Welcome To Papa PhD
with David Mendes, PhD
Career & Life Balance Exploration
for Academics and Graduate Researchers
Latest Episodes
Leveraging Your PhD in the Consulting Space With Bryan Quoc Le
This week on the show, I’m sharing a story of resilience and steadfastness in career building with my guest, Bryan Quoc Le. During our conversation, Bryan shares his journey...
Hidden Opportunities in Tech for Social Sciences Graduates With Victoria Wobber
This week, I’m sharing with you a conversation about a side of the post-PhD experience that is kind of a blind spot for me – the place of social...
I’m in the middle of my PhD – What Should I Invest In If I Want a Private Sector Job? With The 2nd Lab
Welcome to another collab episode of the PhD Dojo with The 2nd Lab. While you’re here, I’ll take the opportunity to announce that Papa PhD has joined the Podcast...
Managing Your Imposter Experience During and Beyond Your Degree with Marc Reid
This week, on the first Papa PhD episode of 2023, I am bringing you an incredibly insightful conversation about the impostor phenomenon in academia and beyond with Marc Reid,...
Are Things Changing for the Better for Women in STEM? with Krishna Kadiyala (Rerun)
In this week on the show, I’m bringing you another treasure from the vault – my Season 2 conversation with Krishna Kadiyala about her experience as a woman in...
Faire le pont entre chercheur.e.s. et entreprises avec Anne Bonlarron (rediffusion)
Tu aimes Papa PhD ? Laisse-moi un commentaire > ici < – une courte phrase suffit ! Et inclus ton identifiant Twitter – comme ça je pourrai te remercier...
Getting Involved in Science Policy After Graduate School With Adriana Bankston (Rerun)
This week on Papa PhD and to mark the end of the year, I share with you the first of a series of three of the most popular episodes...
Honing Your Public Speaking Skills with Neil Thompson
This week on Papa PhD, I’m bringing you an expert on how to improve your public speaking skills – Neil Thompson of TeachTheGeek.com. If you want to get better...
Projeter les jeunes chercheur.e.s dans des carrières d’avenir avec Rémi Quirion
La semaine où je célébrais le 200e épisode de Papa PhD, j’ai eu le plaisir d’interviewer un invité d’honneur – Rémi Quirion, le scientifique en chef du Québec –...
Featured Guests
Food Industry Consultant
Bryan Quoc Le, Ph.D. is a food scientist, food industry consultant, and author of 150 Food Science Questions Answered. He earned his Ph.D. in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he studied the chemistry of savory flavors from plant-based sources. He is currently a research scholar through the Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship, an industry expert for Carbon13 (a venture builder based in the UK), and an independent consultant for Mycelium Gastronomy (an industry network of food experts).
Coach And Consultant
Dr. Victoria (Tory) Wobber received her PhD in Human Evolutionary Biology in 2012 and secured a role as a data scientist at Facebook in 2013. She now runs her own business as a career and leadership coach.
Tory has three degrees from Harvard, worked at Facebook and Google, and developed the Academic Exit framework after making the transition from academia to industry herself and coaching more than 50 people through that same transition.
Scientist | Author
Marc Reid completed his Masters and Carnegie Trust-sponsored PhD in Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde. Marc was then a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh. During that time, he was inducted into the SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry programme.
Marc’s independent academic career has been fuelled by prestigious Leverhulme Trust and UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships. He has held lecturing positions at the University of Bristol and the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship. In 2021, Marc completed the altMBA.
His research interests include physical organic chemistry, computer vision, virtual reality, process safety, and the Imposter Phenomenon.
He lives with his wife, two kids, and border terrier in ‘sunny’ Glasgow.
STEM Public Speaking Coach
After one too many failed presentations, Neil, an engineer, knew he had to improve. He did so, and now he works with technical professionals like himself to improve their communication skills. He hosts a podcast, the Teach the Geek podcast, interviewing technical professionals about their public speaking journeys. He is also author of the book, Teach the Geek to Speak: a No-Fluff Public Speaking Guide for STEM Professionals.
Scientifique en Chef du Québec
Rémi Quirion est un chercheur québécois en neurosciences. Auteur de plus de 750 publications dans des revues scientifiques reconnues, il est l’un des chercheurs en neurosciences les plus cités dans le monde et récipiendaire de nombreux prix et distinctions.
En juillet 2011, il est nommé scientifique en chef du Québec par le gouvernement du Québec devenant ainsi le premier à assumer la fonction.
Il est le premier dirigeant des Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQNT, FRQS, FRQSC) et préside, depuis septembre 2011, le Réseau international des scientifiques en chef et conseillers scientifiques (INGSA). Il devient ainsi le premier président francophone de cette organisation qui regroupe plus de 5 000 membres répartis dans environ 110 pays.
Innovation Evangelist | Scientific Writer
Anushka Khasnobish oversees scientific communications as Innovation Evangelist at TCS research. In 2021, she graduated with a doctorate from Okayama University, Japan. Her research was in the field of microbiome sciences where she worked on establishing a link between the community of microbes in our saliva and non-oral diseases. At this moment Anushka is trying to learn as much as she can about scientific communications, photography and a little bit of French language.
Since the penultimate year of her PhD, she has been working with Useful Science contributors, editors and podcast hosts to break down research papers into bit-size useful summaries that one can incorporate in their lives right away. Anushka has a great desire to leverage her scientific experience and personal skills in projects involving scientific communications, intellectual property rights and science outreach.
Head of Qualitative Insights
Terence Milstead received his Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning in 2008 from Florida State University where his research was focused on factors that influence people to invest time, money and emotional energy into upgrading their dwellings, even in unstable housing markets.
After completing his Ph.D. Terence started down the academic career path. However, after a few years he realized that a full-time career in academia was not what he had envisioned. So, in 20014, he transitioned to private sector, research-based consulting, relocating to the East Coat. But the path from academic to private-sector consultant was a crooked one and didn’t happen overnight. In this episode Terence shares how he came up with a transition plan that ultimately led him to his current position as Head of Qualitative Insights at a global strategic consulting firm based in Washington D.C.
Thesis writing Coach
When she wanted to write her thesis in Philosophy, Martha Boeglin was paralyzed for many months by the fear of the blank page.
One discovery changed her life: writer’s block is part and parcel of the writing process – and there are lots of creative writing techniques to overcome them.
Once she overcame that initial writer’s block, she was able to write her thesis – and wrote it in a wave of euphoria. And once she got her PhD, she created Scriptoria, the writing workshops for PhD students in 2002.
Its goal? To make writing a thesis easier: when you know the right techniques, writing is no longer a chore – it can even become a source of joy.
Testimonials
“In my continued search for new science podcasts, I happened upon Papa PhD, hosted and produced by its creator David Mendes.
This podcast has wonderful interviews with those who’ve completed their PhD’s where they talk about what brought them to the path they are currently on in their career.
When it comes to thinking about networking and thinking outside the box as far as next steps after your PhD program, this is the podcast to subscribe to.” – Read article here.
Suzanne C. Miller – Managing Editor, Integrative & Comparative Biology
« Il y a beaucoup de conseils de carrière judicieux dans chacun des podcasts.
Le parcours des intervenants est diversifié, tant académique que professionnel.
L’intervieweur laisse un bel espace aux intervenants et pose des questions pertinentes aux moments opportuns. »
François T. on Podchaser
“Your podcast series is like a treasure mine for me 🙂 Every time I listen to one episode I find someone I want to connect to.
I don’t know how I will be implementing the feedback and guidance I have received so far from all the connections from your podcast series, but at least I know I really am enjoying connecting with new people.
Especially knowing that someone is involved in a job they are really happy in and that they have carved for themselves is so inspiring.”
Anushka K. – Doctoral Researcher at Okayama University
Leveraging Your PhD in the Consulting Space With Bryan Quoc Le