As lockdown eases in many places, Stefan is beginning to think of an academic future away from his sofa. He asks the question: How much does university ranking matter when choosing a PhD position? Dear Stefan, Choosing a PhD program is tough. It’s a bit like getting married: for better or worse, until death us do part, regardless of the toe nail clippings on the table or refusal to ever take ...[Read More]
In the climb on the academic pyramid, Antonia wonders: How do you tell someone “you have not done enough to be included in the co-author list”? Dear Antonia, *arranges Yoda robe*: Big questions you have! Right place you came! I am sure you are not the first or the only scientist with that question. Since I feel generous today, I will leave here a template e-mail you can all copy and pa ...[Read More]
Too envious to watch Netflix’s Selling Sunset? Gone through the top 5 geodynamic movies? Lock-down vacation too boring for words? In need of useful procrastination? Search no longer! We have compiled an extensive list of online webinars and speaker series that were already active pre-Corona or saw the daylight during the pandemic to stay in touch with our colleagues both abroad and next door ...[Read More]
Ravi is done with his research, mentally. As he muses on a potential departure from academia – awaiting an unhackneyed sense of perspective – he asks: I want to leave academia! Where do I go? Dear Ravi, I am sorry to hear you’ve given thought to a termination of your academic career. After years of working in geodynamics, it sure shall be a great challenge to find new perspective ...[Read More]
This week Ana-Catalina Plesa, Junior Research Group Leader at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in Berlin/Germany takes us on a journey to Mars. Enjoy the read about how spacecraft observations and numerical models provide InSight into the deep enigmas of the “red planet”. Over the course of its evolution, Mars has accumulated heat in its interior arising from the planet’s formation, differentiati ...[Read More]
On the matter of code choices, Alexa could have asked Siri, but instead chose an old-fashioned medium of enquiry compatible across all operating systems and wrote in to ask: Should I perform my research with an in-house code, an open source code or a commercial code? Dear Alexa, As a famous novel does not quite begin, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a geodynamicist in possession of a g ...[Read More]
A very important part of science, which is getting more and more attention, is how to share and manage our data. This week, Adina E. Pusok, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, shares thoughts and tips on how to make our science fairer. So, what is FAIR for Geodynamics? This is a big question! I would say that what is fair for geodynamics is fair for a ...[Read More]
In anticipation of a remote and highly-sanitised new academic year, with a new cohort of virus-carrying PhDs, Chris wonders: What do you do if students come from different cultural backgrounds where student participation and discussion is not valued? Dear Chris, Easy: you jump three times and clap with joy as you just hit JACKPOT! Do you finally have a student who does not question your great wisd ...[Read More]
This week in News & Views, Anne Glerum, postdoc at GFZ Potsdam, discusses how her numerical models support a lithosphere-driven mechanism for the rotation of large continental microplates, like Victoria in the East African Rift System. The East African Rift System (EARS) is a newly forming divergent boundary between the Nubian and Somalian plates (Fig. 1). The plate boundary system includes se ...[Read More]
Yu-Seok has depleted his streaming service queue, thrown all of the stocked board games off the table, and eagerly seeks new ways to squander his energy after a long workday of couch-surfing underneath his laptop: What should a scientist do as a pastime? Dear Yu-Seok, Where can you find the time? And the energy? Aren’t we all simply working continuously? I go to extremes to even find the energy an ...[Read More]
