Settling on a topic…
How do you know when you’ve found the one? Four years is a long time to focus on one thing. There is something so exciting about reading new research papers and identifying gaps and future directions to go. Read papers that are out of your realm of knowledge… maybe not too far away from what you know, but broaden your network of ideas.
I find it so scary to decide on one thing, because where is the fun in that? I want my PhD to be something different than what I have done before to expand my knowledge. I don’t want to know what I am doing for the next four years… yes, decide on a topic for paper one. Yes, start thinking about the next papers and projects, but let it be something new for you. I don’t want to graduate and have each paper be the same as the last but just a little bit different. I want the first to be on mortality in forests the next to be on tree physiology… and maybe the last to link the two. But, who knows how my goals and aspirations will change in one year or two or three, etc.
Hello readers,
Above is the internal (and sometimes external) struggle I have to find the right balance for me in my PhD. I broadly say I study forests, and I feel imposter syndrome daily about the value of my research and ideas. I get uncomfortable having to talk about my ideas in big groups and even though this assignment is on our research.. writing publicly about my topic seemed too daunting to start with… I wonder if you all felt the same.
Current thoughts on ‘my first paper’…
I find it wild that within thirty days of registering I had to pick a dissertation title, although changeable, still different than what I am used to. I enjoy time invested in reading papers and figuring out the lane in my field that interests me most. I like exploring different facets of the field and building my research from those. The idea of settling on a title for a four-year project in 30 days… Woah. So, I picked a generic title, accepted that, and moved on.
I read, and read, met with my advisor on projects I did not want to do, and went back to reading and writing to find a suitable topic for paper number one. I decided on research questions that have a bit of what my advisor wanted and a bit of what I want… with the express acknowledgment that the second paper gets to be fun and different — less strictly dendrochronology and more of what I like — ecophysiology.
Paper one will focus on how the natural range of variation in disturbance regimes (and thereby canopy mortality) of primary forests compares with the recent changes in disturbance regimes and subsequent canopy mortality. My forests of interest are the remnant primary forests in the mountainous regions of Europe which seem (?) to be relatively healthy in the face of climate change. We will see…
