Hello everyone,
Now, I originally wanted to talk about two other topics as well as update you about the research I have completed these past couple of weeks. However, one of the topics was a bit too personal to share just yet and I did not want to expose everyone to a post full of emotion and mental health issues I have been going through. The other topic is about a virtual poster I am working on to present at the American Geophysical Union. I wanted to share my progress with the poster, but I am not sure I am able to share it until the conference ends. I have to use a digital poster website to create my virtual poster so it is not a traditional poster made using PowerPoint or adobe illustrator. I plan to share this poster with you all after the 15th of December. I can however provide you a link to examples of what the poster will look like and how it will be structured.
Research Update: Nov 1st - Nov 17th
The last time I presented a research update to you all, I had just finished submitting two postdoc applications. Since then, I have resumed writing a draft of my third research paper, but have hit a couple of writers blocks. I have been able to finish putting my results section together and have started my discussion. However, I have been struggling to connect some of my paragraphs and to keeping the story of my work flowing throughout the discussion section. Part of struggle comes from making the work sound professional but I have decided now that I will focus more on getting words onto my word document and worry about editing the language of the discussion section later this month.
I plan to have a draft finished in early December so my co-authors can read it at least once before the end of the year.
Me when someone says they write for fun...
This week I have my annual PhD committee meeting. For those who are not familiar with the meeting process, I have to submit an annual progress report summarizing my thesis topic, work I completed during the previous academic year, and report my research plans from now until my defense date. Essentially what I wrote in my progress report is writing, writing and more writing. I need to prioritize finishing my research papers and writing drafts of my thesis introduction, literature review, and conclusion section. I have two due dates for those chapters: the introduction and literature review chapter draft needs to be completed by April 1st, 2021 and the conclusion chapter draft needs to be completed by May 1st, 2021. I need to submit these drafts by these dates so my PhD committee has time to review, edit and comment on them before I submit them to the university.
Speaking of research papers, I recently received a response from the Geological Society of America Geology journal about my Mistastin zircon paper. The journal editor stated in an email saying three reviewers are interested in my work and want to see it published in an issue of Geology. However, they have some major concerns about the emphasis of the research impact, queries about the samples I studied, and how my work can be applied to other terrestrial impact structures with similar impact melt samples. Addressing these comments has now become a high priority for me. If I want to get this paper submitted and published before my defense date, I need to start working addressing these comments now.
Working title of my Mistastin zircon paper. Fun enough, two of the three reviewers asked me to change the title of my paper to make it obvious that my research involves analyzing zircon crystals.
Jumping from writing to conferences, in a couple of weeks, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2020 conference will officially begin! AGU is an annual geology and geophysics conference that promotes global research in the earth and environmental sciences. It is typically held in San Francisco, but since we are in a pandemic it is held virtually this year. To be honest, I am only able to present at AGU this year because it is held virtually. I guess it is a weird blessing from COVID-19 that hundreds more students like me can attend conferences that would normally be too costly to attend. I submitted an abstract on the topic quantifying the surface roughness of the Holuhraun lava flows using radar and LiDAR remote sensing data. It was accepted for an eLightning poster session in the planetary science session, "The Use of Analog Environments in Preparing for the Exploration and Characterization of Planetary Surfaces II". Let me ask you, do you know what an eLightning poster is? Well, I did not know until I received a follow-up email explaining that I will need to create and submit an interactive poster by the 20th of November, and give a no more than three minute summary of my poster on the 15th of December. The interactive poster is known as an iPoster and I have to create one using a web-based platform called aMuze! iPosterSessions. It looks intimidating at first, but there are so many cool interactive tools you can add that you cannot add to a normal paper poster. You are able to add narrative clips, voice clips, GIFs, YouTube video links, and slideshow image galleries. It gives you the chance to talk more about your poster without having to write paragraph after paragraph of text. I really like the narrative and voice clips tool options because it makes you poster accessible to blind or partially blind participates who cannot visually observe your work. I plan to add an introduction narrative to my poster and voice clips explaining the content in each poster section.
The final update is that I am going to be giving a talk at my alma mater, the University of St Andrews Earth and Environmental Sciences department on my personal experience on how I decided to enroll in a PhD program, my experience as a PhD student, and giving advice to 3rd, 4th and 5th year undergraduates who are interested in apply for a MSc or PhD, or are undecided. I remember when I was in my fourth year of undergrad we had a seminar talk presented by an alumni who went on to get a PhD at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK and conducted research at US institutions. I found the seminar so inspiring and helpful when I was searching for grad school opportunities that I decided to reach out to my old department and give a talk that will help current undergraduate students. I haven't put the presentation together yet, I plan to start this coming Friday. The talk is at 1 pm BST so I will need to be up before 8 am to give the talk haha.
LATEST UPDATE
Oh, I just got this tweet today. A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by the Earth and Solar System Cosmic Cast group from the University of Manchester. I met one of the podcasters, Marissa Lo at the LunGradCon conference in July and she reached out to me to ask if I would be interested in coming on as a guest.
The episode is available on YouTube right now, and I believe will soon be available on Spotify and Google Play.
I have a link here for anyone interested in listening to the interview :)
Hope you are all staying safe and healthy out there! Follow my blog and website to read my next piece talking about a Lunar Surface Science Workshop I will be attending on the 19th of November!
See you all next time!
Yorumlar