Mastering Your PhD

Dr. Patricia Gosling has worked in several science-related fields since earning her PhD in organic chemistry, including medical publishing and medical communications. After many years as a medical writer in the Clinical Sciences and Regulatory departments in the Pharma and Biotech industry, she currently works as a freelance science editor. Prof. Dr. Bart Noordam has supervised close to 10 PhD students in experimental physics. He is currently Senior Vice President Strategy at ASML in the Netherlands, manufacturing complex machines for the production of computer chips. He has also worked as the Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam, McKinsey & Company, and as chair of a regional audit organization.

Preface.- Choosing a Research Group: Pluses and Pitfalls.- Getting Started.- Setting Goals and Objections.- How to Think Like a Scientist.- Designing Good Experiments.- Charting your Progress Month by Month.- Dealing with Setbacks.- Mentors, Leadership and Community.- How to Get Along with Your Labmates, et al.- Group dynamics: Dealing with Difficult Colleagues.- The Art of Good Communication.- Mastering Presentations & Group Meetings.- Searching the Scientific Literature.- Your First International Conference.- From Data to Manuscript: Writing scientific papers that shine.- Celebrate your Success.- How to Make the Best of your Annual Evaluation.- The Final Year: Countdown to your Thesis Defense.- Writing your Doctoral Thesis with Style.- The Final Act: Defending your Thesis with Panache.- Putting it all Together: A PhD. . .So What's Next?.- Is Industry Right for You? Opportunities to Explore.- Exploring Non-Profit Organizations.- Lessons Learned.