2010/06/23 by Minnie Mao, Mao, Minnie
Health Professions · Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions #FOS: Physical sciences #Health and Medical Research Impacts #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1006.4421
Presented at SpS5, "Accelerating the Rate of Astronomical Discovery", IAU GA Rio 2009. Accepted for publication in the conference proceedings
arxiv created 2010/06/23 · openalex publication_date 2010/06/23 · arxiv updated 2010/06/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The road to becoming an astronomer is exciting, but often fraught with danger and conflicting messages. A PhD student is inundated with catch-phrases such as "publish or perish" and "it's not about the quantity, but the quality of work". How do we know which advice to follow? How can we publish copious amounts of quality work in only three years so as to maximize our success in the future? How do we even know what "good quality" really is? With only a short time to prepare ourselves for the big wide world of Astronomy, what is the best way for a PhD student to maximize their research and ultimately maximize their success as a real astronomer? The PhD students of today are the astronomers of tomorrow, but their journey depends on a positive work environment in which they can thrive and improve. Here I present the results of a survey of current PhD students on how they believe they can maximize their success in science. I find that PhD students in Australia expect to write more papers during their PhD than is expected by their supervisors, but that they are generally happy with the quality of their supervision. Above all, students love telescopes, and hands-on observations are an important part of acquiring the knowledge and culture necessary to becoming a real astronomer.