Wrapping my head around Applications and PhD - 1/n

I talked to Sam and Ayan recently. Sam is doing his Master’s at University of Edinburgh, and Ayan is doing his PhD in Geometry and Mathematical Physics at SISSA. They both have a Bachelor’s in Physics and a strong interest in mathematics. It triggered some good discussions on applications and the nature of a PhD, which allowed me to understand and appreciate the process behind intellectually, instead of a pressure to follow a set of common narratives. Later, I also reached out to Gab, who is pursuing a D.Phil at University of Oxford. I will also note my observations and learnings from very close interactions with Abs, which can sometimes get easier to overlook. Abs is pursuing her PhD at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. [All names are morphed for privacy reasons.]

My reasons to contact them were two fold -

It had been so long since I talked to other academics, and thinking about academia felt lonely. A very natural symptom of staying at home and doing things alone. So I needed a peek into their academia which could uplift me a little.
I was in the process of stitching my academic narrative to make it presentable for applications. I needed help with understanding that process.

The conversations with Sam revolved mostly around the application side of things. And those with Ayan dealt with the nature of the position itself, mostly PhD experiences.

Applications 101

I was looking forward to a master’s programme in Mathematical Physics at UBE, Dijon, France. It’s one of the rare programmes on Earth that offers such an interdisciplinary training! Most of the others are in Germany with no funding available.

I wanted to gauge my chances for the programme, and sent him a bare CV with roughly the things I had in my arsenal. I wanted to hear his thoughts about what the college might look for, and where do I stand roughly in his experience.

We had a nice intellectual discussion on these aspects, along with many parts of a CV. For the first time, I felt like I appreciated many of the general ideas, instead of a pressure to conform to them. During this process, I thus felt like I grew a little in this space of applications. I felt more comfortable with the process of presenting myself for applications. This was a very important milestone for me :). And I am grateful to Sam for spending that time for me.

So, the discussions mainly lead to manifesting a lot of my previous experiences that I had otherwise kept quite about, into a more appreciable listing! Some - like creative coding, computation, web-dev started fitting in nicely and others like articles on analysis, blogs on the site started to take a more professional place and interpretation. I developed the idea further into an ideas of series to capture my self-study process. I was also motivated to make a report out of my rather tedious study on differential geometry and Gauge fields, manifesting the Gauge Fields, Knots and Gravity book read and the QFT II semester project.

I also spent a lot of time on the design aspects of CV :). I am happy to figure a hybrid styling - combining both Ayan’s and Abha’s CVs.

Research styles & PhD

I talked to Ayan about the subject background required for research. I think this ultimately boils down to the individual. For example, Ayan told me about his project, how he relies on his advisor to trust the broader context (and content) of his research. He mostly works on the problem at hand and spends his other time in the background understanding that context and connections. I guess that’s how researchers are developed. But he also told me how there are people who work more independently and meet their advisors more tangentially. Who tend to do their background reading more internally.

I wondered about these things because, I find myself seeking a lot of background and context before diving into any problem. Also, the interdisciplinary nature of my research interests tend to further exaggerate the need to cover the background. I think I am a person who would spend a lot of critical time around dissecting basic things and let that training in ideas and questions propagate to research smoothly. It’s definitely not binary, I would like to cover some basics, move to research, and rely on researchers as soon as possible, but the fact that I need to be comfortable with the basics of math delays things. Once I am comfortable with the basics, I think I can go a long way. Also, think I have an inclination to work more independently, needing a tangential guidance and importantly some philosophical guidance too!

Interaction with Ayan, gave me some hope into accepting my quirks in the academic space.

Next, I asked Gab about their research process, and the background required for her research in math.

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Abs explored her interests during master’s and figured they have an inclination towards research in simulation physics. She found her jibe in the sweet spot of working with a good theoretical grasp while relying on computational tools for research to materialise those understandings offering a nice feedback.

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(To be continued)