Part of a good workplace vibe is good contact between colleagues, as well as good contact between you and your supervisor – or between you and your supervisee. A potentially complex ingredient is the power of compliments. Compliments, per definition, are meant well. However, they can backfire enormously, when they are not received in the …[Read More]
Division blogs
Continental drift in academia
After spending about three decades in the hustle-bustle of Asian megacities, I landed up in a quiet European town to continue my research work as a postdoc. When you know you will not meet your family soon in person, you know that you will not get the food you love and, the climate that has …[Read More]
seismoART: Visualising earthquakes through their ground motions
Martijn van den Ende, a Postdoctoral research fellow at Université Côte d’Azur, takes us through his seismoArt project – a new and colourful way of visualising the ground motions of earthquakes! First of all: how does it work? Imagine that you have an incredibly steady hand, holding a pen, and a piece of paper …[Read More]
Parenting in Academia: Challenges and Perspectives
Trying to juggle teaching, advising, publishing, finding a new (or permanent) job, relocating, attending conferences, and actually doing research sometimes requires more hours in the day than exist (oh and that global pandemic situation is sticking around). Additionally, many scientists have children or are starting a family at the same time as maintaining and building …[Read More]
Parenting in Academia: Challenges and Perspectives
Trying to juggle teaching, advising, publishing, finding a new (or permanent) job, relocating, attending conferences, and actually doing research sometimes requires more hours in the day than exist (oh and that global pandemic situation is sticking around). Additionally, many scientists have children or are starting a family at the same time as maintaining and building …[Read More]
The Sassy Scientist – The Dark Side (No … Not The Moon One)
Onnem is a big fan of a certain movie franchise about intergalactic space travel, heroism and self-development (with scenes that are depicted not very close by, and which did not occur recently *wink *wink). He smirks: Is there a dark side to obtaining a PhD? Dear Onnem, I think you’ve been spacing out a little …[Read More]
Parenting in Academia: Challenges and Perspectives
Trying to juggle teaching, advising, publishing, finding a new (or permanent) job, relocating, attending conferences, and actually doing research sometimes requires more hours in the day than exist (oh and that global pandemic situation is sticking around). Additionally, many scientists have children or are starting a family at the same time as maintaining and building …[Read More]
Challenging racism in the geosciences
The hard truth is, that the geosciences are among the least diverse disciplines in the wide fields of the natural sciences. When we look at the time span from 1973 to 2016, we find that 14,246 PhD degrees were given to white men, while “only” ~5234 were earned by white women in the US. These …[Read More]
“State of the ECS”: What to do in 2022?
Hello all, Matthew here wishing you a very Happy New Year! A new year provides an opportunity for a fresh start, a chance to reflect on the past and look to the future. I don’t know about you, but 2021 was a rather mixed bag for me, with strict lockdowns gradually fading into freedoms (and …[Read More]
Changing mid-degree: How did this Travelin’ Geo get here?
It can be tough realising you’re not on the path you want to be on. This week, we have Leiaka Welcome from the Colorado School of Mines showing us how a change of heart led her to start her PhD journey. Currently on social media (Instagram Reel, TikTok), there is a video trend where users …[Read More]