![[Ph.D. student sits at his desk with a virtual model of the Great Lakes Basin on his computer screen.]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2019/10/Dan-Myers-at-desk.jpg)
When people ask me what I research as a Ph.D. student in the Indiana University Department of Geography, I respond “I model.” This is typically followed by a head-to-toe, confused glance at my worn running shoes, wrinkly shorts, and faded yellow-and-brown collared shirt. “No,” I say, “I’m not a fashion model. I make computer models. I am working on some really cool research involving the effects of climate change on rivers of the Great Lakes Basin, just north of us.” Now, you may be thinking, “climate change, that’s scary, huh?” Why, yes it is! That’s why it is so important that we learn as much as we can about climate change so that we can prepare our ecosystems and communities for its impacts…
Spotlight on People
PhD Mom: A day in the life
![[A four month old infant stares at a laptop playing a video of dancing cartoon fruit while schoolwork is visible on an iMac on the other half of the desk.]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2022/02/IMG_6215.jpg)
Today, we’re going to talk about the typical day of a PhD parent – mom addition – except I don’t have a “typical” day. Instead, I have a three-and-a-half month old, Percy, who is teething and going through the four month sleep regression early, so no sleep for baby and no sleep for me. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to run downstairs in the morning – normally, a little bit before 7 a.m. – to start making my breakfast. Before it’s even ready, my son will wake up from his last nighttime sleep session. Before eating my oatmeal and drinking my tea, I’ll go back upstairs and change him out of his pjs and dirty diaper. When infants don’t feel well (like when teeth are forcing their way through their gums), they tend to get clingy, so he’ll sit on my lap while I eat breakfast…
PhDad: A day in the life of a PhD parent
![[A father, reading a book with his daughter on the couch, is saying ‘...and so, that’s how they found out what the prefrontal cortex does…’]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2022/02/Dad-reading-small.jpg)
Graduate school is challenging. Between navigating new coursework, new teaching responsibilities, and conducting independent research projects, it can be an overwhelming endeavor for anyone. But doing all that with a family? Is that even possible? After graduating with my bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience, I worked for a couple of years as a technician in a research lab. My wife and I wanted to start a family sooner rather than later, so when I started grad school, I had a 1-year-old daughter and a son on the way. I never get tired of the look of surprise that people give me when they find out about my family situation…
Scientists can be creative too!
Scientists of all disciplines have pop culture ‘pet peeves.’ I’m sure physicists cringe at the rampant misinterpretation/misuse of quantum physics in movies (I’m looking at you, Ant-Man). I can almost hear the distant facepalm of a chemist each time a commercial plays that advertises ‘chemical-free’ soaps (like, all matter is technically a chemical by definition). As a neuroscientist, one of my pet peeves is the idea that people are either ‘right-brained’ or ‘left-brained,’ similar to how people favor their right or left hand…
Do scientists get bad grades?
![[A cartoon drawing of a stick figure in the fetal position ruminating about a failed chemistry exam.]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2021/06/Bad-Grades-Cartoon.jpg)
I wasn’t accepted into grad school when I first applied during my final year of college. The emails beginning with “We’re sorry to inform you” trickled one by one into my inbox, and I spent time frantically trying to figure out my post-graduation plans, since they were previously just ‘grad school.’ Fortunately, most of these emails had good suggestions about actions to take over the next couple of years, but one piece of feedback stung a little more than the rest. One program noted that while I had spent time doing research, my science grades were ‘quite poor.’ Honestly, they weren’t wrong…
Finding the Right Question
![[Portrait of Dr. Songhu Wang.]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2021/03/Songhu-HeisingSimons-19.jpg)
Imagining life on other planets is usually the work of science-fiction authors, but increasingly it is becoming the work of current astronomers. Although it had been theorized that there existed other planets outside of our solar system, exoplanets were only confirmed in the late 1980s. The field exploded when the Kepler space telescope started finding hundreds of exoplanets. A rich field of study was born…
My journey in graduate school
![[Image showing graduate student's journey as full of adventure, obstacles, test, enemies and rewards.]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2021/03/gradstudent_Journey.png)
Ask any graduate student, and they will tell you that graduate school is not a place for the faint-hearted. Just like any jaw-opening, thrill-seeking action movie, there are mysterious, shady characters wanting to put you down, as well as a kindhearted stranger that makes the journey bearable. As I reflect about my journey as a cancer biologist, I feel that my story here at Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) can be described in a few words: confidence, structure, purpose, and knowledge. Let me tell you what I mean…
Building Wakanda: a graduate student’s journey into sports psychology
![[DJ Purnell is captured from the side, smiling. He is sitting at a panel on advice for applying to graduate school]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2020/02/DJ_Purnell.png)
This week on the blog, we tackle sports and performance from the perspective of mental health, talking with IU’s DeJon Purnell. Purnell is a Ph.D. student in the Counseling Psychology program in IU’s School of Education, and his specific focus is Sport and Performance Psychology. While much of sports psychology translates directly into counseling the athletes themselves, DJ focuses on bigger-picture issues in sports and performance mental health, such as coaching behaviors and pathways to licensure for practicing sports counselors…
Welcome to the Weaver Lab: An interview with Dr. Lesley Weaver
![[Dr. Lesley Weaver poses for a head shot wearing a bright, cobalt blue top, smiling facing the camera, and wearing her black, curly hair down and parted on the side.]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2021/01/Screen-Shot-2021-01-26-at-2.58.27-PM.png)
Dr. Lesley Weaver, an alum of IU’s Department of Biology, has returned to campus as an Assistant Professor after her finishing her postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University. This past September, I had the opportunity to interview her about her experience as an early career researcher, setting up her lab, navigating IU in her new role as an Assistant Professor, and how the COVID-19 pandemic shift to online has simultaneously highlighted issues with and solutions to accessibility and diversity in academia.
“They have seaweed in the library?”: Algological books by Victorian women
![[A picture of an open book with two specimens of seaweed pasted onto the right-hand page and a description of the seaweed on the left.]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2020/11/Allom-Fucus-Crispus.jpg)
Of all the wonderful things a great library can be, “a vessel for preserving the natural world,” may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But the library can be a preservational space as significant as a national park or a wildlife preserve. Not just in words and images, but in actual specimens. Take, for example, the copy of a rare and unusual book by Elizabeth Allom, The Sea-Weed Collector, found at IU’s Lilly Library.