The PhDs keep coming out of the woodwork around here. I am often surprised when I find out someone is a PhD of anything, and I really haven’t got any idea why. A friend of mine is a PhD, and I didn’t know it until nearly a year after meeting him. His dad says “My son is a doctor, but not the good kind.” Friend says it’s jokingly, so I’ll have to take his word on it.
So? Along with our newly minted Dr. Podkayne and soon-to-be-Dr. Angua, are you a doctor? If you are, what is your doctorate in? Maybe describe your thesis or dissertation, if it won’t give you away.
Ph. D. in microbiology. My research has bounced around a bit from grad school to postdoc to current position. The connecting thread is gene regulation in bacterial pathogens.
Biology, with a specialization in ecology. My thesis was on salt marsh plants and their interactions with marsh invertebrates. I’m currently a post-doc but I’m not sure if I want to continue on the research course. Often I feel like it’s not my true calling and that I would be happier doing something less scientific.
Ask me again in two weeks’ time, and I’ll be able to say, “yes, I’m a doctor”. At the moment, as Ginger says, I’m a soon-to-be Dr. I’ve submitted my thesis, and my viva, aka thesis defence is in two weeks’ time. Provided that nothing goes horrendously wrong, after the viva, I’ll be Dr Angua. My thesis title’s “X-ray and radio interactions in galaxy groups and clusters”, and my research has focussed on how the energy emitted by massive black holes at the centres of galaxies (which we see in the radio mainly) affects the gas found in groups and clusters of galaxies (which emit in the X-ray).
Bonzer is actually Dr Bonzer too; his PhD’s in theoretical particle physics (quantum field theory I think).
BTW, is it really proper to refer to a J.D. as a “doctor”? Please understand that I mean no offense. I don’t wish to demean or insult any attorneys on this board, but my understanding is that it’s not strictly proper for a J.D. holder to describe himself as a doctor. I’ll admit that I’d have a hard time referring to it as a doctorate degree, given its scope and customary length of study. (An attorney friend of mine concurs in this regard.)
I often find it amusing that Ph.D.s get so much flak for using “doctor.” It’s just the Latin word for “teacher,” our job description; we had it first, long before the medics (“doctor” in Latin is medicus) started the M.D. I don’t mind sharing the title, but I don’t see why physicians should be the only ones who use it.
But I might just be bitter because people are not inclined to take my degree very seriously.
Yup, Ph. D. in Lit., but the only time I tried to use the doctor part (to convince my youngest daughter that I was fully qualified to remove a splinter), she–3 years old at the time–sternly rebuked me with “You’re not the right KIND of doctor!”
At the moment, as Ginger says, I’m a soon-to-be Dr. I’ve submitted my thesis, and my viva, aka thesis defence is in two weeks’ time. Provided that nothing goes horrendously wrong, after the viva, I’ll be Dr Angua. My thesis title’s “X-ray and radio interactions in galaxy groups and clusters”, and my research has focussed on how the energy emitted by massive black holes at the centres of galaxies (which we see in the radio mainly) affects the gas found in groups and clusters of galaxies (which emit in the X-ray).
