It may be not be known to the wider lectureship of this column, but every year, around May, the headquarters of EGU-blogs are up for some important (and crucially, self inflicted) bit of house-keeping: the confirmation of the members of the blog team for the incoming editorial year. Those of you with colleagues that are here with me behind the curtains, might know about it from the relentless recr ...[Read More]
It’s that time of year again. The academic year is ramping up, everyone is back from their summer holiday and expecting miraculous things from you, the deadlines are rolling in and there is (unfortunately) no end in sight. So of course, Paxman, like many of you, is wondering: How can I feel less pressure/stress in my work? Dear Paxman, Stress? Pressure? Surely you love your research enough that ev ...[Read More]
Anybody that has read at least one post of my weekly column, knows I am not shy about giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Or in this case clearly pointing at the problems in the academic world. Alba seems to have taken this one step further and asks: Why is no one in academia happy? Dear Alba, Believe me, I see where this is coming from, but this might be taking things a tiny bit too far, don ...[Read More]
Recently, we’ve been discussing how you can fit a holiday into your busy schedule. But once you’ve found the time to take a few days off you then have to decide where to go. This can be almost as challenging, which is why Simone has asked me: What are the best holiday destinations for a geodynamicist? Dear Simone, Excellent question! There’s nothing worse than putting all the effort into organisin ...[Read More]
Every scientist wants to squeeze a holiday or two into their calendar. However, finding the time in between all of your other commitments can be hard. Adeline, much like the rest of us, is desperate to get away from campus for a while and find somewhere to relax for a few days, so here I am to help you solve the age old question: How do you plan a holiday when your schedule is always so full? Dear ...[Read More]
You’ve spent months battling with radiators and cold wet weather, but the summer is finally upon us and to make things even worse we’re heading into a heatwave. The office that just weeks ago seemed impossible to keep warm is now so sweltering it feels as though you’re stepping into the sauna when you arrive each morning. Like most people, Jamie has been struggling with this, so I’m here to offer ...[Read More]
The quality of supervision is arguably the most important discriminant between a nice academic experience and a hellish one. For early career scientists, supervisors are the sole responsible for our choice to leave or stay in academia. As the name suggests, supervisors are there to supervise our research activity, as it is all too easy for us specialists to get lost in the details of our project a ...[Read More]
Single author papers. You have seen those. Early in your career you look at them and think “Wow! This person must be really smart to publish all by themselves”. Later on, your reaction shifts to “Ahah! Look at this person, publishing the tenth paper by themselves! Nobody wants to be associated with this stuff!”. Whether in awe, in derision, or because she is actually writing one of those, Loredana ...[Read More]
Questions permeate our daily life. What socks do I want to wear today? Which of the 10 insipid meal choices at the campus canteen do I want as my lunch today? Will I treat myself and get a Mai Tai tonight, or will I stick to a refreshing, good ol’ beer? As geoscientists, asking and answering questions really is our daily job. Not all questions are as deep as Uswah’s though… Why d ...[Read More]
We all somewhat agree that publishing in Nature is a recognition of the value of our research and of the usefulness of our academic career. It does not matter that “our” research topic was bestowed upon us by our supervisor. And it certainly matters not, that we want to leave academia next year. At least we’ll leave with a bang! We all want to publish on the almost-holy pages of ...[Read More]