This post is a strange one. I’m precisely halfway through my PhD, so it’s a good opportunity to reflect, and remind myself of what I want academically in the next two years. As a PhD student, I’m often told: “BuT a PhD iS NoT a ReAl JoB”. Sure, unlike PhD students in continental Europe, I […]
Read More The PhD: it’s a mindsetIt’s officially back to school/uni/work time, one of my favourite parts of the year. In a few weeks I’ll be travelling back to Cambridge. This will be my SEVENTH year living there, and my third(!) year as a PhD student. Before season 7 of the blog gets started, this is what’s happened since last time… […]
Read More Holiday Catch-up | Season 7 Episode 1It’s been fairly quiet in Cambridge since the end of May week. It’s always a different place during the summer. I have been here since I came back from Sweden, except for a short day trip to Henley-on-Thames (to race the qualifiers of Henley Royal Regatta) With the rowing season over and without any meetings, […]
Read More 2023 Summer update | Season 6 FinaleEaster Term in Cambridge is always nice if you don’t have exams (edit:) AND it’s not 2020. This year, however, the weather wasn’t particularly pleasant at first, with some thunderstorm leading to river closures. Mandatory-rowing-paragraph With the Sun back up, I probably didn’t do much outside of rowing and base research. I somehow ended up […]
Read More My Sixth Easter TermI have been happily busy so far in 2023. academic updates The first paper of my PhD will be published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. It got accepted only a couple of days after I gave a (Flash) Talk about it at the Annual Symposium from Cambridge Infectious Diseases. Earlier this year, I also […]
Read More Spring newsPart I: Looking backwards 2022 was a great year for me. It might have been the best year of my life so far. It was my first calendar year working solely on my PhD. I probably lived in Cambridge for more weeks than ever before. Beyond the UK and Spain, this year, I have been […]
Read More 2023My (not-so-) daily writing this time features running. This post is about the most spontaneous thing I have ever done. As you will have guessed from the title, I ran the Helsinki Half Marathon a week ago (on the 20th of August). I wish I could tell you an inspiring story about why I decided […]
Read More Running the Helsinki half marathonToday I am using rowing to get my daily writing practice in. I tried rowing only at the end of my 4th year at Cambridge, and I’ve been regular at it since my PhD started last October. To my greatest surprise, I love it. In undergrad, I used to wake up at 5am to study […]
Read More The (un)reasonable effectiveness of college rowing in cambridgeA quick post…on blogging and PhD Today marks five years since I launched the first post of this blog. There are very few activities I’ve kept doing in my life for this long, so I’m honestly surprised that I haven’t abandoned blogging yet. Moreover, despite what my blogging frequency might suggest, I don’t have any […]
Read More Blogversary reflectionsIt’s taken me almost 7 months of my PhD and 4.5 years in Cambridge, but (I think) I’ve finally reached a steady state.
Read More Settling in. Finally.
Maria A. Gutierrez 