There is value in naiveté. Daniel Gonzales didn’t have a clue when he began college about the opportunities before him. And because he was naive he didn’t have any reason to say “no” when these opportunities were presented to him. Not know, having zero expectations have served him well thorough to his post-doc where he has learned to embrace the unknown so he can continue to pursue a passion for exploration. For more on Daniel's work - - https://gonzales.science Daniel on Twitter - https://twitt...
Jun 18, 2021•1 hr 7 min
t's the beginning of the 2021 Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season, why not to talk to a hurricane expert. Phil Klotzbach, PhD is a part of a group of research scientists working to predict hurricanes. Currently, as of June 1, Phil's team from Colorado State University, yes Colorado, are predicting 17 named storms for 2021. Last year there were 30 named storms, the most since 2005 when there were 28. Phil and his team look at a wide range of data to try and predict seasonal hurricane activity primari...
Jun 01, 2021•1 hr
From Texas to Alaska Brian Brettschneider has experienced some of the most extreme weather on earth. His love of weather really began as an extension of an early fascination with geography and then an introduction to The Weather Channel. Brian has worked in industry, academia, and governmental agencies and for the last 15 years has spent his time documenting the changes in sea ice, temperatures, and moose. Brian on Twitter https://twitter.com/Climatologist49 Brian's Climate Blog - http://us-clim...
May 16, 2021•1 hr 11 min
The journey of a PhD in Nursing is certainly unique due to the fact there is an element of direct work experience required before moving onto graduate education. Dr. Linda Franck did not plan to become as she started college and she certainly wasn't expecting to get a PhD. The career of a nurse is varied and Dr. Franck talks about the options available to the soon to be minted BSN co-host of the episode, my daughter. Dr. Franck is part of The Center for Health and Community at The University of ...
Apr 16, 2021•1 hr 12 min
The leap from dancing, specifically belly dancing, to a PhD in Speech Communication is really not too far. Especially once you hear the story of how Sandra Halvorson, PhD took the journey. Sure; there was the family, the dance and exercise school, living in Minnesota then Florida. But in the end it all really kind of makes sense; because after all there are just some people that need an audience.
Apr 01, 2021•1 hr 4 min
There's a common thread among many PhDs I have talked with over these 40 episodes; always looking for the next thing, even when the thing they are working on now is still in process. Maybe it's one of those key ingredients of making a PhD, the never-ending quest. Eladio Bobadilla came to America as a child and grew up in the agriculture industry of California's Central Valley. After stumbling to get his high school diploma he joined the Navy and, thanks to the extreme boredom of being deployed i...
Mar 16, 2021•1 hr 24 min
The original destination for Chris Cornthwaite's PhD journey was a tenure track college professor gig. The universe had other plans and now Chris finds himself on two paths; using the knowledge and skillset developed during his PhD to help define immigration policy and helping other PhDs and helping other graduates with advanced degrees define themselves in a complicated and sometimes daunting workplace. These two paths are very different from when he first went into seminary with the intent of ...
Mar 01, 2021•1 hr 12 min
The Bible we are most familiar with is the King James version, commissioned by the English, or Scottish depending on your POV, king in the early 1600s. It is generally considered the most important book of the western world. But did you know there are stories outside the Bible? These are known as Apocrypha and were popular and used by English priests as Christianity was spreading. Brandon Hawk discovered these stories in college and became fascinated with them. He grew up with a fairly conservat...
Feb 15, 2021•1 hr 11 min
More talk of proteins on this episode of Piled high and Deep-The Podcast. Charlie Eldrid, his PhD is coming later this month (I will update) is also doing some cutting edge science as he works to further develop the technology making identifying the structure of proteins more efficient. https://twitter.com/CharlieSpec?s=20 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Charles_Eldrid...
Feb 02, 2021•1 hr 7 min
What would you do if you realized the undergraduate degree you were about to complete wasn't what you wanted to do? For Dr. Deanne Sammond it was a realization the music degree she was about to complete was not going to be the path she wanted to follow anymore. So instead she explored the world of biotech and found herself intrigued with proteins and found a path that would lay the foundation for the successes we are seeing in the fight again the Corona Virus.
Jan 19, 2021•1 hr 11 min
Writing is always a consistent theme in the journey of any PhD. For Kali Wallace, while she always had a love of making up stories, her PhD required her to use the facts to tell stories about the movement of tectonic plates. Today Kali is doing what she loves, making up stories. The science stuff is important too, but Kali has found her place in the world by writing science fiction books and using her science knowledge to provide some reality while making her work compelling. http://www.kaliwall...
Jan 01, 2021•1 hr 47 min
The PhD journey of Dr. Lisa Munro is more of a journey journey, not so much the destination if the destination was really known at the time the journey began and as the journey continued the destination wasn’t really ever known even today as the journey continues with the unknowing knowledge of the importance of living in the moment. She is going to hate that adjectively ridiculously long run-on sentence. http://www.lisamunro.net
Dec 15, 2020•1 hr 18 min
Even before earning his PhD, Stephen Rosen had quite a journey. After college and masters degree he found himself working on the front lines of the Cold War, building nuclear bombs. His PhD came later and led him to become part of the legendary Hudson Institute and part of a group of BIG thinkers pondering the greater questions of mankind entering the nuclear age. His journey took a turn as he discovered an aptitude for helping people better define themselves and their career focus.
Dec 02, 2020•1 hr 20 min
Efra Rivera Serrano began his PhD journey very simply, he went to college in order to escape the poverty of rural Puerto Rico. He fell in love with biology after his college classes built upon his favorite subjects in high school. The goal moved to PhD when he discovered a living could be had by being curious and asking questions. Efra then discovered a love for writing and science communications. Now he is taking all this and giving to his community of unique scientist and opportunity to share ...
Jun 26, 2019•1 hr 35 min
You could say the the PhD journey for Dr. Sam Benz began as a kid. His father was a professor at a seminary in Iowa, studying The Old Testament and Greek, and Sam found himself at archeological dig sites, living overseas, and being exposed to the greater world around him. Mix that with a love of building things, math, and a general curiosity of the world, the foundation was built for Sam to learn how to ask the questions that would lead to his PhD. Sam has continued to ask questions as he explor...
May 22, 2019•1 hr 35 min
You might think a PhD built upon earthquakes and other natural disasters would be all science and stuff; not the case with Dr. Sara McBride. This journey begins with finding a love of writing and of far away places, putting those skills to work serving communities facing threats from Mother Nature and then traveling around the world chasing the disasters and helping communities recover. For Sara the beginning of the PhD comes when her adopted hometown is the center of an immense disaster. It is ...
Apr 12, 2019•1 hr 32 min
A big driver for success in this world is finding something you enjoy doing, and it doesn't matter why. For Emma Southon, PhD in Ancient History it was embracing the horribleness of Ancient Rome that opened her eyes to how awesome history is. From there she moved on to look at how early Christianity rose up and plotted and schemed to convert the masses from worshipping ancestors and multiple gods to just one god. Emma does this with a smile on her face a non-stop laugh at the wackiness of it all...
Mar 06, 2019•1 hr 30 min
Tenacity is a trait common among PhDs. The drive to find answers, solve problems, develop solutions, or improve upon what is already established and or commonplace. For Cathy Dundon the PhD journey begins with an early introduction into the wonders of cells and DNA. Her curiosity leads to a PhD and then to working to solve problems as industry looks to alternatives to hydrocarbon based packaging and fuels. The journey now is focused on helping other scientists realize their dreams of making the ...
Feb 21, 2019•1 hr 15 min
Samer Hijazi can point to a Japanese cartoon for being the inspiration for his pursuit of a PhD in Electrical Engineering. The cartoon was about a robot that understood what he was being told, but didn’t speak, but serves the greater good. This is the starting line for a love of technology and inspired a desire to build robots. Eventually the path leads to improvements to wireless communication networks and finally to a career focused on improving the ability for computers to better understand w...
Jan 23, 2019•1 hr 4 min
The adventures of Gabrielle Palmer are rooted in her childhood. An early love of art carried her through college studies, taking her to Ecuador and Spain, and inspiring her to lead the restoration of an 18th Century Spanish Church sitting in Downtown Sante Fe, New Mexico. Along the way she met a king, led the efforts to save the. historic trail of the Spanish, and continues to explore the wonders of art.
Jan 09, 2019•1 hr 3 min
Peter McGraw's PhD journey, both to the dissertation and after has taken him around the world. Pretty exciting for a guy with an interest for quantitative psychology and an understanding of why people make the decisions they do,. Then there's the whole interest in what makes something funny. but don't laugh, it was all part of the plan. Peter's website https://www.petermcgraw.org Twitter - @PeterMcGraw
Apr 25, 2018•1 hr 31 min
Robin O’Keefe knew at a young age what he wanted to do with his life, the problem was his older self didn’t listen at first. But it all turned out for the best and Robin is doing exactly what he was meant to do, a paleontologist that teaches a lot of general biology classes, including human anatomy. WHAT?! There have also been some adventures, like the time he was in the African desert at the beginning of the Gulf War. Hunting for dinosaur bones is exciting.
Apr 12, 2018•1 hr 13 min
The ability to push through obstacles is a defining quality in Donna Halper’s PhD journey. She had a goal of being on the radio and a bunch of college boys in the 60s were not going to keep her from her dream. When Donna realized the radio industry was changing she decided a new path was to be followed and she could use her radio past to build her future. The ultimate goal would require some work though, a dissertation, something that would be a challenge for Donna almost 35 years removed from h...
Mar 28, 2018•1 hr 12 min
The PhD journey for Dr. Rochelle Dalla has been focused on women who have found themselves on the margins of society; first Native American teenage mothers and then sex workers in the middle of America and then India. These are women that find themselves in constant states of crisis and for Rochelle she has found a passion for telling their stories. But this wasn’t the plan, but there wasn’t a plan for Rochelle and this journey’s is justification for not having a plan, because it can open you to...
Mar 14, 2018•1 hr 27 min
Sometimes the journey to a PhD has nothing to do with the PhD at all, it has to do with the ultimate goal. For Paige Backlund Jarquin her journey to her PhD started with a realization she wanted to work to improve the public health system. Now the statement of the goal wasn’t immediate, it took some time and a relocation to Washington, D.C. It was working in the trenches of public health when she had her, for lack of a better term, epiphany, and knew in order to reach the goal she would have to ...
Jan 03, 2018•1 hr
David Conti’s path to his PhD started when he discovered he quite liked the way genetics helped him answer some of the questions he had about the world around him. It started with butterflies and then moved onto to identifying disease characteristics in our own genome. (I think I got this right.) Now his work finds him being more of a computer programer and statistician as he works to help identify how genetics impacts disease.
Dec 21, 2017•1 hr 16 min
The 1950s were an exciting time for Joe Romig. Playing football and a passion for astronomy took him to the University of Colorado, in Boulder. He found great success at both. After his undergrad he went to England to study at Oxford, then returned home as part of the efforts to study the solar system. His never-ending curiosity led him to a career investigating explosions and fires, while also teaching at his alma mater.
Dec 06, 2017•1 hr 18 min
Asking good questions are at the heart of all PhD journeys. For Andy Sayler it was a bit different. The questions he was asking didn’t have answers to be derived by laboratory experiments or field investigations. The questions he was working to answer had more to do with the discussion on how to keep digital information secure at the same time the users of the information can be productive with it. https://www.andysayler.com
Nov 22, 2017•1 hr 8 min
Thinking about the role of technology and data in the world is just one of the big questions Shawn DuBravac, PhD is asking these days. Specifically he is focused on digitization. It is more than just the shifting from an analog world to a world build on ones and zeros, Shawn is working on identifying the ways society is being changed by the transformation into a digital world and how all people can benefit from technological innovations. http://digitaldestiny.com https://twitter.com/shawndubrava...
Nov 09, 2017•1 hr 5 min
Telling the stories of people was the driving force behind Padraic Kenney’s desire to get his doctorate. He didn't know what he was going to do after that, he just knew he liked to tell stories. So he told a story about the rise of the Communist Revolution in two Polish cities. The thing is he did this work while another revolution unfolded around him. He has held onto the theme of revolution throughout his work and his new book tells the stories of people imprisoned because they want to change ...
Oct 25, 2017•1 hr 20 min
