Most academics won’t stay in academia… or let’s say, not every PhD will land a permanent position as a researcher. With the increasing numbers of PhDs this situation is becoming more serious. In this context, we want to interview people who work in so called ‘alternative careers’. Some of these careers are still related to academia. We hope these interviews will be of interest to people in general, since they may learn something more about how academia works. For PhDs who may not stay researchers, it should be interesting to know what kinds of careers they can have beyond the ivory tower.

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open science, just science done right!

Melanie Imming is an independent consultant working on Open Science with a background in audiovisual media. She recently delivered a report FAIR Data Advanced Use Cases: from principles to practice in the Netherlands for SURFsara, the Netherlands’ national supercomputing centre. She is a member of the Knowledge Exchange task and finish group Economy of Open Science – Use cases and storytelling, lead of the engagement working group in the Dutch National Platform Open Science. For the university of Amsterdam she organises the final conference of the H2020 OpenUp project on 5-6 September 2018 in Brussels: ‘Opening Up the Research Life Cycle: Innovative Methods for Open Science’.

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science is essential to our society at large, and if we don’t support the humans who study it, we aren’t supporting the science or the society.

Susanna Harris is a PhD candidate in microbiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in the USA, and she runs a website to support visibility of mental health in academia (@ph_d_epression). She is really interested in supporting the people who do the science.

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This is the 2nd part of my conversation with Diana Barbosa from COMCEPT, the Portuguese Skeptics Community (find the 1st episode here). In the first part of the episode we got an overview over scientific skepticism and what kinds of topics they would usually discuss. In a nutshell, skeptics are fighting against non-scientific viewpoints making their ways into mainstream opinion.

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Scientists or PhD degrees are helpful outside of academia, especially in policy.

Diversity in the sciences is important because it allows us to innovate better and think of many types of solutions to a problem.

Linh Anh is a PhD candidate in ecology at the University of California (UC), USA. As the “Next Generation Public Policy Fellow” she works on science policy with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), this summer. She focuses on policy issues concerning airborne dispersal of disease, which touches on atmospheric research and agriculture/human health. Linh Anh also works on increasing the diversity of the geosciences field, which has the lowest of all STEM fields in the US. In addition to her policy work and PhD, she co-hosts the “Turn of the Tide” podcast, which gives female scientists perspectives on issues both within science, and topics on environmental justice and society.

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I had an extended conversation with Diana Barbosa (@diraquel on Twitter) from the skeptical society in Portugal, COMCEPT. This is the first of two parts to this episode where Diana Barbosa answers questions about what skepticism is, what skepticism is NOT, and how it is different from other, related movements. We get an overview of the goals and activities of COMCEPT meetings, and how to become a member!

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“Science is awesome.”

Dr. Helena Ledmyr is a science communicator from Sweden, with a doctorate in genetics. As Head of Development and Communication at INCF (a non-profit organization advancing neuroinformatics and global collaborative brain research), Helena coordinates all communications activities, and manages strategic development initiatives. INCF has a great international community, and she particularly enjoys to interact with people from all over the world with many different specialties and interests.

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Working on your PhD is a stressful phase, and the academic culture isn’t making it better. In this episode I talk to Lauriane Nallet, who is a PhD student in Switzerland. She has a personal history with depression and even PTSD. Lauriane shares what she learned at a workshop on mental health issues in grad school, and also her own experience with mental health issues: symptoms to look out for, how she found help, and what therapy could do for her. We also talk about some aspects of academia that contribute to the stress, including high expectations for work load and ‘passion’, and the ‘publish or perish’ culture.

Visit Lauriane’s blog!

clarifying comment

We mention an article claiming a 6x increased prevalence of depression in graduate students. The article is being criticized for methodological confines. However, another study which was conducted using methods with fewer confines, still finds a 2.8x higher prevalence for depression in PhD students when compared to highly educated workers.

Gwen Franck is a ‘Jack of all Trades’ for Open Science. From Ghent, Belgium, she works with EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries), partnering in OpenAIRE and FOSTER. She curates the related twitter accounts @openaire_eu and @fosterscience. She holds a masters degree in Medieval History and Political Sciences.

Gwen is specifically interested in creating tailor-made materials and events in order to reach all researchers, not only those already very familiar with Open Science tools and workflows.

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“You can do anything if you work hard enough and you can convince the public to protect a species that isn’t considered to be charismatic.“

Beth Windle is a freelance artist and natural science illustrator from England, with a love for hyenas. From a young age she was keen to explore and understand the many flora and fauna that share her world. Most of what she illustrates reflects this, showing the intricate details and understanding of anatomy and behaviors of her chosen subjects.

Beth is passionate about science communication, and improving the public image of hyenas. So she likes to have hard conversations about conservation.

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