after? In this episode, you will...

In a space mission, there is one countdown, one launch, one destination, and no place for error or doubt. Grad studies are less like a rocket launch, and more like an expedition into uncharted territory. As such, they are a forgiving endeavour, where you have ample opportunity to reassess and reorient along the way. This week, we will be hearing from Dana Murchison, whose passion for writing and t...