Life has been hectic lately. I was in the very fortunate position of traveling the country for job interviews and conferences while also putting the finishing touches on my dissertation. While all of my data collection was completed on campus … Continue reading
As an undergraduate, I was given a fantastic research experience. Beginning my first semester of freshman year, I worked with Dr. Dan Jones to do work with x-ray crystallography. Dr. Jones was an incredible mentor of a caliber that I … Continue reading
Today, with yet another 4-year-old in and out of the lab, I have completed 10% of my dissertation data collection. This is certainly not the first large-scale project for which I have collected data, and it certainly will not be … Continue reading
Hello all! I am happy to check in from the Hotel St. Joseph in Zurich. I have spent the last week on the whirlwind trip of a lifetime across Switzerland. Across the span of a week, I explored Zurich, Lausanne, … Continue reading
This semester is, for me, a semester of mentoring. I have mentored, and have been mentored, informally for a very long time now, but this semester I took on a number of more formal mentoring roles. The most drastic example … Continue reading
I’ll admit it. I’m not perfect. This is something that I think we, as academics and perhaps as human beings in general, have a hard time admitting. But it’s the truth. We live in a competitive world. Grant money is … Continue reading
What perfect timing! A friend recently shared with me an article from GradHacker. The author of the article talks about the guilt that he or she feels while attempting to do any non-dissertation-oriented activities. This definitely struck a chord with … Continue reading
Shortly before I proposed my preliminary examination, I had a heart-to-heart with my advisor. I was overcome with self-doubt, with a good side-helping of imposter syndrome. Because my advisor is incredible, she gave me an empathetic piece of advice about … Continue reading