Academic travel isn’t just about giving a talk and flying back. For me, it’s an investment of time, energy, and opportunity—and I prepare accordingly. Whether I’m traveling to a conference, a research meeting, or a university visit, my preparation goes…
As I am working on the skills I need in my new role, I designed with ChatGPT a think day on skill development. Here's the template for anyone who wants to go through this exercise: Think Day 7 — Skill…
In the early stages of preparing a research or innovation proposal, especially for competitive funding calls, one invaluable tool is the concept note. While short in length, a well-crafted concept note helps clarify your project vision, test alignment with the…
Collegiality is one of those concepts that is easy to praise in mission statements and easy to neglect in everyday academic life. Yet for most of us, the quality of our working relationships profoundly shapes how sustainable, humane, and intellectually…
I recently set aside time to think about my current research collaborations, and which opportunities I should go after. Here's the generalized template for anyone interested in repeating the exercise: Think Day: Assessing Current Collaborations and Identifying Where to Develop…
At any given moment, I’m typically juggling five to six ongoing research projects: about two to three based in the Netherlands, and another two to three in Ecuador. Some projects are short-term (1 year), whereas some of my longest projects…
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…
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of supervising many BSc and MSc students. While I've been supervising MSc thesis students since I was a PhD candidate, I’ve noticed a steady increase in students reaching out to work with me…
A few years ago, I started supervising a group of PhD candidates: two joined the same large research project, another one joined shortly afterwards on a scholarship (different topic though), and I also co-supervised a few PhD students at other…
If, as Richard Sennett argues in The Corrosion of Character, contemporary work cultures erode long-term commitment and shared moral frameworks, then choosing collegiality is a quiet form of resistance. In academia, where competition, evaluation, and scarcity shape daily life, collegiality…
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