PhD Talk

I'm back with a quick bonus episode on the small university journals that are publish open access without any article processing charge. Please check out  AmeliCA Redalyc Open Journal Systems ACI Avances en Ciencias e Ingenierias Latindex

A few grumblings on why it does not make sense to try to speed up our literature review using ChatGPT - a little nugget of Opinions while we prepare for the next season of the podcast.

In today's episode we do a Q&A. We start with a general update on what we are working on, what is going well, and what is not going well.  Then, we address the following questions that came in through the PhD Talk blog: What does your work setup look like? What does your setup look like at home and in the office, and how do you divide your time between both How do you take care of your me...

In today's episode, we interview Dr. Kalin Kiesling. She is a nuclear engineer at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Lab where she develops the software that other engineers use to design and analyze new nuclear reactor concepts. She earned her PhD in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022, from which she also holds a bachelo...

In today's episode, we talk about special issues: what are they, what is the value of special issue, and why should you consider editing a special issue. We also discuss the caveats and increasing bad reputation on special issues related to the business model of some publishers. We look at the difference of special issues for journals directly, and those associated with events (mini symposia,...

In today's episode, we interview Emily Hoppe. Emily is a  psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner and PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland. Before starting her PhD, Emily practiced as a staff nurse and psychiatric nurse practitioner at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland for eight years. Her clinical practice focused on the menta...

In today's episode, Phil interviews Eva about grant writing. We learn about Eva's various sources of funding, the funding she has applied for in the past, and what has worked and what not. We also look at how helpful the feedback and grading of a proposal can be. Then, we get into our best practices for grant writing. In summary, these are: Try various different funding sources Try both...

In today's episode, we interview Jacqueline Shaia. She is a second year PhD student at Case Western Reserve University in the Clinical Translational Science PhD program. We learn about how she decided between going into the career path of a practicing physician and researcher, and how her background shaped her choices in her research and methods. Her current work focuses on ocular disorders,...

In today's episode, we talk about presenting at conferences. We look at what's the point of conferences in the first place, and how digital conferences can recreate the opportunities for networking (or not), and for whom. We also look at conferences as a genre , what the difference between writing a conference paper and presenting this conference paper is all about. This topic leads us i...

In today's episode, we talk about starting as a new faculty member. Phil interviews Eva about when she started as a faculty member at USFQ and TU Delft, and what her advice would be for new incoming faculty. We talk about how Eva found her faculty position, and how her teaching load at USFQ has changed over time. We also talk about the way in which professors are evaluated at various universi...

In today's episode, Eva interviews the podcast co-host for season 3: Phil Creswell. Phil has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, a Master of Social Sciences and a PhD from Uppsala University in Sweden. His PhD dissertation Chains of Trust: Networks of Persistent Resistance in Digital Activism is an ethnography of the hacktivist scene in (and around) Anonymous and its activis...

I asked ChatGPT how I can reduce my workload as a professor, and I have Some Opinions on that. Here’s what AI recommended me ( in italic ), and what I think about that (regular). As a professor, reducing your workload can be challenging due to the many responsibilities you have.  You bet, AI, there’s a lot on my plate. However, here are a few tips that may help: Bring it on… Prioritize tasks: Make...

When are growing into a position of becoming an independent scholar , an important element is to start new collaborations. You are no longer expected to work exclusively with your colleagues at your institution or with your former supervisor. You are expected instead to spread your wings and develop new collaborations. Unless you are planning to shut the door behind you and work in solitude for th...

In today's episode, I answer the following questions: - How much time does it take to write a paper? - How can you remain focused on writing a paper over weeks on end? - How can you quickly pull together a conference paper when the deadline is near? This episode is loosely based on: - How to write a paper in two days - How much time does it take to write a paper?

In this episode, I talk about good habits to develop during the PhD, the post-doc years, and the tenure track years. You can find the associated posts here: - Good habits to develop during the PhD - Good habits to develop as a post-doc - Good habits to develop on the tenure-track

Another bonus episode! We’ve all been in this awful situation: you need to write a paper or work on a chapter of your dissertation, but 20 minutes pass, and you can’t write anything. You go surf the internet for a little bit, return to your white screen and blinking cursor, and quickly get sucked into the internet again. Suddenly it is 5pm and you have not done anything. An entire day wasted witho...

In today's episode, I share my methods for staying engaged with the presentations at conferences. Here are my seven strategies: Schedule smart: We all have a maximum capacity of how much learning we can do without a break, and how much learning we can do in a day. Ideally, we have this information available because we know how we study. If not, run an experiment at a conference and track your...

I’ve found what really works for me to write an abstract in roughly 30 minutes. As I was googling “How to write an abstract” in the past, I came across this article by Philip Koopman which caught my attention. What I most like about this website is the questions it has in the different sections your abstract should contain: Motivation: Why do we care about the problem and the results? Problem stat...

A very quick bonus episode today to thank all of those who made season 2 possible!

In today's episode, we interview Jenny Orlando-Salling. Jenny is a PhD Fellow in Law at the University of Copenhagen.  Originally from Malta, Jenny has lived, studied and worked in a number of countries eventually settling down in Copenhagen, Denmark where she raises her children. Prior to her PhD, Jenny served as a diplomat in Brussels (at the EU) and Egypt. She holds degrees in Law and Poli...

In today's episode, we interview Dr. Malorie Albee. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Northern Michigan University with a PhD from Ohio State University. We learn about her career path, and the various moves she and her family have made over the course of the past years. We learn about the PhD program at Ohio State, and the structure of coursewor...

In today's episode, we interview Maria Balaet. Maria is a computational neuroscientist at Imperial College London (final PhD year).  We learn about how she has wanted to become a scientist from a very young age and how she achieved moving from Romania to the UK for her studies. Her research focuses on using large scale cognitive testing and machine learning methods for understanding how cogni...

In today's episode, we first catch up on what we are working on, what is currently going well, and what we are currently struggling with. Then, we dive into the four questions that we received to address: In the spirit of the Holidays: How can one just unplug from work? I used to say there is no holidays for grad students”, but that is bad work cultures What is your WFH setup? How can you att...

In today's episode, we interview Jen Loch.  She grew up in Florida (USA) which encouraged her focus on a profession in marine science from a young age. She completed her B.S. in Biology from Florida State University, and M.S. in Marine Biology through the Three Seas Program at Northeastern University. She completed her PhD in conservation biology at the University of Central Florida. We learn...

In today's episode, we look back on 2022 on a month-by-month basis. We reflect on what we have learned this year, what we would have done differently in hindsight, and what we hope to change in 2023. Finally, we also look at what we have upcoming as major milestones in 2023.