PhDeal with Mentorship

Welcome to the “What’s the PhDeal?” podcast; the podcast where we attempt to demystify the scientific PhD process… for folks going through the rigors of pursuing a PhD, folks thinking about getting a PhD or even people just curious about what it’s all about! 

Your intrepid hosts are four PhD scientists that have gotten their PhDs in different scientific fields and schools; and all come from varied and disparate backgrounds to get different points of view in order to best bring you “the real PhDeal”. Your hosts are Dr. Luis (Lou) Estevez, PhD in Materials Science and Engineering (Cornell), Elizabeth Kautz - PhD in Materials Engineering (RPI), Elias Nakouzi - PhD in Physical Chemistry (FSU), and Rajan Patel - PhD in Chemical Engineering (Missouri S&T).

All the music on the show is created by Luis Estevez and rights reserved to the show.

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The most important mentor/mentee relationship: your relationship with your advisor!
o Every PhD student should know and expect that their advisor’s role is not just boss and getter of money for the lab’s projects, but also to mentor you as you tread down the path to PhD scientist
o The best advisors realize their job is not just to crank out science through their students, but that is just the by-product of their real role: in churning out scientists!
o I’ve seen varying abilities of Advisors in regards to mentorship and most fall into the bell curve of trying their best to mentor properly while still hitting deliverables, advancing their careers, obtaining money, etc.
o Completely biased dynamic in advisor-student and a school’s hiring prerequisites for Profs (can they bring money, can they publish, can they teach) makes for an especially potent combination if you et an advisor that is just not good at the “leadership” part of their job and are poor mentors

 Other non-advisor mentors
o Senior level grad students 
o Post docs and visiting Profs
o Folks from undergrad, previous Profs, intern supervisors, etc. 

 How to be a mentee from a mentor’s perspective
 Tips for finding good mentorship