This textbook is a guide to success during the PhD trajectory. The first part of this book takes the reader through all steps of the PhD trajectory, and the second part contains a unique glossary of terms and explanation relevant for PhD candidates. Written in the accessible language of the PhD Talk blogs, the book contains a great deal of practical advice for carrying out research, and presenting one’s work. It includes tips and advice from current and former PhD candidates, thus representing a broad range of opinions. The book includes exercises that help PhD candidates get their work kick-started. It covers all steps of a doctoral journey in STEM: getting started in a program, planning the work, the literature review, the research question, experimental work, writing, presenting, online tools, presenting at one’s first conference, writing the first journal paper, writing and defending the thesis, and the career after the PhD. Since a PhD trajectory is a deeply personal journey, this book suggests methods PhD candidates can try out, and teaches them how to figure out for themselves which proposed methods work for them, and how to find their own way of doing things.

Enter the competition! "A breath of fresh air - I wish someone had told me this beforehand." PhD student, UK "If you are contemplating a PhD, buy the book and read it straight through to get the larger picture; then re-read each section in greater detail as you tackle each stage of your work. I did the basic research for my PhD in about twelve months, then spent two years writing up the results - and producing possibly too much. It succeeded, but I think I might have made a better job of it if I had read a book like this first. But they didn't exist in those days." Mantex This book looks at things the other books don't tell you about doing a PhD - what it's really like and how to come through it with a happy ending! It covers all the things you wish someone had told you before you started: What a PhD is really about, and how to do one well The "unwritten rules" of research and of academic writing What your supervisor actually means by terms like "good referencing" and "clean research question" How to write like a skilled researcher How academic careers really work An ideal resource if someone you care about (including yourself!) is undergoing or considering a PhD. This book turns lost, clueless students back into people who know what they are doing, and who can enjoy life again.

"This book is a toolbox for PhD students to plan and prepare for the PhD defence regardless of their scientific discipline or location. The authors discuss various defence formats that are used internationally and identify the main differences and similarities. With international examples, practical strategies, and tips from former PhD students and supervisors, this book unpacks the principles and unwritten rules underpinning the defence. Addressing planning and preparing for the doctoral defence, and what to do afterwards, this book covers topics such as: understanding your defence format preparing for committee questions preparing mentally and dealing with anxiety dealing with corrections, finalizing your graduation requirements and marking the end of your PhD trajectory. This book is crucial reading for students across the world looking to defend their PhD thesis, and also for their supervisors and examiners"--

The book asks how we can make sense of career paths for PhD graduates, something that has rarely been systematically studied. It offers a coherent synthesis of the empirically-based insights that arose from the experiences of 48 early career researchers, who were participants in a 10-year qualitative longitudinal research program. The book has the power to inform other researchers’ conceptual and methodological approaches to the study of post-PhD career trajectories. The authors draw on the conceptual lens of ‘identity-trajectory’, which emerged from their research program, to examine the decision-making processes underpinning the careers of PhD graduates, whether contingent researchers and teachers, assistant professors within the academy or professionals elsewhere. The book highlights the role of personal agency in negotiating academic and non-academic work and careers within broader personal lives. It will be compelling reading for researchers and students working in the areas of Education and Sociology, particularly those with an interest in examining career development and decision-making.

From PhD student to post-doc, Phil Dee has been sharing his career experiences with fellow scientists in his regular and acclaimed Science Next Wave column since 2000. Now his invaluable and entertaining advice is available in this compact warts-and-all guide to getting your science PhD and subsequent post-doctoral employment as a researcher. Dee offers you the inside track on what life in the lab is really like with down-to-earth suggestions for handling personal relationships in science, maintaining your morale or designing a good poster.

Become a master, not a victim, of change! “Change” doesn’t have to be a bad word. Our lives are like objects hurtling through time, colliding with changing circumstances or situations that send us careening down new trajectories and new paths. But if we learn how to respond, change can send us to a bigger and brighter life. Change Your Trajectory will help you to be proactive in responding to a rapidly and constantly changing world. Its principles will help you transition through change, whether it’s an occupational change, relationship change, political change, sociological change, technological change, or economic change. This book is for anyone who is experiencing stagnation in life, anyone who is unfulfilled in their current juncture in life, anyone who is simply hungry for change, or anyone who wants to avoid growing obsolete. You will learn: How to navigate through uncertainty How to deal with change and transition How to experience a new trajectory How to develop a vision for the future How to be a master of change How to improve your thinking How to overcome failures It is time to make the rest of your life better!

This course-based monograph introduces the reader to the theory of continuous measurements in quantum mechanics and provides some benchmark applications. The approach chosen, quantum trajectory theory, is based on the stochastic Schrödinger and master equations, which determine the evolution of the a-posteriori state of a continuously observed quantum system and give the distribution of the measurement output. The present introduction is restricted to finite-dimensional quantum systems and diffusive outputs. Two appendices introduce the tools of probability theory and quantum measurement theory which are needed for the theoretical developments in the first part of the book. First, the basic equations of quantum trajectory theory are introduced, with all their mathematical properties, starting from the existence and uniqueness of their solutions. This makes the text also suitable for other applications of the same stochastic differential equations in different fields such as simulations of master equations or dynamical reduction theories. In the next step the equivalence between the stochastic approach and the theory of continuous measurements is demonstrated. To conclude the theoretical exposition, the properties of the output of the continuous measurement are analyzed in detail. This is a stochastic process with its own distribution, and the reader will learn how to compute physical quantities such as its moments and its spectrum. In particular this last concept is introduced with clear and explicit reference to the measurement process. The two-level atom is used as the basic prototype to illustrate the theory in a concrete application. Quantum phenomena appearing in the spectrum of the fluorescence light, such as Mollow’s triplet structure, squeezing of the fluorescence light, and the linewidth narrowing, are presented. Last but not least, the theory of quantum continuous measurements is the natural starting point to develop a feedback control theory in continuous time for quantum systems. The two-level atom is again used to introduce and study an example of feedback based on the observed output.