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Today, I have the pleasure of inviting Marwa Hassan to talk about PhD defenses in Egypt. Marwa soon will be awarded the PhD from the University of Queensland, Australia. However, she is originally from Egypt and has a Master of Science from the American University in Cairo, Egypt. During her Master’s degree she learnt about the PhD system and defenses in her country and now feels that she needs to share it with everyone. She is passionate about microbiology, bacterial interactions, diagnostics, teaching and science communication. To reach to the stage of the PhD defense in a developing country like Egypt is quite challenging. It takes a lot of efforts to overcome the hurdles of the system for a countless number of years. When you reach this stage you would have invested a lot of money on your research and spent a lot of long nights working hard either on the PhD or taking an extra shift to compensate for the income. It is definitely advantageous for students attaining their degrees in...

Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming Iván Carrera as a guest author. Ivan is a professor at the Department of Informatics and Computer Science of Escuela Politécnica Nacional in Quito, Ecuador. His research interests are Performance Evaluation, Distributed Systems and Bioinformatics. Check out his webpage: http://fis.epn.edu.ec/sistemasdistribuidos/ . You can follow him on Twitter. I majored in engineering in Ecuador, my homeland. When I finished, I wanted to do grad-school in Brazil. I had studied Portuguese, and for me it was a dream to have the opportunity to do research. I applied to several universities, got a few yes's and a lot of no's. In engineering they say that you shouldn't worry about communication skills, but it was very difficult for me to write. I had to learn how to write formally. I got accepted in University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, and went to do a Master's in Computer Science. During my Master's I felt that my research wouldn...

Today, I'm hosting Dr. Rasheda Weaver, who shares with us what she learned about writing during her PhD. Rasheda L. Weaver, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Community Entrepreneurship at the University of Vermont where she teaches classes and conducts research on social enterprises, businesses that seek to combat social problems. She conducted the first large-scale study of the social, economic, and legal activities on social enterprises in the United States. You can email her at Rasheda.weaver@uvm.edu and follow her on Twitter @RLWeaverPhD. After graduating with a PhD in Public Affairs from Rutgers University in May 2017, I wanted to take some time to reflect, discuss, and share some of the lessons that I learned about writing for peer-reviewed journals throughout my doctoral program. The lessons are organized below by the following three themes: 1) The Writing Process, 2) Organization and Interpretation, and 3) Peer-Reviewed Publications and the Job Search. The Writing Process * ...

Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Dr. Arnoud van Vliet in the "Defenses around the world" series to share the point of view of the examiner. Arnoud is a senior lecturer in microbiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Surrey, UK. He obtained his PhD in 1995 from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and has since then worked in the UK and the Netherlands. He has supervised or co-supervised >10 PhD students in the Netherlands and in the UK, and has been external examiner of PhD students in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. He has also been Postgraduate Research Director for 3 years, overseeing PhD student recruitment, examination and other procedures. The background story Some traditions are transnational: once the PhD defense (viva) of a PhD student is near, those "in the know" start scaring the candidate with horror stories about viva lasting 6 hours, external examiners with OCD discussing every comma, col...

Today, I have invited Dr. Alexandra Voronina to explain us how a PhD defense in Russia takes place. Alexandra is 32 and lives in a small town near Saint-Petersburg. She has a PhD in sociology, which she defended in September 2009 at Saint-Petersburg State University. Nowadays she works as an assistant professor at Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping at the History, Sociology and Political Science Department. She has two little children. Officially, she is on parental leave now but she has a cash-in-hand job as a tutor helping schoolchildren prepare for their State Uniform Leaving Certificate Examinations. In her free time she is writing a monograph, which she recently submitted to a publisher, and teaching aids. Her plan for the near future is to begin writing her habilitation thesis. She also blogs about social anthropology. You can find her on Instagram. When I studied for a PhD there were three ways to get the PhD in Russia : a full-time postgraduate co...

Today, I am hosting Dr. Maureen Berg in the "Defenses around the World" series. Maureen is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and received a BS in Biology at the University of Dayton. Maureen recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a PhD in Integrative Biology, and is currently applying for and interviewing for non-academic research positions in the Bay Area. You can follow her on twitter @MaureenBug . The majority of PhD programs in the US require a written dissertation, as well as an oral defense. However, the various biology departments at Berkeley do not require a formal defense. Most do require some sort of “finishing talk,” which is essentially a seminar where you present your all of the work in your dissertation. For my department, we form our dissertation committee after passing our qualifying exams (taken at the end of year 2), and meet with that committee at least once per year until graduation. To submit your completed dissertation, all you need to do is have each ...

Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Dr. Viktoriia Chekina in the "Defenses around the world" series. Viktoriia Chekina is a leading researcher in the Institute of Industrial Economics of NAS of Ukraine (Department of financial and economic problems of industrial potential use). She graduated from the State Academy of Housing and Communal Services (Donetsk, 2004), and began working in the scientific field in 2004 as a graduate student (Institute of Industrial Economics of NAS of Ukraine, Donetsk). She defended a thesis titled "Formation of the real estate taxation system in Ukraine" and received a diploma of candidate of economic sciences (2009). She has worked part-time as a senior lecturer at the State Academy of Housing and Communal Services (2004-2006) and Donetsk National University (2010-2013). She is the author of more than 50 scientific works (articles in journals, conference abstracts, monographs). Her research interests include public finance, local fina...