I am off to a conference in Vienna from this Saturday and for the whole following week. It will be a big event with big-name professors from all over the world and about 400 posters on display. I initially applied to do an oral presentation, but I didn’t make it. So, I was given the chance to present a poster. Not too bad. Going to such huge events where you will meet all the people whose names you have been reading on papers for 4+ years can be daunting. And if you are an introvert, it might feel like a nightmare.
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Category: STEM success
Science policy as a form of science communication
One of the reasons why I did all the extra-curriculum activities outside my PhD, is because I do not wish to stay in academia once I finish my PhD. As I started applying for jobs, I pleasingly noticed that my CV is suitable for jobs I never thought I could apply for with a PhD in Chemistry.
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Are traditional publications the only way to contribute to science?
As many of you know, I will finish my PhD without any publication…in the traditional sense! Call it bad luck, bad timing, what else? I didn’t manage to produce any positive result during my PhD, the only kind of results accepted by scientific journals. First of all, let’s unravel some myths. Negative results or results that don’t produce a positive outcome aren’t failures! They are the vast majority of science and equally if not more important than positive ones. It is a great shame that they don’t make it to a scientific publication because their value to one’s research, and potentially to the whole scientific community, is immense!
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Female, scientists and entrepreneurs!
As scientists, we are constantly challenged to find solutions to new or old problems. This really stimulates creativity which is, by far, one of the best skills of a scientist. Creativity shouldn’t stop to the lab bench, in my opinion. All the skills we learn in grad school could be easily implemented in our personal and professional life too. So, what about getting creative and making actual money out of it? Many grad students don’t have a permanent salary, have to teach or demonstrate in undergrad labs to support themselves, work part-time jobs, and in the worst case, they might end up paying an eternal mortgage to get an education.
Is a PhD only learning about your niche of research?
This morning I wanted to put together a list of things that I would like to do once I have finished my PhD. I started writing down travelling, going to a concert and this sort of stuff. Reading through, I just realised that none of this stuff is amazing things to do. They are just normal stuff. I actually don’t have to wait until the end of my PhD to do crazy things because I have been already living my best life.
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Are you aware of your potential? How to structure you CV!
This article has been republished by the website sisterstem.org and can be found here.
The other day I came across an article published on Science Career with the title You have accomplished more than you think! It was written by my friend Karin, scientist and author of the book You Must Be Very Intelligent – The PhD Delusion. The article starts with the story of a postdoc who wants to leave academia but believes that the skills she gained during her academic research won’t grant her any job! Unfortunately, I hear this story over and over again and as I am approaching the end of my PhD, many people ask me “Are you gonna do a postdoc after this? Is there any chemical industry that will hire you after your PhD degree?” When I tell people that you can also work either in science communication, scientific affairs, as a medical writer, get an editorial job, patent attorney with a science degree, they stare at me with their mouth open. “I didn’t know that you could do that with a PhD!
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PoC in STEM – Ebony in the Ivory Tower
The American Society of Human Genetics states that any attempt to use genetics as scientific evidence to set differences between races shows a profound misunderstanding of this discipline. So, how come James Watson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Genetics? This person affirmed that he was inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa because all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – where all the testing says not really! Probably because Rosalind Franklin produced the crucial piece of evidence which allowed to sort out the structure of DNA and he took the merit for it? For this statement, he lost his job in 2007 and very recently he was stripped of several honorary titles by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, in New York, which he once headed.
