If you go back and read the whole PhD and then what series (starting from here), you can find plenty of hints on how important doing a PhD abroad has been for my personal growth. Don’t get me wrong: it was extremely difficult, I felt lonely, anxious and always blue. I cried a lot, I suffered from pa...

Are you being active during your PhD to boost your CV? There are some simple things that you can do that will make your CV stand out when you graduate. Making you more likely to get the job you want when you finish. Whether that is a post-doc position, industry lab or something else entirely. Find o...

If you’ve read my last post, you may know I had not much choice when I decided to leave Italy for a PhD abroad. In some ways, during my whole life, I felt I was going to leave and become one of those brains escaping the country (the brain drain is a massive problem in Italy). What I had not known wa...

For those of you that do not know me, I come from a relatively big town in the suburbs of Naples, in Italy. One of those overpopulated but very sad places where there is not too much to do, or many jobs to find. That was definitely true when I was choosing my path in high school. Things got so much ...

It is more important than ever to communicate science effectively. We must ensure accurate and evidence-based information about research is distributed through the media, particularly on controversial and headline news where most misinformation can occur. Here, I will give you a background to the Sc...

Are scientists born or nurtured?Considering that men predominately hold STEM careers, arguments have been made that women aren’t inherently suited for science. Regardless of where you stand on this topic, this sex gap can partially be attributed to pervasive gender stereotypes in the sciences, speci...

This story begins from its end. Or somewhere in the middle. It starts with the end of a PhD, with long months spent trying to understand my next move. What was I doing? Where was I going? So many doubts. Among all of them, one thing was sure: my PhD was not going to define me. "Despite the social pr...

Academic Career Coach: Series on Networking Blog #3: Boost your LinkedIn profile        This is blog #3: Boost your LinkedIn profile. Since the former two blogs were pretty theoretical, I thought it would be pleasant to write you a more practical blog. This blog aims at researchers who decided that ...

Sixty years ago, on Apr 12, Vostok 1 carried the first man to space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who set off on the journey from Baikonur Cosmodrome, bidding farewell to chief engineer Sergei Korolev with the famous words that later was synonymous with the beginning of the space age in the Eastern Bloc ...

Today's Behind the Research post introduces Molly, an English native who moved to Ireland to pursue a PhD in Dublin. Starting a PhD is an exciting yet daunting experience, however Molly had an additional factor of moving to a new country, and had to make new friends and build a new support network. ...

Academic Career Coach: Series on Networking #1: Building an online network strategy      This is blog #2: Building an online network strategy. Due to the pandemic situation, we are all forced to spend a tremendous deal of our time online. Back in the days, we used to meet other people at work, a con...

Let's take a simple example. You head to your nearest bakery for a quick snack. You are left famished by the plenitude of choices essentially thrown at you. Should you go for a "Chocolate donut with sparkles" or any other 25 variants of a donut?   Read the full blog HERE!