a research-based career

I remember my research guide once telling me that the intent of a Ph.D. degree is not to make you more knowledgeable than you already are but to make you feel stupid! My first reaction (of course in my mind) was ‘what???!!! I travelled these miles and am buried under the weight of this colossal program only to feel more stupid at the end?’ I felt like fleeing from the room and crying for help. But wait, it was not what I was thinking. I heard him right but interpreted him wrongly. What he meant was, a Ph.D. degree, and further ahead a career in research is meant to help you gain knowledge independently and the more you learn the more you realize that you do not know enough, there’s so much more out there. It creates this perpetual hunger in you to learn more because you still have to acquire so much more knowledge that’s out there. I let out a sigh of relief!

It is therefore evident that if you intend to establish a career in research, you should be ready to go through the painful process of learning how to learn, which actually pays off in the end. The ability to teach yourself new things can prove to be a great asset throughout your career. You then would not need to read through tomes of literature or rely on others to train you on new ideas and skills that you wish to or need to acquire. You can do it yourself with the optimum use of your time. But the initial stages are rigorous and you should be prepared to go through the arduous process to enjoy the rewards at the end. This takes tenacity.

When it comes to being tenacious and perseverant, you need to be all these throughout your career. There will be times when a brilliant idea strikes you and in that ‘Eureka’ moment, you might be under the impression that your career trajectory will follow such a rosy path forever, but the thorns of disillusionment lie underneath. There can be days of experiments not working, proposals and other submissions being refused, lack of new ideas as well as lack of funding for proper infrastructure but you must march on. You need to accept such highs and lows with the same disenchanted attitude. Of course, you cannot be indifferent towards anything if you are a researcher but a certain poise, calm, and patience is expected when it comes to riding the tides- high and low.

Having spent 5 years of my life conducting research, one thing was clear. You should work on topics that are a significant addition to your field. This means you need to be creative in your thought process. It is not the artistic creativity that I am talking about. It is the ability to ask the right questions at the right time. You do not need to address a Nobel-prize winning issue every time. You just need to be passionate about understanding the advances made in your field and come up with ideas on how your research might contribute further.

Finally, to be a successful researcher, you need to be able to see the ‘big picture’. When a Ph.D. degree is awarded, the certificate does not mention a subject area. That is because it marks the beginning of you taking a more comprehensive and philosophical view of all matters. You can easily integrate different fields of study such as Physics, Maths, and Biology with ease, to understand various phenomena and propose further advances. As a result, interdisciplinary research is given great importance these days. A Computer Scientist needs to integrate programming, psychology, neurobiology, and any other related fields to work in AI and ML. A material scientist needs knowledge of Biomedical Science, Chemistry, and Physics to develop new products. Well, this has been the life of a researcher over the ages, which is only being made more evident by these interconnected programs now. So if you have these traits, go for it. Life can slow down at times, but do enjoy the calm before it picks up momentum, and engulfs you into the frenzy of finding something new.