Collaboration is an integral component to scientific success. The best collaborative efforts take advantage of expertise held by different groups. The groups will come together, each using their techniques to accomplish tasks they couldn’t alone. With the advent of modern technology, long-distance collaborations are easier to maintain. However, no amount of Skype or Zoom or …
Continue reading Traveling PhD Student: A Successful Week in Boston!
Candidacy is the crucible of a PhD. If you can survive it, you can probably find a way to graduate. In my program, candidacy is the final trial after what feels like an endless semester of challenges. But what exactly is candidacy? Candidacy, which in some programs is called the qualifying or preliminary exam, is …
Continue reading Part 3: Why Haven’t I Graduated Yet? – Update from a 2nd Year Graduate Student
This week on Two Women Scientists we have a very special guest author post. My (Fiona) lab-mate and one of my best friends, Taylor Rodman is going to tell us a story about when science and emotion meet. Thank you so so much for sharing this story with us Taylor! I’d like to tell you …
Continue reading Cystic Fibrosis: the Disease that Changed our Family Forever
Between research and teaching, graduate school can completely overwhelm a person’s life. You may have to skip parties, or other social events. However, there are a few things for which, when they arise, grad school needs to be pushed aside and “life” needs to take over. Children, weddings, and funerals are, what I believe to …
Continue reading There are some things in life you cannot miss.
With spring semester comes spring conference season! It’s a wonderful time of the year where nearly every scientific organization imaginable has decided to host a conference and your adviser has kindly asked you to present at (seemingly) all of them! Super lucky for us graduate and undergraduate presenters, these conferences usually fall at “slow” points …
When you know someone in school for their PhD., you are waiting for when they announce they are taking The Big Exam – defense of their dissertation, which the student has been working on for…a year?...ten years? Before we get to that point, however, many of us have to take exams separate from our coursework. …
Continue reading Part 2: Why Haven’t I Graduated Yet? – Update from a 2nd Year Graduate Student
We here at Two Women Scientists may be working towards our doctorates in philosophy (Ph.D.), but we all know and love at least one crazy fool who has decided to go for their doctorate in medicine (MD). This week is “Match Week” for United States based medical students and it is by far one of …
A rite of passage as a graduate student is to face questions or criticism of their timeline to graduation. Interestingly, I’ve even faced jokes about when I should graduate at my doctor’s office, which was honestly unsettling considering these people also went to school well beyond their undergraduate education. How long can it take to …
Continue reading Part 1: Why Haven’t I Graduated Yet? – Update from a 2nd Year Graduate Student
Next up in questions from my Skype a Scientist session in September 2019, I’m answering why I chose to pursue a Ph.D., and what I plan to do with that degree once I have it. If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you might remember our series “Phatigued and Phleeing Academia,” about why …
Y’all Two Women Scientists have been going through a chaotic time. We are both in big pushes to collect data we absolutely need, while simultaneously considering our career goals and timelines, and somehow also having time with our family in friends. In the meantime, we need to keep composing blog posts! Two Women Scientists is …
If writing for this blog for two years hadn’t made it obvious, Fiona and I really love communicating about science and grad school. There are many ways for scientists to share their love for science and the experience of being of scientist, and recently I decided to try out a new one. Skype a Scientist, …
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