What's in a name? More specifically, what's in the name of a volcanic hazard? Different names carry different meanings, conveying an emotion or communicating a threat. Volcanic vocabulary ranges from the descriptive ("the fire like a Christmas tree"), through the technical ("pyroclastic flow"), to the sensory ("roaring"). Language is fundamental to knowledge of volcanic hazards. … Continue reading Volcabulary
Coming to the end of a PhD is a strange event. Unlike the closure granted by the final exam and graduation party of an undergraduate degree, finishing a PhD involves a number of milestones along an interminable path: compiling the first thesis draft, receiving all your supervisors' comments, finishing your conclusions, submitting the paperwork, uploading … Continue reading Featured post: the “ExPhDition”
"It's not what she said, it's the way she said it". Most of us have heard this phrase before. In conversation, the delivery of a message is as important as its content. A PhD thesis is no different! While students and supervisors spend years on building the thesis content, we may neglect to discuss the … Continue reading At your service: the merits of Overleaf
Do you like to write? I do. Dusty bookshelves and corners of the internet are littered with my old blog posts and half-finished journals. I was a teenage bookworm who would happily spend hours wriggling through the twists of fiction, poetry, and travel memoirs. When I started my PhD, I made the acquaintance of academic … Continue reading Twists and turning points
Below is the “turning points” exercise I completed at a workshop I attended in April 2020, "Finding Your Voice As An Academic Writer". The point of the exercise is to rewrite an aspect of one's chosen subject through a series of "turning points", just like twists in a work of fiction. I study Volcán de … Continue reading Nine turning points: a writing exercise
As a belated celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, I wrote about some scientists I had the pleasure of meeting last October in Bogotá #WomenInSTEM #MujeresEnCiencia
Good afternoon! This post is the second of a trilogy of entries inspired by my recent visit to Colombia. In this piece, I reflect on my visit to the town of Armero, a site well-known to volcanologists worldwide for the tragedy that befell it in 1985. In the picturesque town of Honda, elegant bridges span … Continue reading Armero
Find my research inside in the form of a fun poster!
I'm really proud to say that I recently had a blog post published on another site. The site, DoctoralWriting SIG, is a forum for discussion of higher education writing. It's not only for PhD students and researchers, but anyone interested in sharing knowledge and talking about issues associated with academic writing. Recent blog posts have … Continue reading Research Languages: blog feature!
"It came to me in a dream." This sentence has been the explanation given by visionaries throughout history for their inspiration: religious mystics, Frank Ocean, this amazing footnote. But as the rudder that steers the passage of a career in an ordinary life? That seems foolhardy. And yet ... such dreams can clarify subconscious desires. … Continue reading When to weigh anchor
Reasoning With Volcanoes 