PhD Talk

In today's episode, we addressed a few questions that came in through the PhD Talk blog. We discuss what a day in the life looks like during COVID-19 for both of us, the programs and apps we use on a daily basis (and the ones that tend to suck us in for too much time), our experiences with meditation and the effects we have noticed, and coaching programs during the PhD year and mid-career years.

The programs we mentioned are:
PhDometer
Toggl Track
Evernote
Todoist
Google Keep
Headspace
Meditation Timer

In today's episode, we talk about writing habits. We discuss Rico's lessons learned from struggling with writing his entire MSc thesis, Eva's experiences of writing her PhD thesis, writing during the tenure track years, and current writing habits. At the end, we give our best tips for consistent writing and developing good writing habits.

The PhDometer mentioned is available for download on the PhD2Published website

The best advice on thesis writing that Eva read during her PhD years (and kick-started her writing) is this famous post by the Thesis Whisperer

A guest post on Eva's blog that motivated her to think better about day rhythms for writing is this post by Dr. Amber Davis.

In this episode, Rico and Eva interview Michelle Crowther. Michelle is the learning and research librarian for humanities and languages at CCCU Canterbury Christ Church University (Canterbury, UK) and PhD candidate in English Literature at CCCU. We discuss the work of a university librarian, and how librarians can support university students and researchers, on campus as well as in the digital realm. Listen to this week's episode to learn more about the work of a university librarian, how this work has changed over time, and abruptly due to COVID-19, as well as to learn more about the function of the physical space of the university library.

See the library building at CCCU here. Check out the "Doing a Literature Review - Releasing the Research Imagination" by Chris Hart, as recommended by Michelle.

In this episode, Rico and Eva discuss various options for grants and scholarships for graduate studies. Listen to learn about options for funding graduate school in Canada, Belgium, the USA, the Netherlands - as well as our own experiences with various types of funding.

In today's episode, we learn from Rico's experience in an engineering PhD that has an experimental component. We discuss lessons learned, planning in the lab, the practical aspects of making and testing specimens, and then have a quick look at data processing after an experiment. We also discuss how things have changed since Eva did her PhD on an experimental topic. 

In today's episode, we interview Ivan Carrera, a PhD candidate in bioinformatics and Ecuadorian professor. His scientific career has taken him and his growing family from Ecuador to Brazil, Portugal, and Colombia. Listen to today's episode on Ivan's research, his experiences abroad, and being a scientific father. Follow Ivan on Twitter @elprofe_ivan or Instagram @elprofe_ivan and check out his blog papacientifico.com

In this episode, Rico and Eva discuss their professional and personal goals for 2021. We discuss research, writing, teaching - how we expect the pandemic to influence these in the year to come, and how goals relate to.  Eva shares goals regarding service and admin as well. We then discuss our personal pandemic-proof goals for 2021.

In this episode, we reflect on 2020. We discuss how the pandemic impacted our research, what progress we made, as well as our personal goals. 

In today's episode, we interview Silvia Pugliese, who is doing her PhD in a Marie 
 Curie european ITN (international training network) . We talk about the project, her part in it, the logistics, and lessons learned from the pandemic.

In this episode, we discuss gifts you may want to consider for the PhD students and academics in your life - or, if you are a PhD student or academic, gifts you may like to receive. We've broken these down into two categories: productivity and leisure. Listen for gift ideas, as well as discussions on weird music mashups, the best chairs for fidgety people, and gardening for those who do not have a garden at home.