It is getting closer to the time when one of my PhD students will be submitted her completed thesis. This particular student is the first for whom I have been principal supervisor, so this realisation is certainly leading to a new feeling for me. I'm excited for her to be reaching this point. I'm nervous for her and myself as she will go through a rather gruelling period of judgement, first by her supervisors and then by a small panel of internationally recognised experts in the field.
It's great to see the thesis document itself starting to take shape. It really is amazing to see its transformation from a collection of loose ideas, somewhat formalised, into a story that weaves its way through a relatively unexplored topic area, adding to knowledge, tying thoughts and hypotheses together.
The way we have worked through this PhD candidature has involved now publishing journal articles along the way. Not on purpose, but that's just the way it has worked out. So now that the thesis is coming together, we are also starting to simultaneously put together numerous (well, three) journal articles. I'm kind of a sucker for this part...I just love to see work I've played a role in appearing in the formally recognised way. Most supervisors probably push their students to do the menial tasks of fixing up figures and putting the work into the template of the journal, but I love doing that part personally. So I'm having a lot of fun with this.
Still, there's more hard work to be done...so we better get back to it.
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