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 AmeliCARedalycOpen Journal SystemsACI Avances en Ciencias e IngenieriasLatindex

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 bothHow do you take care of your mental health in academiaAdvice for transitioning in and out of academia (between academia and industry)?How can I get accepted into a PhD position?Finally, we discuss what we've enjoyed reading in this year so far, what we are listening to currently (in terms of music and podcasts), and what we particularly enjoy at the moment.References:Citavi The Making of Pro-life Activists: How Social Movement Mobilization Works - Ziad W. Munson (Chicago University Press)Kadril - La Jolie FlamandeFellowship - The Saberlight ChroniclesHaken - FaunaThe Ezra Klein PodcastWhy is this happening? - Chris HayesSelf-compassionate professorAdobe AuditionGoodway coffee

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 bachelors and masters in nuclear engineering. We learn about her background and career path, and how she choose to get all her degrees at the same university. We also learn about her research and the methods she used during her PhD and the programming she carries out in her job, as well as about the timeline of the PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the various milestones in the program. We also learn about how she landed her position at Argonne, and how the pandemic influenced her life values and career aspirations.Outside of her technical area in nuclear engineering, Kalin is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the nuclear industry, broader STEM field, and academia in general. At Argonne National Lab she is on a DEI council where she advocates for her colleagues and works with leadership to make impactful changes. We learn about the state of DEI in the nuclear industry and the changes occurring in the field, as well as Kalin's best advice on how to foster DEI in STEM and academia.Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family (husband and almost 4 year old daughter) and getting lost in one of her many hobbies (usually some form of crafting or gardening). As an academic parent of a baby, the pandemic certainly hit Kalin's research hard. We learn about Kalin's journey as an academic parent, the support provided by her university and advisor, and how her parenting journey coincided with the pandemic.We round off the episode learning about Kalin's best advice for PhD students, how she sets boundaries around work, reflecting on the impact of COVID-19 and what a day in the life looks like for her.ReferencesKalin on Twitter  Kalin on  LinkedIn 

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, session, etc). We also look at the joys and pitfalls of co-editing special issues. Next, we look at the various steps: how to propose a special issue, how to send around the call for papers, how to manage the review process, and how to wrap up everything in the end. Finally, we reflect on whether it is worth or not the time and effort of editing a special issue, and what the greatest joys are in this work.

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 mental health of young children with behavioral and emotional concerns, supporting parents, and diagnosis and treatment of children and adolescents with OCD. Before going to nursing school, Emily got a BA in English. We learn about her career path, and how she decided to return to academia while being in practice, and how she decided to go to Johns Hopkins for her PhD.Emily's research focuses on parents' adverse and childhood experiences' impact on parenting practices, and the role of neighborhood safety in parenting. We learn about her mixed methods research, and how it fits within the timeline of her PhD program. We also learn about the major milestones of the PhD program in nursing at Johns Hopkins. Emily is also an academic parent. We learn about how the birth of her child impacted her career decisions, the type of support she got as a practicing nurse, and the support system she has as a doctoral candidate and parent in her PhD program. We also discuss how the pandemic influenced her experience at the beginning of her PhD.We round off the interview with learning about Emily's best advice for doctoral candidates, how she sets boundaries around work, and what a day in the life looks like for her.References Dr. Debbie GrossJohns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins PhD program in nursing

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 sourcesTry both personal and consortium grantsThink national and internationalEU funding is not impossible (although it is also really not the best-funded funding, but it is prestigious and thus good for your CV)Work with experienced grant writers in consortiumLearn from the experience of your colleaguesGet help from the grant writing office at your universityWe also look at particular advice for early career scholars on getting their research funded, and when to quit an idea. We also discuss the difference between depending on funding for our salaries versus having a tenured position where we may not need to be paying our salaries out of our project.

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, especially the rare idiopathic intracranial hypertension, a vision threatening disease that mainly affects women of a reproductive age.  We learned about the disease itself, the treatment options, and how it disproportionately affects Black women.In addition to her research, Jacqueline is passionate about inspiring the next generation of scientists and showcasing the many different ways someone can have a research career. We talk about her use of social media and blogging, and the benefits of being more visible online.We round off learning about her advice for doctoral candidates, setting boundaries around work, the impact of COVID-19 on her applications and start of the PhD, and what a day in the life looks like.ReferencesJacqueline's website Jacqueline's instagram Jacqueline's TwitterInterview with Jacqueline Translational scienceCase Western Reserve UniversityClinical Translational Science PhD program.Training T32 grant within the NIH Trinetx

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 into our best tips for presenting at conferences, and the use of visual information during presentations. We want to sell our research and ourselves, and have a take-home message for our audience. To round off, we find that our take home message for today's episode is that one should have a take-home message for the conference presentation.ReferencesIncrease understanding at conferences - Ep. 106Attending your first conference - Ep. 68Virtual conferences - Ep. 22

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 universities and how that reflects on how we prepare our tasks for the upcoming period of time and how we periodically reflect on our work and achievements.We also look at administrative tasks and service, and how to balance between the fact that everything gets thrown on the new faculty member and the need to find time to work on our research. Similarly, we look at what realistic expectations are for teaching material (and accepting that it won't be perfect on the first run) and setting boundaries to avoid spending too much time trying to polish things to level of perfection.