I am in the final stages of my PhD work. This, for me, means unstructured work hours, writing multiple articles parallelly, and job hunting. I knew it would be a hectic, chaotic 2019; and I pride myself at being organized and well-prepared for such a feat. As 2018 was coming[…]
Read moreCategory: Researcher Life
Researcher Life: Who Am I? – A cross-sectional analysis
Identity is a difficult concept to wrap one’s head around. Think about your identity for a moment. Who are you? Does your answer reflect your citizenship, residential status, your job description, the relationship you have with others, your gender, your education, your sexual orientation? What do you choose to be[…]
Read moreResearcher Life: How to Communicate to various audiences?
Over the last year, I have presented my scientific findings to a wide range of audiences from school children to people passing by on the streets of Berlin. Thanks to programs like Soapbox Science, Skype a Scientist and Letters to a Pre-Scientist, I’ve been able to hone my scientific communication[…]
Read more
Researcher Life : Work-Travel-Life Balance
Research is a global field and involves a ton of travel – collaborations, conferences, talks, sabbaticals, training, its endless. If you are someone who, like me, enjoys travel, you may want to actively seek out such opportunities and turn them into mini vacations. Add to this vacations you take alone[…]
Read moreResearcher Life: Skype a Scientist Experience
‘Did you know in the 5th Grade, that you would be a scientist when you grow up?’ This was one of the questions I got from a 5th Grade class I was matched with under the Skype a Scientist program. I smiled to myself as I answered ‘No, I hadn’t[…]
Read more
Researcher Life: The Soapbox Science Experience
A presentation for Soapbox Science, just like any other presentation, goes through its phases of preparation. My journey started slowly with an application in February, a confirmation in March, and then quickly escalated with a Skype training in April. In this post, I’ll try and retrospect about how I prepared for my Soapbox Science talk.
Read more
Researcher Life – ‘My’ 100 blocks a day
“Most people sleep about seven or eight hours a night. That leaves 16 or 17 hours awake each day. Or about 1,000 minutes. Let’s think about those 1,000 minutes as 100 10-minute blocks. That’s what you wake up with every day….It’s always good to step back and think about how we’re using those 100 blocks we get each day. How many of them are put towards making your future better, and how many of them are just there to be enjoyed? How many of them are spent with other people, and how many are for time by yourself? How many are used to create something, and how many are used to consume something? How many of the blocks are focused on your body, how many on your mind, and how many on neither one in particular? Which are your favorite blocks of the day, and which are your least favorite?”
Read moreResearcher Life : Is the Blotchy Area Clearing Up?
Continuing in the spirit of The Metaphor, here is another post. This one is about the Blotchy Area on your map, and how to figure out if you are making any real progress. As I explained in my metaphor, when ‘you enter this area, your compass starts acting up …[…]
Read moreResearcher Life: Managing A Stormy Journey
If you read the blog on The Metaphor, you know that sailing the PhD boat can be difficult for a number of reasons. You may notice a hole in your boat that needs fixing (or else you will drown). There may be a storm you did not foresee. You may[…]
Read more
Researcher Life : Getting out of the Tunnel
Its the ‘resolutions’ time of year! The first two years of my PhD were pretty challenging; full of technical roadblocks and the toils that come with setting up a lab and research design from scratch. As a result, I was mainly just reading work related things and towards the end[…]
Read more