PhD viva-anticipated questions

Had a PhD viva last year. I did a lot of preparations, including making a list of anticipated FAQs. Some from workshops attended. Hope it’s useful for postgraduates. Happy viva and hope you get back a normal life soon….hahahaha, you know what I mean, :P

 

Anticipated viva questions

Can you provide a summary of your work?

What is the most important new finding in your work?

Does your work support/contradict previous work? Justify your answer.

What do you think are the strong & weak part of your thesis overall?

Why did you choose the particular research methods you used?

How could your work be extended by further research?

Very briefly, what does your research tell us?

Overall, what have you found out by undertaking this research project?

Can you summarise the key contribution that your work has made to furthering knowledge and understanding in this area?

What do you think are the strongest and weakest parts of your thesis overall?

Are there possible alternative interpretations?

What are the implications of your work?

What are the possible applications of your work?

What further would you have liked to research if you had more time?

What were your motivations for choosing this subject?

What are the key pieces of research from which your thesis has been developed?

Why is your research important to investigate?

How does your work link to the work of others in the same/related field?

What are the key references within your thesis?

What methods did you choose for this project?

Why did you choose this particular method over other methods?

What are the strength and limitation of your methods compared to others?

What weaknesses in the results might arise from the way in which you preferred your data analysis?

With hindsight, would you now choose a different way of presenting your results?

Where are your main findings/results?

How do your results compare/contrast/refute previous research?

How would you rationalise the differences between your results/conclusions and those of previous investigations?

Did you discover what would you thought you would?

How did you come to research this topic in this manner?

What are the main achievements of your research?

Which of the achievement is most important to you and why?

What has your thesis contributed to our knowledge in this field?

What are the major theoretical strands in this area: what are the crucial ideas and who are the main contributors?

What are the main issues (matter of debate or dispute) in this area?

Where is your thesis “placed” in term of existing theory and debate? How would the major researchers react to your idea?

Who in your opinion will be most interested in this work?

What published research is closest to your work? Who are your main competitors and how is your research distinguished from theirs?

Why did you choose the particular research methodology that you used?

Did you consider using any other research methodology?

What were the crucial research discoveries that you made?

If you were doing this research again, what would you do differently?

What do you see as the next steps in this research?

What was the most interesting findings in your results

Isn’t this all obvious?

Were you surprised by any of your results (if so, why and what was surprising)?

What advice would you give to a new student entering this area?

What is your plan for publication?

What haven’t I asked you that I should have done, and what would your answer have been?

If you were doing this PhD again, do you want to take this project? 

THE SEB WANTS YOU!

As a university contact for the Society of Experimental Biology (SEB), I received an email message regarding the “November Recruit One Member Month” campaign. See below. 

========================================

The Society for Experimental Biology is an international membership organization that promotes the study of Biology and supports biologists at every stage in their career. We currently have 2000 members from all over the world.

SEB runs scientific conferences for biologists and our next Annual Meeting will take place in Valencia, 3-6 July 2013. Our conferences cover sessions on cell, plant and animal biology , as well as a series of session on education and careers. Our conferences attract up to 1000 delegates from around the world. To find out more about our Valencia meeting and to see a list of sessions, click here.

Biology Students benefit of up to 80% discount on registration fees to our conference, and Full Members benefit of up to 50% discount on registration fees.

We also offer a multitude of other benefits, such as:

· Travel grants worth up to £500 (for students and early career scientist members only)

· Career advice and workshops

· Reduced subscriptions to our journals

· Networking opportunities (at our conferences; via the SEB members’ area; through our social media)

· Chance to present your research as a talk or poster at our conferences

• Recognition awards and cash prizes for presentations given at our conferences.
• Free colour printing in our Journals
• Financial support for organising satellite meetings

To find out more about us please visit our website www.sebiology.org . You can also get in touch with the SEB Membership Manager, Sabina Baba, on s.baba@sebiology.org for any questions you may have.

I do hope you will consider joining The SEB community of biologists and we look forward to hearing from you!

The below links to our membership benefits e-booklet, and membership application form.

· Membership benefits e-booklet: http://www.sebiology.org/membership/benefits-pdf/

· Membership form: http://goo.gl/iW3yV

 

With best wishes,

Ten simple rules for ...

a series of open access papers maybe of interest, I got it quite a while ago, read it and find it useful. You can refer to the paper below and references there in.

http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030213

Topics of interest are such as:-

Bourne PE (2005) Ten simple rules for getting published. PLoS Comp Biol 1: e57. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0010057.

Bourne PE, Chalupa LM (2006) Ten simple rules for getting grants. PLoS Comp Biol 2: e12. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020012.

Bourne PE, Korngreen A (2006) Ten simple rules for reviewers. PLoS Comp Biol 2: e110. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020110.

Bourne PE, Friedberg I (2006) Ten simple rules for selecting a postdoctoral position. PLoS Comp Biol 2: e121. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020121.

Vicens Q, Bourne PE (2007) Ten simple rules for a successful collaboration. PLoS Comp Biol 3: e44. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030044.

Bourne PE (2007) Ten simple rules for making good oral presentations. PLoS Comp Biol 3: e77. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030077.

Erren TC, Bourne PE (2007) Ten simple rules for a good poster presentation. PLoS Comp Biol 3: e102. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030102.

good luck, happy sunday

e-profile

I have set up a e-profile with template provided by the university.

http://eprofile.exeter.ac.uk/choonlim/

 

So why bother with this? Apart from working hard in the lab, we have to promote ourselves, our research & networking. A good info about the benefits of having one is available in the university webpage:-

http://eprofile.exeter.ac.uk/index.php

 

Another good piece of info:-

HOW TO: Set Up an Online Resume -  http://ow.ly/55GRg

 

You can reach me on Linkedin at:-

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/choon-kiat-lim/34/68b/ba8

#PhD workshop- Writing your thesis

Attended a good workshop recently, one of the effective researcher development programmes (EDRP) offered by the university.

A 3 hour workshop is like a condense form of all PhD self-help books I have read. For books list, you can refer to a well written post by my friend at: Lulu's World - Between Ignorance and Enlightenment: Book list for PhD and PhD-to-be - http://ow.ly/4UON0

Here, I would like to share few insightful quotes from the facilitators:

"As a PhD student,you enjoy a good degree of autonomy,therefore you have to responsible to your thesis writing up& submission&not your PI"

"2 competitors,same field with impressive CV, employers prefer the one completed PhD by deadline than the one extended his/her degree."

"Competition is fierce,get ur thesis done,back to normal life,get a job&establish career,start to earn $. It's jz a beginning"

"a PhD thesis'll not change the world immediately,instead it's building up a picture like jigsaw puzzle."

The value/future of #PhD

This topic catch my attention as it’s featured in the cover page of the recent Nature magazine (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v472/n7343/index.html).

The following issues of the topic above maybe of interest:-

Education: The PhD factory : Nature News -  http://ow.ly/4Kkae

Education: Rethinking PhDs : Nature News -  http://ow.ly/4Kkkk

Seven ages of the PhD : Nature : Nature Publishing Group -http://ow.ly/4Kkl9

Reform the PhD system or close it down : Nature News - http://ow.ly/4Kkmg

What is a PhD really worth? : Nature -  http://ow.ly/4Kknl

Fix the PhD : Nature : Nature Publishing Group -  http://ow.ly/4KknH

Aspirations, Expectations and Reality - Postgraduate Toolbox

Thought provoking blogpost from postgraduatetoolbox, as below:-



Aspirations, Expectations and Reality - Postgraduate Toolbox

Graduate School: to go or not to go?

A debatable article by the Economist leads to various arguments, as follows:-

Doctoral degrees: The disposable academic | The Economist -  http://ow.ly/3IJZN

In accordance to this, there are other articles may be of interest, such as:-

100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School - http://ow.ly/3KOMk

Career Advice: We Ignore 'The Economist' - Inside Higher Ed -  http://ow.ly/3KONJ 

Of course, some arguments don’t really apply to subjects like science, technology & math.

Anyway, read the article with open minded. No right or wrong in this issue, follow your will.

Targeted Advertising--Graduate opportunities for Malaysians wishing to return home to work

I got this email from the career office@ Glasgow Uni. I was one of the members of the international advisory group of career service, Glasgow Uni.

The info are as follows:-

**Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for the correctness of forwarded info

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Client (Xyratex) is looking to attract engineering graduates from a variety of disciplines to return to Malaysia to their new facility.

These are permanent positions and ongoing recruitment.

The salary is in Malaysian Ringgits RM2500 + benefits.

I am hoping to target students who have graduated/ final year students in the following degrees:
Electronic/Electrical/Mechanical/Software/Computer Science or Physics.

Please see the job spec below for further details: any queries please
give me a call. ( They will accept a 2:2)

Seeking your first Engineering position after Graduation? Are you due to Graduate this year? Studying for a Degree is Electronic/Electrical/Mechanical/Software/Computer Science or Physics?

My client is the leading provider of Network Storage Solutions and Storage Infrastructure. Due to expansion at their R&D and manufacturing plant in Malaysia, they are seeking to recruit highly qualified recent multi disciplined Graduates to start as soon as possible.

You would be part of a high achieving team working on the latest features with leading edge technology and have the satisfaction of seeing your work delivered to many millions of customers world wide.

This is an exciting opportunity to fulfill your potential in a challenging, friendly, supportive environment where good performance is rewarded.

Education:
Successful candidates will have a minimum 2:1 degree and ideally a PhD, MSc, MEng or BEng to work as part of a multinational and multi-disciplined team. We will also consider candidates with recent work experience.

Kind regards

__________________________________________
Sian Jones

Graduate Recruitment Consultant
ARM Consulting Division
E     sian.jones@armconsult.co.uk
T     02392 228288
D     02392 228238
M     on request
F     02392 228229
W     www.armconsult.co.uk <http://www.armconsult.co.uk> 

ARM Consulting - Flexible Solutions
Langstone Technology Park, Langstone Road, Havant, Hampshire. PO9 1SA


__________________________________________
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REC Code of Conduct and employment legislation click here
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Nice comments

1) a very thoughtful comment from my buddy Donah L. Moabi :-

" its better to die with failures than with potential. Dying with failures means you tried and everytime i put all my effort into  something, i’m gratified just by that fact more than the result. "

on one of the blog post (http://ow.ly/1o1ao) I shared recently

 

2) another comment on chinese blogpost (http://ow.ly/2NyLn):

“Totally agree. Having a Ph.D. doesn’t mean that one has good judgement / are quality to comment on something as an expert. Even though its not a route to wealth / riches, the whole Ph.D. process changed me fundamentally. My peers and professors in graduate school developed me personally and professionally. I wasn’t popular in high school and wasn’t smart enough to be a geek/nerd either. I discovered my identity rather late in life — in my early 30′s when I obtained my first Ph.D. I wish you all the best in your research.”

Do You Know What You want? What is success for you?

A good article (I would strongly recommend you to read this) from Bitesize Bio.com

Although the article published on Biosciences based website, but the knowledge shared is widely applicable to everyone, regardless of what profession you are. 

Feel free to read this article at:

Do You Know What You want? | Bitesize Bio - Mozilla Firefox http://ow.ly/1xm9w

 

http://bitesizebio.com/2010/04/12/do-you-know-what-you-want/

Interview questions

i attended two interviews and one presentation before obtaining the studentship at Exeter. Some questions asked by the interviewers are as follow:

 

Interview questions:

1. Explain about additions skills/ additional course have undertaken (with reference to CV you sent)

2. How do you feel with cross-disciplinary studies? Any previous experience?

3. Why PhD?

4. Tell me about your previous works

5. What statistic training you have?

6. What paper (beyond plant science) that you are interested with?

7. Your understanding on the project?

8. Do you have any teaching experience?

9. Other skills that you can contribute to the research group?

10. How do you overcome depression/ failure?

11. Career aspiration

12. Why do you like plant science?

 

Hope these may help in your future interview..

 

cheers

Article@ UTAR’s Feb Newsletter

More info visit the following link:

http://www.utar.edu.my/alumniMain.jsp?catid=8

 

article entitled “Passion, Commitment, and Prolonged Interest: Keys to achieve your goal”

careerpath.com (career tests)—>color career counsellor

got this link from marccus low, worth trying.

you can do the test at:

http://www.careerpath.com/career-tests/colorcareercounselor.aspx

Best Occupational Category

You're an ORGANIZER

Keywords

Self-Control, Practical, Self-Contained, Orderly, Systematic, Precise, and Accurate

These conservative appearing, plotting-types enjoy organizing, data systems, accounting, detail, and accuracy. They often enjoy mathematics and data management activities such as accounting and investment management. Persistence and patience allows them to do detailed paperwork, operate office machines, write business reports, and make charts and graphs.

ORGANIZER CAREERS
Suggested careers are Administrator, Secretary, Printer, Paralegal, Building Inspector, Bank Cashier, Private Secretary, Statistician, Operations Manager, Financial Analyst, Bookkeeper, Medical Records Technician, Developer of Business or Computer Systems, Clerical Worker, Proofreader, Accountant, Administrative Assistant, Banker, Certified Public Accountant, Credit Manager, Store Salesperson, Actuary, Dental Assistant, Business Education Teacher, Food Service Manager, IRS Agent, Budget Analyst, and Underwriter.

ORGANIZER WORKPLACES
Your very careful, conscientious, conservative nature gives others the confidence to trust you with handling money and material possessions. Structured organizations that have well-ordered chains of command work best for you.

Suggested Organizer workplaces are large corporations, business offices, financial lending institutions, banks, insurance companies, accounting firms, and quality control and inspection departments.

2nd Best Occupational Category

You're a PERSUADER

Keywords:

Witty, Competitive, Sociable, Talkative, Ambitious, Argumentative, and Aggressive

These enterprising types sell, persuade, and lead others. Positions of leadership, power, and status are usually their ultimate goal. Persuasive people like to take financial and interpersonal risks and to participate in competitive activities. They enjoy working with others inside organizations to accomplish goals and achieve economic success.

Section I: You and Your Team
This personality overview section highlights your natural workplace talents—the tasks you pursue with passion. You'll learn how your natural strengths complement those of your coworkers and how, joining forces, you can resolve on-the-job dilemmas.

Section II: Your Key To Success
Here you discover your capacity for dispelling disruption and maximizing profitability. Use this proven, beyond-self-perception advice to create a more positive career path free of detours.

Section III: Managing Strengths and Weaknesses
Your evaluation's highest and lowest scores result in this section's recommendations for staying on-track in your career and reversing wrong turns. In focusing on your talents and missteps, you'll re-stoke your energy and enthusiasm for managing costly mistakes.

Section IV: Leadership Power Moves
This final section identifies your "street sense," those power moves that turn obstacles into insignificant details. Here suggestions based on your color-ranked evaluations will guide you towards making the most of an interview or harnessing your fast-paced workday.

summary of learning experience in the UK

My alma mater invited me to submit an article for their newsletter. As mentioned ages ago, that i would like to share learning experience in the UK as well as reasons to study here, and also advice to future postgraduate, students who wish to study abroad, etc. Therefore, I have decided to publish the same article here. :-p

Information about Master degree at Glasgow

Glasgow and the UK:

Why did you choose to study in the UK?

I have decided to study in a UK-based university mainly due to the strong research culture, quality of education and standard of education offered. Also, it only spent one year for me to complete a master degree here.

Why you choose to study at Glasgow/ Scotland?

Glasgow University is one of the few institutions that offer various/ diverse research areas in plant science. This university is recognised as one of the leading universities in the research and academic performances (founded in 14^th century, 4^th oldest institution in the English spoken country, top 100 universities in the world).

Also, Scotland is a lovely place that has a lot of natural sceneries, historical sites and also mixtures of modern and classical buildings. The design and architecture of these buildings are impressive. Besides, life here is relaxing, enjoyable. Glasgow is one of the big cities in the UK, and I have many opportunities to mix/ interact with people throughout the world. People here are nice, helpful.

Your course:

Why did you choose your course—plant science?

My principal research interest lies in the field of plant stress (abiotic and biotic) and the tolerance mechanisms involved. The availability of research experts in this field and also the reputation of plant science group of Glasgow University have prompted me to purse plant science master degree here. My postgraduate study at Glasgow University has provided excellent skills needed to pursue a research career in Plant Science in the future.

What’s the best thing about your course?

This course has introduced me to state-of-the-art experimental approaches and techniques that were required in my research. Further training gained through close supervision from post-docs include forward planning skills as well as design proper experiment and analysis on data obtained from the project. Also, taught modules have given details about recent advances in Plant Science. While weekly research seminars from both divisional and external speakers as well as workshops attended (literature research skills, bibliographic software trainings, etc) have developed my intellectual skills.

Meanwhile, participation in the journal club discussion, taught me presentation skills and to critically discuss findings from the journal. Similarly, research presentation allowed me to discuss project works, trigger new ideas, and improve communication skills. I also have the opportunity to discuss my research works with academic/research staffs here, which are highly regarded as expert in their field of study.

Other than carry out my own research, I also have opportunity to involve in other research projects and publish some interesting results in journals.

Recently one of the research works I involved has been accepted to be published on Plant Journal (impact factor = 6.5), journal which ranked top 10 in Plant Science category. A co-authorship in a high impact peer-review paper will be an excellent kick-start in research career.

Besides, another project I involved at Glasgow is currently being assessed; hopefully I manage to publish second paper as well.

What’s your non-academic commitment in Glasgow?

By involving myself as a volunteer in International Advisory Group, Career Service of Glasgow University, I have various opportunities to work several projects with other international students, improve communication and leadership skills. Also, I have gain various information about the study/ career opportunities in the UK, Europe and even the world.

In addition, I am a volunteer in the e-mentor programme of Glasgow’s student network. I joined e-mentor programme due to the opportunity to interact with new/ prospective students, and share my experiences as an international student here.

What would you change?

Improve English speaking skills, dare to face challenges, confident. Life as a postgraduate is challenging, my master degree at Glasgow trained me to plan and manage time effectively

What advantages will your education give you?

I am aiming to pursue a career in research and academia with special reference to evaluate the impacts of environmental stress on plant growth and tolerance mechanisms involved. I wish to focus on this aspect as environmental stress is a contributing factor to low productivity in crops and subsequently causes famine and low income among poor farmers in the developing world. An excellent master training will serve as a stepping stone for me to purse doctorate degree in the future.

About PhD at Exeter University, England, UK.

What reason prompted me to pursue research in Plant Stress Tolerance?

Global famine/ potential food insecurities in the future. The impact of environmental constraints, e.g. abiotic stress (global warming, i.e. high temperature, drought, ) and biotic stress (pathogen infections on crops) further exacerbate this problem.

Some facts:

• In developing countries

>800 million individuals short of food supply

1.3 billion people living less than USD 1 a day

• Poor farmers: expensive price of herbicide, pesticide

• Projected World human population (2050)

rise from 6.1 billion to 9.3 billion

therefore additional 50% of food production is required

* the sufficient production of crops to accommodate needs of world population in the future is under threat!!!

Therefore, understanding the mechanism of stress tolerance in plants and strategy to develop stress tolerant crop are essential to overcome a potential food crisis.

Research summary at Exeter University

Investigating protein and metabolite profiles of model plant, Arabidospsi thaliana in response to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Employ systems biology approach to integrate the resulting protein and metabolite profiles.

Systems Biology is a cutting edge study that using model and / or network to integrate interaction among biological components such as genes, metabolites, and proteins. This study involved experts from various fields such as mathematicians, engineers, bio scientists, etc.

Background of Exeter University:

· The Times Good University Guide ranks Exeter in 9th position.

· Top 5 in the UK for student satisfaction

· Times Higher Education University of the Year 2007/08 · £25 million investment in new laboratories is underway, due for completion by 2010

· The School of Biosciences received substantial funding from the University Science Strategy and now has a next-generation DNA Sequencer and instruments for metabolomics and proteomics research

Your experience & advice:

Any advice for students who wish to pursue postgraduate studies/ study abroad?

Always plan ahead, do more research and seek advice from seniors, families, friends and academician. Also, self-discipline/ motivation, and also proper ways to reduce stress/ challenges are essential.

As researcher, you can’t expect movie every time, some time you have extra academic commitment, therefore self-disciple, great motivation when encountered failure is essential.

I was an average student last time (only fulfil minimum entry requirement to my first degree). However, with the positive attitude and interest on scientific research, I managed to build strong foundation which essential for my research career now.

Remember no matter what you do: PASSION, COMMITMENT, and PROLONGED INTEREST will drive you to achieve goal.

I also shared my life in the UK in the following blogs:-

Chinese: http://limchoonkiat.blogspot.com/

English: http://limchoonkiat-ck.blogspot.com/

What are the things that you have enjoyed most about your time here?

Opportunity to meet people across the world (Africa, America, Europe, Asia, etc) knows their culture and life styles.

Strong academic culture

First time I learn how to cook myself, become independent. Opportunity to meet new friend from different courtiers, and try cuisine from their country.

Exciting opportunity travel to many great tourist sports in the UK/ Europe.

Opportunity to visit museums, art galleries which are free-of-charge

Figures:

Graduation @ UTAR, August 2008

Graduation @ Glasgow University, December 2009

References:

http://www.gla.ac.uk/about/

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/about/

career advice from “Careers Blog 4 Int. Student@ Glasgow”

Read a post from Careers Blog 4 Int Student @ Glasgow, and found the following post maybe useful. Feel  free to watch the video on interview technique and other advices.

cheers

websites as follow:

http://gu-career.blogspot.com/2009/11/careers-advice-by-video.html

http://www.gla.ac.uk/careers/videogallery/

opinions from academicians on how to become a good research student

As mentioned previously about my intention to prepare feature articles on career in science. After met with several academic staff, I have decided to summarise all the opinions in one post, as most of the points are similar.

some key points share are such as, accompany with my brief opinions :-

Passion

you need to have strong interest in whatever areas you pursue, no matter study or work. Passion (to overcome famine) is a driving force for me to move forward

Carry out research that has greatest impact

i think greatest impact doesn’t mean you must use cutting edge techniques or work in well established lab. Some time average lab, or common techniques still can give you very good result.

I am doing basic research on model plant, Arabidopsis. Knowledge gained may be not able to apply on crops, but every little helps. Small pieces of knowledge, can give us some insights to solve big problem in the future

Soluble strategy

don’t do some thing not realistic, dare to dream and taken your capability into consideration. :-p

Think ahead

Always know what is your next step, no matter in career / future planning or just a simple experiment.

Networking

attend conference, etc

Try to publish your works

No one will know your works if you don’t publish it. By doing so, you have the opportunity to collaborate with other research groups or even a career opportunity :-p 

introducing: http://www.sciencenet.cn/

The visiting scholar in my lab at Glasgow, Prof. Wang introduced the following websites to me:

http://www.sciencenet.cn/

and

http://www.sciencenet.cn/blog/

More info, visit my Chinese blog at

http://limchoonkiat.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-post_6563.html

forward post: looking for helper

i forwarded a post of my friend, Wen Ni who is looking for a helper to assist her in biomedical research which is based in Kuching, Sarawak. Details info can refer to the following url.

http://wennitiong.blogspot.com/2009/09/looking-for-helper-2.html

thought-provoking issue on attire for interview

1.5 ago received an email from previous uni, it was about a case which students were rejected from attending interview due to inappropriate clothing.

my uni’s folks MARCCUS & CHAD shared their opinions on the issue.

i think the uni shouldn’t remind us through an email only. instead, the university should find out the solution: what are the reasons behind? My suggestion is the uni can provides career development and soft skills trainings, and implement it as part of the curriculums.

My previous experience showed that not all students tend to have awareness on career planning, and some of them not even know how to prepare an eye-catching CV, how to prepare intervew, etc.

I believe they are not the young forces we need. Uni edu is a way to train us how to think critically, develop our potential, rather than “certificate printing machine”

the implementation of soft skill training as part of the uni’s curriculum can fill in knowledge gap in academic education, and make student well-prepared for future career world.

Anyway, we should not condemn the students mentioned in the email solely as there are many students in the similar situation as well. I believe prolonged trainings, exposures will solve the problems eventually.