“We should not consider it a disaster that someone trained to a high level doesn’t remain in academia,” Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, president of the European Research Council, told a panel discussion about science’s “lost generation” last month. Read more
I submitted my PhD thesis on the evolution of jumping genes in December 2016, four days before Christmas. It wasn’t perfect — in many ways, it wasn’t even good. By the end of my graduate studies, I had hoped to be a proficient programmer and an established scientist with multiple high impact papers. At the bare minimum, I expected to find evidence to support my hypothesis. Instead, my thesis was largely unpublished, my coding was preliminary, and my results were inconclusive. In my eyes, it was a failure. Read more
You are coming towards the end of your PhD – so what next? There are many options open to you; one obvious one is to apply for a postdoc position. You should think carefully about what you want to do and not just pursue this through inertia. I have supervised many engineering PhDs and some postdocs in my 32 years as an academic. As Head of University College London’s Doctoral School, I oversee the environment and policy for 6000 doctoral candidates and 3200 postdocs. Read more
A report from Vitae, a non-profit science-career advocacy organization in Cambridge, UK, found that while UK universities are seriously considering the mental health of PhD researchers, gaps and shortcomings in the graduate-programme system continue to keep many students from getting help. Read more
Gender pay gap persists … Read more
When I was looking for a PhD lab I had a pretty clear idea of the techniques I wanted to learn and master, and, essentially, I thought that was everything I needed to worry about. But the right PhD training is crucial to establish a good foundation for what comes next – either a job in industry, a postdoc in academia, or something away from the bench. Choosing the right lab is important, and there are considerations beyond gaining specific technical skills that need to be mulled over before making a decision. If I were to start another PhD, this is what I would look for: … Read more
What do you do when the degree you want to study is not offered by your university? Read more
“I want to see Africa lit up.” Naomi Asabre Frimpong says with a laugh, “I want to show how Africa can be forward thinking. I want to make sure that we are not left behind.” … Read more
