Twisting PhD trajectories
After more than a year of interviews for the PhD Talk podcast, and many years of hosting the "How I Work" series on this blog, I've come to one conclusion: PhD trajectories are never straight paths In fact, no life…
Some advice for new faculty members
This Fall semester, all over the world enthusiastic young (or not so young) people start their first job as a faculty member. If you are one of them - congratulations! But also: beware, you are in for quite a ride...…
My Fall 2022 goals
At the beginning of every semester, I first make my task list for the upcoming semester. In this task list, I review my upcoming deadlines and responsibilities in terms of research projects, graduate students, papers to write, service responsibilities, teaching,…
PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: How to stand out as an international applicant for an academic position
This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands. These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those…
Evaluation of my summer 2022 goals
At the beginning of every semester, I evaluate (publicly) my goals of the previous semester. Summer 2022 contained three big blocks for me: time in Ecuador, time in the Netherlands, and holidays. As such, I planned a bit differently than…
My Fall 2022 weekly template
At the start of every semester, I outline the structure of my weeks with a weekly template. My weekly template for the fall semester is not fully ready yet, as I'll only know my daughter's activities over the course of…
PhD Defenses around the World – A defense in Scotland
Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming Hanan Hindy to PhD Talk. Hanan is a Lecturer at the Computer Science department at the Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences at Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. Hanan did her PhD at…
How I spent my time in Summer 2022
At the end of every semester, I check how I spent my time. In summer 2022, I took time off - to travel to the Netherlands and prepare for my time there, and to take actual holidays. I spent most…
My semester prep master task list
I realized recently that I do the same things at the start of every semester. So, instead of trying to remember what needs to be done at the beginning of the semester by scrolling back in my calendar and looking…
Planning a semester with disruptions
Fall 2022 will be a different semester for me. In one way, it will be more like the before times for me – as I will resume conference travel. I have three trips on the horizon for Fall 2022: one…