The complete guide to a PhDfor new PhD students

by slightly less new PhD students

Sylvia Qinghua Liu & Adrian Ruf

Outline

Getting startedPhD ApplicationNorwegian Language Courses

Working as a PhD StudentThe Thesis DefencePresentationsReadingWriting

PhD Application

PhD Application Norwegian Language Courses

PhD Application

http://mn.uio.no/english/research/phd/regulations/regulations.html

PhD Application Norwegian Language Courses

Norwegian Language Courses

PhD Application Norwegian Language Courses

Norwegian Language courses

Learn Norwegian

PhD Application Norwegian Language Courses

Norwegian Language courses

Learn Norwegian– you can fit five consonants into one syllable:

PhD Application Norwegian Language Courses

Norwegian Language courses

skjelmskt

PhD Application Norwegian Language Courses

Norwegian Language courses

NORIR NORA Intensive summer course3 h/w 6− 8 h/w 15 h/w

8 weeks 14 weeks 6 weeks

http://uio.no/english/for-employees/employment/international-researchers/arrival/language-courses/

PhD Application Norwegian Language Courses

The Thesis Defence

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

The Thesis defence

I Trial lecture (45 minutes)

I Defence (30 minutes + 10 minutes + ∼ 30 minutes)

(∼ 115 minutes)

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

The Thesis defence

I Trial lecture (45 minutes)

I Defence (30 minutes + 10 minutes + ∼ 30 minutes)

(∼ 115 minutes)

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/IllustratedGuidePhD-Matt-Might.pdf

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/IllustratedGuidePhD-Matt-Might.pdf

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/IllustratedGuidePhD-Matt-Might.pdf

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/IllustratedGuidePhD-Matt-Might.pdf

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/IllustratedGuidePhD-Matt-Might.pdf

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/IllustratedGuidePhD-Matt-Might.pdf

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/IllustratedGuidePhD-Matt-Might.pdf

Ph.D.

Ph.D.

Presentations

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Don’t overwhelm the audience

doi:10.1007/s00033-017-0863-z

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Don’t overwhelm the audience

Only one idea per slide

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Include less math than you think

(X , dX ), (Y ,DY ) metric spaces, f : X → Yf continuous in x ∈ X ⇔∀ε > 0∃δ > 0∀x̃ ∈ X : dX (x , x̃) < δ ⇒ dY (f (x), f (x̃)) < ε.

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Include less math than you think

Let (X , dX ), (Y ,DY ) be metric spaces and f : X → Y be afunction.Then f is continuous in x ∈ X iff f satisfies the following property:For each ε > 0 there exists δ > 0 such that dY (f (x), f (x̃)) < ε forall x̃ with dX (x , x̃) < δ.

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Include less math than you think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous function

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Include less math than you think

a discontinuous function a continuous function

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Include less math than you think

Should I include math?

Is understanding this math

essential to the idea?

Is there no way to use

plain English instead?

Is there no way to

use a diagram or

analogy instead?

Is it infeasable to infer the

concept with examples?

Include math Don’t include math

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

No

Yes

matt.might.net/articles/academic-presentation-tips/

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Don’t present a paper – present an idea

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Don’t present a paper – present an idea

http://matt.might.net/articles/academic-presentation-tips/

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Practice

I Practice a lot

I at least once with a group

I focus on the opening

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Practice

I Practice a lot

I at least once with a group

I focus on the opening

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Practice

I Practice a lot

I at least once with a group

I focus on the opening

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Reading

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Reading papers

Skimming vs. reading thoroughly

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Reading papers

How much should I read?

0.3− 0.9

Matt Might:

40

my second. supervisor:

beeminder.com/mewmew/papers

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Reading papers

How much should I read?

0.3− 0.9

Matt Might:

1 40

my second. supervisor:

beeminder.com/mewmew/papers

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Reading papers

How much should I read?

0.3− 0.9

Matt Might:

1 40

my second. supervisor:

beeminder.com/mewmew/papers

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Reading papers

I Read critically

I Read creatively

I Make notes

I Try to summarize the paper in a few sentences

I Compare the paper to other works

http://meandmyresearch.blogspot.no/2012/09/how-to-succeed-as-phd-student.html

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Reading papers

I Read critically

I Read creatively

I Make notes

I Try to summarize the paper in a few sentences

I Compare the paper to other works

http://meandmyresearch.blogspot.no/2012/09/how-to-succeed-as-phd-student.html

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Reading papers

I Read critically

I Read creatively

I Make notes

I Try to summarize the paper in a few sentences

I Compare the paper to other works

http://meandmyresearch.blogspot.no/2012/09/how-to-succeed-as-phd-student.html

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Reading papers

I Read critically

I Read creatively

I Make notes

I Try to summarize the paper in a few sentences

I Compare the paper to other works

http://meandmyresearch.blogspot.no/2012/09/how-to-succeed-as-phd-student.html

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Reading papers

I Read critically

I Read creatively

I Make notes

I Try to summarize the paper in a few sentences

I Compare the paper to other works

http://meandmyresearch.blogspot.no/2012/09/how-to-succeed-as-phd-student.html

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Writing

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Writing papers

Write a rapid prototype

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/advice-on-writing-papers/write-a-rapid-prototype-first/

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Writing papers

Try to lose the reader as late as possible

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Writing papers

”If you can save the reviewer one minute of their time,by spending one extra hour of your time, then you have the

obligation to do so.”

Eamonn Keogh – http://cs.ucr.edu/∼eamonn/Keogh SIGKDD09 tutorial.pdf

The Thesis Defence Presentations Reading Writing

Helpful resources

I ”How to get a Ph.D. in mathematics in a timely fashion” –Essay from Sara C. Billey 1

I Blog of Matt Might 2

I Blog of Terry Tao 3

I ”Me and my research” 4

1https://sites.math.washington.edu/∼billey/advice/timely.fashion.pdf

2http://matt.might.net/articles/

3https://terrytao.wordpress.com

4http://meandmyresearch.blogspot.no/2012/09/how-to-succeed-as-phd-student.html