The COVID-19 pandemic changed nearly every aspect of our lives. Schools and businesses shut down. Hospitals filled up. And many of us spent months alone or in familial ‘pods.’ But this dark period of global history had some bright spots, and many of them appeared in the scientific community. Rapid at-home testing became ubiquitous. mRNA vaccines were used to immunize millions against the worst outcomes. And funding flowed to scientists in virology, immunology, drug development, air...

“Hey, I won’t be able to make it over for movies tonight.  I’ve got to finish these timepoints…  Yeah, I know it’s the third time this week, but I promise I’ll leave a early tomorrow…  Okay, sorry.  Goodnight.” Gary ends the phone call and sighs.  This is not the first time he’s had to cancel a date to finish up an experiment.   He’s starting to detect some resentment in his girlfriend’s voice. As the minutes tick by on his timer, Gary sees lights flip off in the...

This week, we open the mailbag to answer your questions! We hear from a new grad student who has some old responsibilities, and learn about how to earn your Master’s degree while enrolled in a PhD program! Under My Umbrella (ella ella) Our first email comes from Cindy, who wants some clarification on a previous episode where we talked about how many applicants had applied to a particular PhD program. Awhile ago, one of you mentioned the number of applications to...

Lab rotations are a pretty sweet deal – you get the chance to work in a lab for a few weeks to see how it fits. Do you like the people? The project? The advisor? If not, try another lab and see if that one is a better fit. But at the end of 3-4 rotations, you ultimately have to make a choice, and you’ll live with that decision for the next 3-5 years! This week, we offer a checklist of ‘Things to Consider’ when making your decision, and a warning that many students prioritize the...

A lot of aspiring trainees are ‘taking a gap year’ before applying to graduate school. Typically, they use that time to build skills and make connections that will bolster their applications. This postbaccalaureate, or ‘postbac’, experience can vary pretty widely – from a course-heavy Master’s degree to a research-focused industry internship. There are also a multitude of scholarships, fellowships, and grants to support whatever training you might need. This week, we...

You’re in graduate school, so you’re probably pretty smart. You’ve learned a lot of material over the years, and managed to apply that knowledge in tests, papers, and projects. But ‘knowing a lot’ doesn’t mean you’re ready to teach others. Becoming an educator takes time, dedication and attention. This week, we talk with Dr. Alaina Talboy about the skill of teaching others, and how you can apply that in careers outside the classroom. We’re joined once again by Dr....

It’s that time of year again – summer days are growing shorter, your friends are trying to fit in one last trip to the beach, and the backpack aisle at Target is about to be cleared out to make way for the Halloween costumes. Yes, it’s back-to-school time. From toddlers to teenagers, this time of year instills foreboding about the school-year ahead. But as a first-year graduate student, you may have other feelings. For most, it’s the start of a new adventure. For the first...

We’ve all met them – the unsung heroes of your Intro To (Biology, Psychology, History, etc.) class. Sure, they don’t give the lectures, but that’s about the only responsibility they dodge. Instead, they’re leading lab sessions, holding office hours, proctoring exams, and grading papers. They’re the Teaching Assistants, or TAs, and they’re a critical part of undergraduate education. But who are these heroes without capes? We learn more in this week’s...

For some students, graduate schools is a foregone conclusion. Perhaps they’ve wanted to ‘be a scientist’ since they were nine, and along the way, they learned that a PhD is a stepping stone on that path. Or perhaps they knew their career prospects with a Bachelor’s degree were thin, so they new an advanced degree was in the future. But Josh wasn’t that student. He was a junior in college before he even learned that ‘research scientist’ was a career that he could...

You send questions to [email protected], and we answer them on the show! Is research always this lonely? This week, we hear from “Foobar”, a computer science PhD student in Germany, who is wondering whether academia is always as lonely as she is feeling right now. She writes: Just like every other student, I had to find a teeny-tiny problem which lies in a sub-field of a sub-field and make it the topic of my PhD studies. The group that I am in counts...

Titles are a part of our identity. If you meet a school teacher, computer programmer, or rocket scientist, you will instantly form an impression of what kind of person they are without any additional information. The bias we impose upon hearing a title can be good or bad, of course. But we all invariably take these mental shortcuts, and it influences how we treat the people we meet. What’s interesting is that these titles reflect on us, as well. What I call myself impacts what...

The day-to-day reality of many graduate programs is that you’ll spend most of your time doing research. Even if you don’t end up working in a lab or doing experiments forever in your career (and most people don’t!), being able complete experiments is going to help you efficiently progress through your program and eventually GRADUATE. And isn’t that what we all want? This week, we cover some common pitfalls that suck your time and erode your confidence. We’ve got advice for...

Ten weeks is not a long time. It feels even shorter when you’re tossed into the deep-end of a top-tier research lab. If you’re spending your summer as a Research Assistant between semesters, or you’ve graduated and want to get some summer experience before grad school, we have ideas to help you hit the ground running. This week, we respond to a listener question. Talia wrote: This summer I had an AMAZING opportunity to do research at my dream school. I am a...

Andrew felt like he was on top of the world when he finished his Master’s degree in History. He had excellent grades, experience teaching, and a willingness to explore new fields. But as he submitted resumes and job applications, he noticed a pattern. Either he didn’t hear back from the employer, or they turned him down due to his lack of experience. “It’s this cart and horse or chicken and egg thing where you can’t get a job because you don’t have the experience, but you can’t...

There are many paths to a PhD. In the humanities, it’s common to earn a Master’s degree first (or so we’re told…) In the biomedical sciences, students regularly skip the Master’s degree entirely, enrolling in a PhD program that includes coursework. This week, we hear from two aspiring scientists who used the Master’s degree as a stepping stone, and now they’re looking to take the next leap. Defining a Scientist Nikki is a research scientist for a cosmetics...

If you work in a lab, you’re collecting data. And as the volume of data increases, many researchers find they can’t process or analyze that data in a spreadsheet or stats program anymore. Instead, they’re writing code in Python, R, or C++ to do that processing for them. But this creates a new challenge: what happens to that code over time? Can your Python script be shared with other labs who might find it useful? When the graduate student who wrote the analysis package graduates, is...

Sometimes, your humble HelloPhD hosts forget how narrow our experience has been in graduate education. We’re both biomedical PhDs, and while we trained in different departments, there was a significant amount of overlap. For us, a PhD meant classes, comprehensive exams, rotations, lab meetings, experiments, seminars, and so on. While those experiences were common across biomedical programs, the similarity starts to fade when discussing other bench-sciences like chemistry, or...

Sarah had achieved her dream. With a PhD in Physics, she had accepted a new position as a Theoretical Physicist. But as the months wore on, she started to feel overwhelmed and depressed. She’d done well in school and enjoyed her classes – why couldn’t she focus on her work? Sean graduated with honors from his engineering program. But after six months on the job as a field representative for a machine company, he was fired. He had been an excellent student, and excelled in...

If you’re a grad student who hasn’t thought about leaving your PhD program at least once, you might not have a pulse. When experiments fail, grants are rejected, or you get reprimanded by the PI, it’s often comforting to remember that all of this suffering is self-imposed and you could simply leave the University and start a book shop somewhere. For most students, that moment passes and they move on with their training and career. But sometimes, the moment doesn’t pass, and students...

Even as a child, Alexandra wanted to study space. She had a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Cambridge University, so she seemed like the perfect candidate to for a PhD program. But after graduation, she didn’t feel ready. She’d need a Master’s degree first, but money was tight and her student visa had run out. She found a job prospect at a particle accelerator lab, but was turned down because they wanted more programming experience. So she packed her bags and headed...

It’s no secret that a lot of scientific conversation happens on Twitter. It’s a great place to share your research, keep up with trends, and connect with collaborators. But many grad students and postdocs have questions. Is it okay to promote my own work? Can I just retweet other scientists, or do I have to write my own material? Which topics can I write about, and what should I avoid? Well, we’re here to help. Twitter can have wonderful benefits for your...

Turning over the last page of the calendar seems to naturally invite some reflection on the previous 365 days. When you look back at 2021, what went well? And what do you wish you could change in the coming year? This week, we take the opportunity to reflect back much farther – to our days in graduate and postdoctoral training!  With years of hindsight, we offer advice and perspective to the scientists we were, and devise some resolutions you can adopt in your scientific...

This week, we dive head-first into the mailbag to answer listener questions about grad school readiness, teaching experience, and more! Just Finished! Our first missive comes from Kaylee, who recently graduated! I just wanted to send an email to thank you for all of the hard work you have put into creating Hello PhD over the years. I can’t express in words how much this podcast has meant to me. It has helped me through supervisor problems, lab isolation, career...

It’s inevitable.  At some point in your research career, you’re going to get that sinking feeling. Your experiments will all fail, your PI will get on your case about finishing that paper, and your graduation date will drift maddeningly out of reach. So what can you do when your research starts to drag you down? Coming Up for Air This week on the show, we share some practical advice from the Academic Mental Health Collective on ways graduate students can...

The CACTUS Global Mental Health Survey asked valuable questions about stress, performance, and career goals for scientists. The data revealed plenty of room for improvement, as researchers struggle with harassment, work-life balance, and limited pay. But the study’s authors also asked more open-ended questions: Do you have any suggestions for organizations within academia or other related stakeholders on what they can do to ensure a great work environment for...