#PhDin2016: January Re-cap

Selfie taken at 5pm Wednesday — just after finishing
my Methods chapter!

One month down, four to go!

If you caught my post earlier this month, you know that I've started my doctoral dissertation and will be here blogging about my progress and challenges at the end of each month.

Here's how January went.

What I Did:

My first task — and I mean TASK! — was getting the formatting down. I basically have the entire skeleton for the document with proper font, headings, line spacing, bolding, italics, page numbering etc. etc. etc. in all the right places. That took a solid two hours one afternoon (mostly because creating sections for page numbers in Word always turns out to be a minor nightmare, no matter how many times I've done it). I've been referring to the dissertation style guide constantly because I don't want to submit this dang thing for review and be told I did something completely wrong. Best get it down now, right? The title page is rather snazzy.

Ringing in 2016, PhD-Style: The Year of the Dissertation

Exciting news, brainiacs! Starting this month, I'll be outlining and beginning to write my dissertation, which I'm aiming to defend in late May. I'm simultaneously dreading it and chomping at the bit to get started. Wish me luck!

In order to accomplish this intimidating, but necessary, last step of my education, a few changes to the blog will be taking place over the next few months:

#SfN14 Day 3: How to Effectively Communicate Your Science to the Public

This post is part of my series on the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. You can read other posts in this series here. I’m also live-tweeting some sessions @GainesOnBrains. Join the conversation at #SfN14.

My positively GORGEOUS new cell scarf from Artologica (Michele Banks)!
Check out her Etsy store for this and other incredible art!

Talk about exhaustion. I didn’t get a chance to write yesterday because I was too busy meeting Internet friends at #sfnbanter. In case anyone was wondering, all the people on Twitter are real!

In sleep research, we have this term called “social jetlag.” It’s aptly named. I’m feelin’ it big time this morning.

Yesterday morning, I attended the professional development workshop called “How to Effectively Communicate Your Science to the Public.” Panelists included science communicator Elaine Snell, AAAS Director of Public Engagement Tiffany Lohwater, author Jane Nevins, and Columbia University professor and NeuWrite host Stuart Firestein.

Here are some tips and tricks that particularly stood out to me: