Mastering Your PhD: Survival And Success In The Doctoral Years And Beyond

197 Pages·3.055 MB·English

by  Patricia Gosling, Bart Noordam

PATRICIA GOSLING
BART NOORDAM
Mastering
Your PhD
SURVIVAL AND SUCCESS
IN THE DOCTOR AL YEARS
AND BEYOND
Third Edition
Mastering Your PhD
·
Patricia Gosling Bart Noordam
Mastering Your PhD
Survival and Success in the Doctoral
Years and Beyond
Third Edition
Patricia Gosling Bart Noordam
Zurich, Switzerland ASML (Netherlands)
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ISBN 978-3-031-11416-8 ISBN 978-3-031-11417-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11417-5
1st & 2nd editions: © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006, 2011
3rd edition: © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2022
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Preface
Why Read a Book About Getting a PhD?
PhD students and their supervisors tend to focus only on the content of the
research that leads to the doctoral thesis. All other issues are often taken for
granted: how to organise your work, give a presentation, work in a team, cope
with your supervisor, and manage your time effectively. When asked, former
PhD students typically claim that the general experience of being a graduate
student, which includes learning how to solve complex problems and work
well with others, was of greater value to their careers than the actual content
of their thesis. The goal of this book is to apply the communication and
organisational skills found to be effective outside the realm of academia to the
world of PhD students, and to encourage them to master the non-scientific
aspects of getting a PhD. Hopefully, the suggestions and advice included here
will help graduate students get the most out of (and fully enjoy!) their PhD
years, in addition to offering some much-needed support as they prepare for
their post-PhD careers.
Sink or Swim
After hearing about this project, a professor in the UK had this to say: ‘This
book should not be published. Obtaining your PhD is like swimming across
a big lake. Some students cannot swim, so they’ll sink. That’s the way the
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academic system selects those who will win. By providing students with a
book on how to swim, they will pass and ruin the system.’ We can’t think of
a better endorsement for this book. And we believe, of course, that it is indeed
possible to learn to swim—and to survive the course. In fact, we think that
mastering certain skills along the way is just as important as getting across
the lake to claim the prize—your PhD—on the other side.
The Problem: Saving an Old Master Painting
from the Ravages of Time
To help illustrate some of the principles and suggestions outlined in this book,
we’ll be following a team of graduate students as they work together on an
important project: saving a priceless Old Master painting from further deteri-
oration. The robe of the Virgin Mary in the middle panel of The Coronation
of the Virgin by Lorenzo Monaco (ca. 1414) is currently white. Technical
examination has shown, however, that the robe was originally a deep pinkish
mauve. A restorer can retouch the painting with red paint, but if the robe
is still fading, a colour difference will occur; thus, elucidating the correct
composition of the original paint, plus understanding the exact nature of the
fading process, will be critical for carrying out a proper restoration.
Isabel, a chemistry PhD student, will be analysing the chemical compo-
sition of the paint. Her challenge will be to apply the analytical techniques
currently available to study a sample from the painting, typically a tiny speck
that is barely visible to the human eye.
Yousef is a PhD student in physics who will be focusing on calculations
for the rate of fading in certain paint composites, as well as the important
issue of whether it will be possible to reconstruct the original colours in the
painting. Another aspect of Yousef’s project will be to develop new analytical
techniques for obtaining as much information as possible from the precious
samples of paint.
Peter is working on his PhD in art history. His project will include the
interpretation of the painting based on its use of colour, particularly when
the colour is thought to have a religious or symbolic significance. The choice
of colour may also be characteristic for this particular artist. The Virgin’s robe,
now white, though originally a deep pinkish mauve, for example, could be
symbolic of her purity as the mother of Christ, whereas a purple hue would
be a symbol of her royal nature as the queen of heaven. In order to solve
the problem of the painting’s continuing degradation, the team will have to
work together and rely on each other’s data. Communication, planning, and
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cooperation will be key to their success. All three are graduate students at the
same university, albeit in separate research departments. Isabel has joined a
well-established group run by a senior professor. Yousef works for a world-
renowned professor in a large group with many PhD students and several
Post-docs. Peter works as one of two PhD students for a young assistant
professor.
To complete the project successfully, the team will need to draw on many
skills they hadn’t counted on using, including good communication, proper
planning, and effective time management.
Zurich, Switzerland Patricia Gosling
Amsterdam, The Netherlands Bart Noordam
Authors’ Note
More than ten years have passed since the 2011 publication of the second
edition of Mastering Your PhD: Survival and Success in the Doctoral Years
and Beyond . In the meantime, a great deal has changed in the ways we
work and communicate with each other. Normally, technical innovations
proceed in small steps. Extraordinary events, however, have a way of accel-
erating developments in all areas of life. The global COVID-19 pandemic
led to rapid advances in biomedicine and communications. Effective vaccines
were developed and tested in record time, and remote learning and online
communication tools sprang up like dandelions. Although the concept of
online learning has been around for two decades or so, overall acceptance
of remote teaching, until recently, was low. Traditionally, learning took place
in a classroom, and scientists from around the globe gathered at conference
venues to share their latest research—despite the substantial investment of
time and money involved. When the pandemic brought a halt to most face-
to-face interactions, classroom teaching and onsite meetings were abruptly
curtailed, and nearly everyone was obliged—seemingly overnight in some
cases—to adopt remote communication tools. School teachers had to adapt
their lesson plans for online classes, in addition to coping with the peda-
gogical and social limitations of remote learning. There was simply no other
choice. Some adapted easily to the new tools for remote communication and
collaboration, while others struggled with the unfamiliar technology. For the
introverts and social-phobics among us, the ability to work or attend classes
from home often felt like a blessing in disguise, whereas others struggled to
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cope with the forced solitude under lockdown conditions, including the lack
of in-person meetings and the loss of social connectedness. In this respect,
the pandemic acted as a magnifying glass, bringing into focus the many ways
of being human, and the different paths each of us took to navigate a global
health crisis that—at the time of writing—is still ongoing. As our rapidly
changing world and the tools we use to communicate continue to evolve, we
were inspired to create a new edition of this book, so we could include tips
and advice on using the new learning tools and modes of communication
during your PhD journey. To help illustrate some of these ideas, we’ve added
a few more episodes to the ‘Saving an Old Master Painting’ storyline to show
how Isabel, Yousef, and Peter successfully adapted the suggestions on remote
learning and interactions in real-life practice. Even in a non-ideal world—
which we have all been struggling through—these new episodes, along with
additional tips and advice, illustrate creative ways for adapting our typical
behaviours to fit a range of ever-changing circumstances.
September 2022 Patricia Gosling
Bart Noordam
Contents
1 Choosing a Research Group: Pluses and Pitfalls 1
2 Getting Started 9
3 Setting Goals and Objectives 15
4 How to Think Like a Scientist 23
5 Designing Good Experiments 29
6 Charting Your Progress Month by Month 37
7 Dealing with Setbacks 43
8 Mentors, Leadership, and Community 49
9 How to Get Along with Your Labmates, et al. 55
10 Group Dynamics: Dealing with Difficult Colleagues 67
11 The Art of Good Communication 73
12 Mastering Presentations and Group Meetings 83
13 Searching the Scientific Literature 93
14 Your First International Conference 99
15 Remote Collaboration 109
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