Contents of my job
The idea I used to have of a PhD student, is of someone who spends endless hours behind his computer, focused on one single task. The reality turned out to be rather different for me: hardly ever I get to…
A new world of work for scientists
Last week, I went to visit two companies where the concept of "a new world of work" (het nieuwe werken in Dutch) has been implemented. Although I am always eager to try out new ways of working and new productivity…
Doing a PhD: is it work or school?
I'm often confronted with the question what a PhD actually is: is it going to school or is it having a research job? Explaining people that it is somewhere in between both seems to be a rather unsatisfying answer, while…
Inserting the chapter title to the header in Word 2010
For the report which holds all my experimental data, I've started to add the chapter title (that is, the specimen name in my case) to the header.If you use header 1, 2,... for your titles, there is a quick and…
Explaining your work to friends and family
Has it happened to you that at a large family gathering, your relatives ask what you are actually working on, and you end up mumbling some code language? Or that you tried to explain a friend what your research is…
Tools for planning towards the defense
Previously, I've described which system I use to keep track of what needs to be done per week and per month.Up to now, I haven't gone into detail of how I try to keep the ultimate goal (The Defense) in…
Another presentation style
Last Wednesday, I gave a presentation about my research. Usually, I follow the same consecutive steps in my presentation (overview - background/ literature review - experiments - results - conclusions), just as I would build up a paper.This time, however,…
Journal top 5
This post is inspired by this, stating:Recently on Twitter, PhD2Published posed the question “What is your academic discipline and what are your top 5 recommended high impact journals?” For my PhD research, I've mostly been reading papers from these five…
Simplify
For 2012, I only have one resolution: to simplify, wherever and whatever I can. After the years, I've accumulated tons of random stuff, memories, habits and processes, digital data and they've resulted in a certain set of constraints (or boundary…
Cleaning out the information stream
During my recent holidays, I realized that I am not absorbing much of all the information that the internet constantly pours over me. Usually, I have several tabs open (mailboxes, news, social media sites, blogs,..) which continuously pour out information…