Space Physics Postdoc Survey

POSTDOCS AND OTHER NON-PERMANENT RESEARCHERS –

Please fill out the survey found at the link below!

https://redcap.helsinki.fi/redcap/surveys/?s=TCPL4WJJCMFAYJDM

Or follow the QR code in this post.

The questionnaire is anonymous and does not require registration.

This survey is intended to measure the working conditions and career prospects of non-permanent researchers in the international heliospheric, magnetospheric, and ionospheric–thermospheric physics communities. We are particularly interested in the challenges faced by post-PhD researchers as they work to advance their careers.

In this project, we are motivated by the following questions:
1. How are postdocs doing in our field?
2. Are there any issues that need to be addressed? What are the causes?
3. What can be done to improve the situation?

We intend to publish the survey results and use them to promote postdoc wellbeing in our community.

The survey will close on January 11, 2025. Be sure to submit your final answers before then, and also to share the link with other postdocs and non-permanent researchers.

For more information, you may contact the survey administrators: konstantinos.horaites@helsinki.fi , giulia.cozzani@cnrs-orleans.fr , eleanna.asvestari@helsinki.fi , maxime.grandin@fmi.fi

Thank you for your participation!

The train from PhD to PostDoc #2

In this new series, we are asking postdocs who have recently received their PhDs on the whens and hows
of the process.

Our interviewee for today's blog is Dr. Hannah Rogers, a postdoc at ISTerre, Universite Grenoble Alpes. She did her PhD at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She works on applying mathematical methods to the inversion process that produces core surface flow models from satellite magnetic field change (secular variation) data. Currently she is a member of the GRACEFUL ERC grant, looking at incorporating weighted averages of satellite data to improve stochastic flow models. One day she hopes to use the secular variation to constrain the regional dynamics happening under the seismic anomalies observed at the base of the mantle.

When is the right time to start looking for a postdoc?

This is a very difficult question as I don’t think that there is a ‘right’ time. Unfortunately, there is an element of luck and good timing depending on who gets funding when. Personally, I started thinking about postdocs and future jobs about 7 months before my thesis submission because I wanted to contact people who I had never met (Covid-19 limited conference interactions) and I would have struggled to fund a prolonged career gap. I had multiple rejections and was applying to jobs outside of academia as well. Be flexible and consider what your priorities are: is it staying in the country you live or staying in academia or staying within your direct discipline? It is okay to apply for multiple positions and decide which way you rank them later.

Assuming you want to start right after, how to obtain a postdoc position?

Depending on your situation, it is very difficult to start ‘straight after’ the PhD. When I moved country to start my postdoc, visa applications and paperwork coincided with the French holiday period, meaning that I had to delay my ideal start date. Some friends (particularly those staying at the same institution) were able to start immediately with zero problems! However, I’d recommend that you schedule some time to rest for yourself as well. You will have just submitted (probably) the biggest piece of writing from (probably) one of the most stressful periods of your life! You deserve to give your brain some rest before diving into the next chapter! 

What changes come between PhD and postdoc?

Quite a lot changed for me between my PhD and postdoc – new country, new day-to-day language, new department, new coding language, new satellite dataset, new mathematical process…. However, my colleagues are amazing and I feel excited by tackling new problems that I hadn’t seen during my PhD. I feel like I’m juggling a lot more projects as I try to finish papers from my PhD alongside working on my current job and also having to consider what comes next as well. At the end of the day though, I’m still using satellite data to study an interesting inversion process to try and find out more about the Earth’s outer core motion. Personally, the jump to a postdoc has been really positive and I’ve loved it. This is despite the beginning being overwhelming and at moments you question why you do a job that seems more difficult than working outside of academia.

Let us know your questions in the comments you want answers to in the next blog of the series!

The train from PhD to PostDoc #1

In this new series, we are asking postdocs who have recently received their PhDs on the whens and hows of the process.

Our interviewee for today's blog is Dr. Shivangi Sharan, a postdoc at Imperial College London, UK. She did her PhD from the Laboratory of Planetology and Geosciences in Nantes, France. She works on the magnetic fields of planetary bodies. In her current position, she is working with the JUICE mission J-MAG instrument team.

When is the right time to start looking for a postdoc?

I don't think there's a right time. It all depends on when you want to do it. Many people prefer to take a break between their PhD and postdoc while some want to start it right after. You also need to see if you want to continue in academics or if you would like to shift to industry. This usually you understand by the last year of your PhD.

Assuming you want to start right after, how to obtain a postdoc position?

You can start networking from whenever but mostly, a few months before your PhD ends would be a good time to start looking and applying for positions and fellowships. Same goes if you want to switch to industry. On the other hand, keep a look out for potential positions even if their advertised start date is earlier. Most positions depend on the candidate and are flexible with the joining date. What is important is for you to be interested in the topic. Your interview will mostly be about the challenges you have tackled in your PhD and if you seem keen enough for these next challenges in your postdoc.

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com

What changes come between PhD and postdoc?

PhD is all about learning the skill you will use later on. And postdoc is all about applying the skill you learnt. It also depends a lot on your supervisor and institute. Some supervisors take a lot of involvement in your work while others let you work independently. In both cases, regular meetings about your objectives and goals are important so you know you are headed in the direction of the planned course of action. Discussing your non-academic life is equally important in order to ensure there is no stress. Communication is key in almost all aspects of life!

Let us know your questions in the comments you want answers to in the next blog of the series!

Pandemic PhD Stories : My french struggle

If you haven't figured it out already from the title, in this blog, I am blaming the pandemic for my lack of french, among many other things. I'll admit it's my brain's fault as well. But lets put more blame on something that can't fight back. Just can kill me or heavily damage my lungs.

Starting with a little background- my name is Shivangi, and I am from India. The first time I ever travelled abroad was for my PhD. So you can imagine my excitement to move to France and finally start my salaried life :D

I took some french classes before arriving in Nantes in November 2019. Half a day here and I realised the left hemisphere of my brain is pretty useless. But also that I needed it to work in order to survive. This meant I had to re-take language classes if I wanted to show off my french back home.

So, I started my lessons again in January and was excelling them. Nice to know my rupees earlier and euros now were not all wasted. But like always, life had other plans (Somehow, they never really match mine). Fast forward two months, and we were in lockdown. I didn't know enough french to get around and didn't have enough knowledge to do my research alone at home. And so my best friends were Netflix and literature review.

The city opened up again and so did my vigour to learn french. I enrolled for the next semester. And, drumroll...... we were back in lockdown! But this one was not that strict and we were still having online classes. But that meant there was always a google translate page open, you know, just in case. I then figured it out- my french classes were triggering the lockdowns. So I gave up.... For the greater good.

Well, it's safe to say that my french sucks. But I get by. Although it does get overwhelming sometimes to constantly hear a language and catch only bits and pieces. The only relief was when I would go to international events but that was like twice in my last year, thanks again to the great pandemic.

Here I was, hoping to meet aliens, but the only foreign bodies I met should be trapped in my mask and thrown away!

But for anyone learning french, don't let it deter you. Like I slandered stressed said, it was the pandemic's fault. As long as you regularly speak it (with and without mistakes), you'll get there. Just keep practicing with a person, and not with a wall like I did.

Image Credits: Pinterest

Comment below your pandemic story!

Do you also have your own Pandemic PhD stories? Tag our social media channels and share your stories or send it to us here and get featured in our next blog! 

 

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Shivangi Sharan is a third year PhD student at the Laboratory of Planetology and Geosciences in France. Her research focusses on the study of the magnetic field of planets and to infer their internal structure from it. She is an active member of the IAGA Blog Team and can be contacted via e-mail here.

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Doctoral and Postdoctoral low benefits of developing countries like Nigeria

In today's blog post, Chukwuma Anoruo, a third year PhD student in the University of Nigeria, talks about the difficulties about research in developing countries. Though there is abundant talent, the lack of opportunities and funding is a major disadvantage that holds back many students that are interested in working in this field.

To begin with, I will first highlight my studentship career in science, early stage, challenges experienced
and how I was able to overcome them through attending virtual international conferences, workshops and communications with senior scientists in Space Science and discussions with my advisors.

My career started with a BS in Physics and MS in Physics of the lower atmosphere, where I majored in aerosols and carbon dioxide measurements and air quality monitoring. The experience was excellent with so much field work exercises, contributing in the group review of the Intercontinental Panel of Climate Change by the APECS, MRI, PAGES-ECN, PYRN and YESS. I was twice lead-chair of the review group and we are currently writing a paper to be published from the review report. Also, we presented the review summary in AGU fall meeting in December 2021, in the session ED43A-05 (hybrid). Also serving as twice Africa regional representative and currently YESS council member gave me room to advance my career and relating with people.

The early stage of my doctoral program was quite funny, with my transition from lower to upper atmosphere study. It was not totally challenging, and all I did was update myself in the field of space weather topic and research. I started reading more manuscripts, textbooks, attending conferences, workshops and engaging in space weather discussion through Twitter and other social media. Most of all, I became a member of Join Study Group (JSG), whose research aim is to improve the understanding of coupled processes in Magnetosphere, Thermosphere and Ionosphere (MTI). The president of the group Associate professor Andrés Calabia Aibar has been of regular help. Also my supervisors have been advising on better pathway, where I join viva and discussions on space weather research trend to keep up-to-date results.

Although after my MS, I got accepted to join a prestigious laboratory in Canada on methane measurements, I was really delayed during the processing of documents and was informed that the position has been given to a Canadian. Then my good friend Kelechi Ndubuisi raised funds for my PhD program. I participated in several space weather discussions, and have helped some MS students to discuss their results. I also interact well with other doctoral students sharing ideas and providing answers to their questions. It is quite unfortunate that doctoral students in developing countries lack adequate funding for research and conference sponsorship. It is difficult getting opportunities to be trained outside our region. The field of upper physics is very interesting, though use of data often becomes a problem, mostly for Africa (Nigeria), where GNSS are quiet scarce.

I started as a PhD student in 2018 at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I was received and housed by a friend whom I meet during our BS days. Later, I changed accommodation and the switch became a bit far from the University. It was quiet challenging, mostly due to transportation, where I lack funds to take care of. My research is in total electron content variations during geomagnetic storm. I went on a two months research visit at National Space Research and Development Agency, Abuja. I had the opportunity to concentrate more and work out results in total electron content. I participated in several space physics conferences and one of the conference proceeding will soon appear in International Symposium on Space Science (ISSS) held in Lapan, Indonesia.

GNSS-TEC observations. Credit : http://www.unoosa.org (pdf NICT, Japan)

PhD research where there is no funding really used to be difficult. I know of a friend that quit his PhD when it became obvious that he can no longer get the fund. The government of our country keeps absolute silence over this and to say, PhD students here do not relent in effort. Certainly, I attribute much of my success to hardwork, networking, comments and suggestions from virtual and physical presentations. I see the need to fund PhD students so as to make studentship in Nigeria interesting. I came to know about SCOSTEP program in space research through networking. Although, international laboratory head most times reply that they have limited fund admitting more than 2 students. Such activities should be encouraged also in Nigeria, that will also help get good postdoctoral position and contribute in solving space weather problems. The number of postdocs in Nigeria is low, because most people find it difficult getting an offer. This I should say is lack of training in the field of research. There should be an initiative to support and fund PhD students in Nigeria.

EGU Early Career Scientist Award (EMRP): Richard Bono

I am a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow working on research questions which bridge core processes, such as the geodynamo, to crust-to-space effects, including magnetic shielding and the evolution of life. Currently, I work in the Geomagnetism Laboratory at the University of Liverpool and in January 2022, I will be joining the Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science Department at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. I earned my PhD in 2016 at the University of Rochester advised by Prof. John Tarduno, where I also earned my bachelor’s and master's degrees. In addition to pursuing my research, I also currently help to maintain the PINTdb.org paleointensity database and assist in organizing MagNetZ, an online seminar for the paleomagnetic community. 

My passion for geology is centred on the field of palaeomagnetism – the recognition that the magnetic record stored in rocks could act as a compass or a clock going back through geologic time inspired my pursuit in addressing questions about Earth’s interior across deep time. Through field work, careful laboratory experiments, statistical modelling and numerical simulation, I try to understand the fundamental properties and behaviour of Earth’s liquid outer core. 

As part of the DEEP group, I develop statistical paleomagnetic field models as part of a multidisciplinary team of geophysicists, geologists and dynamo modelers. These statistical models are used to characterize and test hypotheses related to long term geomagnetic field evolution, and aid comparisons between observational data to numerical dynamo simulations using Earth-like configurations. 

Field Work, Arctic, 2012. Credit : https://www.richardkbono.org/

Prior research focused on using single crystal palaeomagnetism and electron microscopy to investigate questions about how terrestrial planetary interiors evolved over time, the impact of this evolution on planetary surfaces, potential implications for the evolution of life and habitability, and fundamental capabilities of single crystals as magnetic recorders. This work resulted in some of the oldest magnetic records sampling the Hadean using zircons from the Jack Hills in Australia, the weakest magnetic records sampling the Ediacaran, as well as extra-terrestrial materials from pallasites and lunar samples. 

My work has involved a wide range of disciplines, with collaborators from geochronology, mantle modelling, plate reconstructions, mineral physics, electron microscopy, and numerical modelling communities. The broad implications of the research are as follows: the habitability of a planetary body is largely understood to be determined by its ability to retain liquid water on its surface. To maintain the physical conditions required to preserve liquid water on the surface, the planet must host an atmosphere, which is vulnerable to solar erosion over geologic timescales. Preserving the atmosphere from cosmic radiation requires a planetary magnetic field which shields the atmosphere, allowing liquid water to remain present on the surface. Therefore, understanding the conditions required to generate and maintain a dynamo in planetary bodies is crucial to gaining insight in the dual evolutions of Earth’s life and dynamo.