What to do when a former supervisor keeps contacting my current supervisor as a way to pressure me to publish my Master's thesis?

One thing you should understand is that in this crazy world, she may benefit from having your thesis published more than you, especially if she is currently under considerations for reappointment or promotion, so don't be too hard on her: rather blame the entire screwed up evaluation system in academia that has made much stronger people panic and do ridiculous things.

With all that said, the usual advice applies: be firm but polite and show some good will. Think of when you can realistically finish the job (it is in your own best interests to finish it eventually regardless of anything), and tell the plan to your current adviser. That should settle your scores with him and, most likely, he'll no longer bother you with that anymore. If you want, you can tell the target date to your former adviser as well.

Don't forget to give yourself some leeway, so that you can keep your word no matter what. Remember that promising less than one expects from you won't hurt your reputation, but failing to keep your promise will.


PhD: Find the problem to solve or use tool to solve a problem?

The following answer/story is more to address the titular question, and the last line of the OP (free of the context of the rest of the post)...
I once attended a talk by Peter Sarnak.  He had the following to say (which I recall from memory; these are not guaranteed to be his exact words) on the matter:

My student had just recently finished solving a problem for his thesis.  He was very excited to have found a new way to approach the problem that worked.  He said to me,
"Okay, now that I have these new tools, what can I solve with them?"
To which I responded:
"No, no, no!  That's not how you do research.  You don't pick up tools and then take them to a problem to solve with them.  I mean, sometimes you can get lucky that way, so you can try it if you want.  But that's not the smart way.  What you do is, you pick up a problem and then you invent the tools you need to solve it.

As far as the more specific question of the OP...
Ultimately, this is something to discuss with your advisor.  Expecting worse results is not likely to sound very appealing as a project idea, unless you can make a convincing argument that it will make some sort of improvement—be it computation time, memory consumption, cost to implement (maybe it can be run on data obtained by cheaper technology that other methods basically can't), or a basic proof of concept that could lead to more meaningful breakthroughs after suitable adjustments and investigation, etc.  If you can do those now, your advisor may decide this could be a fruitful area of investigation.
Either way, talk it out and see what his opinion is, and if he knows if this actually has appeared in the literature before or not.


Should you include press interviews and articles about your work in your CV?

It depends, but yes, I would include media exposure in a long form CV. This could be advantageous for grant applications, because it might be an evidence that you can generate a higher impact.

For each media exposure, just put one line as a citation format. If you have more than 10 such items, select only the higher impact ones, and merge ones with similar content.

Alternatively, you can put it is a footnote to your relevant publication.


How to determine if an institution is a research or teaching university in the United States?

I teach at a research university and we have pretty much the same language in our job ads.
How to tell if a school is a research university:

See if your university is listed as one of the original 59 Research I Universities defined by the Carnegie Institute (see the 1994 list here) or 108 Research University/Very High (RUVH) in the current classification.
a. Related to this - does the school offer doctorates in your field? Is it well known for producing high caliber scholars? Does it seem to be getting national grants? These are all part of the criteria for the R1 or RU/VH designation.

See if the course catalogue is online and look at how many courses a semester each professor teaches. Research universities will be 2:2, 1:1, 2:1, or 1:1:2 or even lower (1:0, 0:1:1, etc.).

Look at the CV of faculty and see if they are publishing actively in highest tier journals

Ask a faculty member who teaches there what the teaching:research ratio expectation is.

Beggars can't be choosers. Unless you have other options then you take the position if offered and then when outside opportunities beckon, you switch.

Discussion: While it's easy to figure out the overall research vs. teaching balance and emphasis at a Harvard University versus Sweet Briar College (a small liberal arts college); there is a considerable grey middle ground. At upper-tier SLACs and state universities, there may be more of an equal 50:50 research:teaching emphasis, or even an unexpected imbalance that an outsider would not be able to easily perceive. Usually, you can ascertain this over drinks at the post job-talk dinner.


Acceptable to do significant work on PhD before officially starting?

Your question is based on a false premise.

In many countries (virtually all?) where the nominal PhD duration is 3 years, students are actually paid during their PhD, through a scholarship or a salary, and there is no tuition at all or a minimal one.

It doesn't make any sense, thus, to spend 3 years working independently, with no support from the adviser and for free.

Whether that would be accepted is highly dependent on the country or on the specific university regulations, and we cannot give a general answer. It seems that in my country, Italy, it was once allowed, but now it is no longer possible, by law (I didn't check very carefully though).


Taking courses beyond requirements in a Ph.D. program

As an adviser, I encourage my graduate students to take classes they find interesting and/or that broaden their knowledge and therefore are useful to later finding jobs. Ultimately, my goal in this is to help my students become well rounded and broadly educated graduates who will be successful in life. The only caveat I place on this is that they need to make sure they have enough time to do the research that will ultimately lead to their thesis and their defense.

I don't know whether I'm typical in this, but would imagine that most advisers will agree to let their students take other classes if a student asks and gives a reasonable justification. I think most will even agree to this if the student is paid from a grant.


Do many academic institutions let students deposit their publications in the institutional repository?

Most university institutional repositories will allow students to submit their work, as the aim of an institutional repository is, generally, to capture the scholarly, research and creative output of a university. This would include work being created by faculty, of course, but also staff and students.

What differs between universities is the emphasis they place on different creators. At a large research university, increasing citation counts of faculty members will be a key consideration that may make the acquisition of faculty works a higher priority than student works. Liberal arts colleges will, based on their institutional missions as teaching centres, will be able to focus on undergraduate research on a level that many research universities would be unable to do.

I have recently become the Digital Repository Coordinator at a research university, and one of the challenges I face is trying to balance acquiring faculty and staff work vs. student work. Many of the faculty I have talked to, however, are excited by the potential of using the institutional repository as a way to showcase their students' work.

As a doctoral student, especially, I would assume that you would be able to submit work to your university's institutional repository. Looking at your profile, I believe that your university's repository does allow students to submit work (See http://digilib.gmu.edu/dspace/handle/1920/2883, for example). If it's not clear how to do so, contact your university's repository coordinator to make it happen! They'd more than likely be thrilled a student (1) knows what an institutional repository is, and (2) is interested in depositing their work.


Two of my potential PhD referees are married to each other – is that a problem?

I don't expect this to be an issue.

I have been at departments where two spouses were faculty members. I have also received and evaluated applications where there were references for the same candidate from academics who I know are close collaborators and friends. In each case, the natural assumption was that they have their own careers, working style, students, collaborators, and -- of course -- opinions.

In this case, it is clear your exposure to them is in different contexts, and presumably their letters will make that clear. It is perhaps more likely than average that they will talk with each other about their letters as well (given they have more opportunity to do so!), but that happens all the time anyway.


What does “resident” mean in title like “resident mathematician”?

To pick up your example, a resident statistician is somebody who holds a position:

at a research institute (or similar) that does not focus on statistics,
that entails to consult other researchers at the institute on statistical questions.

I have never seen this as an official title or job description; rather the resident statistician is hired as a regular researcher or professor. Some resident statisticians perform their own research, while for others consulting is a full-time job. It may also happen that somebody is hired for other reasons and then morphs into a resident statistician because they turn out to be good at it, nobody else would do it, etc.

I use to describe myself as the resident data analyst of my current life-science research group, because it is good way to characterise (part of) my role in a few words.

Do not confuse this with artists in residence.

  And what are the main subjects where resident is attached to a title? For example, does a resident statistician exist? Or a resident medieval historian?

In my experience, resident statisticians, mathematicians, and similar are the most common, but I also know cases of resident biologists (in a biomathematics group) and physicists (in a quantum-philosophy group). I can imagine that a group investigating historical climate would have a resident medieval historian to investigate historical weather records.


Shifting a review process from one journal to another journal

At this point, it will not be fair to the reviewers that are currently refereeing your paper to receive a notification that the paper has been withdrawn.

Although you might think they are not doing their job properly, reviewers are busy persons and a lot of things can happen in the between. Given that 5 months is not that much time even fr a revision (at least depends on the fields. I my field of applied math/TCS it's OK) I would suggest to wait a little bit more but also bring the issue to the handling editor (which you already did).

On the other hand, even if you decide to withdraw, which is your right, I think that supplementing the current reviews to another journal is way off and I would strongly recommend against that. For start, the new journal would have no idea who is behind that reviews, not to mention the ethical levels of such action.


Received a less-than-great grade due to bad instructions. Should I appeal?

If you have already submitted the request for a regrade to the TA and instructor, then, for now, you've already done everything you can do at this time.

The real question here is how much this will matter at the end of the semester. Unless those points will take you across a "transition" point where the letter grade will change, it doesn't matter in the long run whether you get those points or not. So, ultimately, the need to fight for them depends on what weight those three points have. If the total basis is 1000 points, you're arguing about 0.3% of the total grade, and it's not likely to make a difference this year. But if it's 100 total, those 3 points become 3 percent of the total, and it's much more likely to matter.


How does one submit an article "informally"?

You could write something like the following. Short and sweet.

To the editor,

Please find attached an article for consideration for publication in the journal Phytoneuron.  I assert that this is an original contribution and it has not been submitted for consideration elsewhere.
Could you please acknowledge receipt of this submission?

Best regards,
Your name
Your Affiliation

Title of Article
Authors

Abstract

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin egestas odio non mi mattis rhoncus. Vivamus ultrices urna a ante tristique pellentesque. Nam tincidunt lacus a mi sollicitudin tincidunt. Curabitur malesuada, quam sit amet iaculis lobortis, enim lacus commodo turpis, nec elementum mauris libero ac enim. Quisque justo mauris, eleifend id ornare vel, luctus eget tellus. Etiam auctor ultrices tincidunt. Curabitur diam nulla, aliquam nec gravida a, consequat non nulla. Cras viverra massa id felis blandit gravida. Pellentesque enim mi, convallis vitae ornare quis, ornare sit amet dolor. Pellentesque velit urna, feugiat non tincidunt in, sollicitudin sed purus. Phasellus laoreet ligula nec odio mattis fringilla. Fusce sed arcu mi. Pellentesque dictum erat sit amet sapien pharetra porta.


Pure mathemathics: authors appearing in alphabetic order

The convention in pure math is to list authors in alphabetical order.
Since this is generally known inside pure math, readers will not draw any conclusions from the author order about the relative importance of contributions. In fact, my impression is that most pure mathematicians prefer to avoid discussion of relative importance of contributions altogether, with the exception of occassionally giving more credit to their coauthors in slightly informal settings.
[As a side note, Author contribution statements seem to be unfeasible for widespread use in math. While there are collaborations where X proved Theorem 1 and Y proved Theorem 2, it is in my experience far more common that X and Y talked repeatedly over a long period of time, and at some point the proofs materialized.]
Admittedly, being listed first will mean being noticed a little bit more. However, in line with the convention about author order, the "X et al"-style is typically avoided. It seems far more common to refer to unwieldly large groups of authors by initials (eg GKSSW proved that...).
The place where your advisor is supposed to express how overwhelming your contributions were is in your letters of recommendation.
That said, in pure math it is also convention that merely advising a student does not establish authorship. It is even a common sentiment that advisors should be very reluctant in appearing as a coauthor on an advisor/student paper.


Repeating technical terms using varied ones

I wrote an answer for the question pre-edit, addressing more than just the question of synonyms. Hopefully it can be of wider use, as it provides references to other resources, and an overall principle that helps answer many questions about writing. Here it goes.

I once took a course in technical communication, which was largely based on an excellent textbook by Paul V. Anderson called Technical Communication: A reader-centered approach. It is perhaps a bit more targeted to technical communication in the private sector than academia, but it has many helpful hints, examples, and rules of thumb. However, the main principle Anderson repeatedly states is reflected already in the title: focus on the audience. Before writing a document or preparing a talk, think through what audience you're targeting, and then adapt the order things are presented in, terminology, notation, depth of the introduction etc. based on that.

This also applies on the level of paragraphs. If sentences are put in a logical order, the text flows better and makes more sense. Similar considerations apply also on the microlevel - e.g. using various synonyms for technical terms is likely to confuse the reader more than it helps, so it should be avoided, especially if different synonyms can mean other things in adjacent fields. Also avoid phonetically confusing notation, such as using 'new' as a subscript. Very long sentences can make the text harder to understand, so the author should ideally try to rework them. Other times they are the clearest way of expressing a given idea you can come up with, which is also fine. Now, it is hard to find the perfect balance the first time around, which is where editing comes in. Edit both for correctness, and to iteratively make the text more readable. (If you know programming, this process is a bit like refactoring code.) If possible get feedback from others (maybe you don't know your audience as well as you think!), and edit accordingly.

Since you've been active on the physics stack, I would also like to point you towards David Mermin's writings on the art of writing. I first read them when I was writing my own masters thesis, and had several 'aha!' moments, including about how to think about equations grammatically. They are also quite enjoyable to read, so I do like sharing them.

What's Wrong with this Prose? (non-paywall version)
What's Wrong with these Equations? (non-paywall version)
Writing Physics

For mathematical writing you'll find further references in Good books/resource on mathematical writing. Also see How to improve technical writing and links therein.


Is a faster implementation of an existing algorithm publishable?

If I understand the question correctly, the dilemma is whether to just distribute the code or whether to also make a scientific publication out of it.  The way that I typically think about this type of problem is to see whether it passes any of the following tests:

Does the improvement enable a significant scientific or technical work that was not previously possible?  For example, if faster simulation allows a control loop to be done in realtime that couldn't before, that advance may be scientifically valuable even if the methods are not interesting in and of themselves, but you have to demonstrate that value.
Does the improvement make a qualitative change in the operation of the algorithm which is interesting, e.g., changing a scaling property that was previously a limit?
Is the mechanism of the improvement interesting in and of itself, e.g., such that it teaching something about the nature of the algorithm or such that it might be applied to other algorithms or problems as well?

Any of these is a good reason to publish an improvement on an algorithm.


When in doubt, use the full title. Err on the side of formality, and let them correct you if they wish.


How to pronounce 'et al' in presentation speech?

The standard English pronunciation can be found in a dictionary, see, e.g., et al. at MacMillan dictionary.

However, during a presentation, instead of reading that abbreviation, it is probably nicer to say something like: "Smith and his/her group/coauthors/colleagues published the paper [...]".


What should I do if someone else claims an award that I actually won?

Send him a message

Even if you think you know the only truth, maybe there is something you don't know about this award.
If there is no response in.. let's say 48 hours, let's go to phase 2

EDIT : concerning the timing, @O.R.Mapper is right, if he is on a vacation... bad luck.

Send a message to the committee

They gave the award, so explain the situation, and ask them to put on their website the name of the winner for each year.
Explain why you want this.

If the commitee is reacting (if not, will be hard :/)

Send a (still) polite mail to the cuprit and tell him he MUST remove what he puts online.
No response ? let's go to the last part

Write to his university

Even if you think they might not care, it's still a graduate student, it's bad for the reputation of the university to have graduate student with a bad behaviors.

EDIT : as said by @CaptainEmacs , do NOT to accuse someone, even if you're sure it is the truth. Tell politely that you think he might have mistaken, that is all.

I think that's the proper way to do it.


I know little about either of these fields, but will try to give a generally applicable answer.

I think your best bet is to find an advisor who already has some appreciation for the intersection of these two topics.  Convincing someone who only works on one of them that they are important together -- and that he/she should supervise a thesis involving both -- may be difficult. However, since the fields you mention can often be found within the same university department (computer science), the latter approach is also possible.

To decide which type of programs you should look at, ask yourself in which field will I innovate?  If you will apply standard software engineering techniques to do something new in robotics, focus on robotics.  If you will devise novel software engineering ideas that are useful with respect to existing robotics applications, then focus on software engineering.  Of course, the answer is rarely clear cut.

Important: if you're not substantially innovating within either field, it may be difficult to convince a committee that you deserve a Ph.D. (even though the combination may be innovative).  You can't usually get away with work that is worth half of a Ph.D. in each field.


Is it ethical to for a commercial organisation to get student interns to download journal articles using student's university access?

It is unlikely that your use of this journal subscription would fall within the terms-of-usage agreed by the university with the journal providers, and agreed by you (as a student) with the university.  You should enquire further into the particular terms of access for these resources, but I would imagine that they would be restricted to use for educational and research purposes within the scope of your position as a student at the university.

Either of these practices could potentially get you into trouble, though the use of software beyond the terms of the licence is probably more fraught with danger.  Downloading journal articles for work purposes is not that uncommon in fields employing academics and students, though it is probably not legal.  While some forbearance might be given for small infractions, certainly it is unethical to agree to access a resource from the university for the purposes of your education, and then to use that resource systematically to advantage a commercial business that is unwilling to pay for the service.


How will I be viewed by an employer if I choose to do my own research?

well... you can't escape having a thesis director/advisor, nor do you wish to escape having a thesis director.  You may end up working with someone who will let you what you want, but choose wisely as this is not guaranteed at all;  a scholarship will allow you greater freedom in this choice.  A good advisor will suggest a project that will challenge you and force you to "up your game".

It seems you me more than anything you are putting the cart before the horse.  The person(s) you want to impress in the short term is your advisor and/or members of your supervisory committee.  Your job prospects will be greatly improved if you can get an outstanding reference letter from your advisor or someone from the supervisory committee who can speak with authority to the strength of research project: this argument alone quite clearly favours doing a research project under competent supervision.


How to find out the terms used for a topic, so that I can find the appropriate literature on it?

As Aleksandar says, you do need to learn the terminology in order to search effectively for articles. And in fact, you'll need to know the terminology in order to understand those articles. When I'm exploring a new subject area, I don't start with the journal articles; I start with books, web tutorials, etc., to get the basics.

For learning the terminology, I also suggest reading the relevant articles in Wikipedia or Scholarpedia. They will also have links to journal articles; get hold of those articles and see what keywords they use. Anytime you find a useful article, note the keywords, and what journal it's in. This will help you find other useful articles, and places where you might submit your own articles in future.

Also, your college librarian may be able to help you figure out some of the keywords to use. They usually know a little about a wide variety of topics, at least enough to have some ideas of what search terms might be useful. If you set up an appointment, they may be able to spend some time with you, helping you find some sample articles and working with you to figure out a good search strategy.


What does "the authors must present insightful implications based on their experimental outcomes" mean?

Without reading the paper and reports, I can only guess, but it sounds to me that they are asking "Why do your experimental results matter? What do they tell us?"


Are appeals of termination from PhD programs common and are there any unambiguously successful or unsuccessful approaches to fighting a termination?

Typically, successful appeals happen when another advisor is willing to take on the student after the appeal. This creates an ally during the appeal process. It also creates an "out" for the department. I have two friends who were able to appeal by finding an alternative advisor. I know no-one who was able to appeal with their original advisor UNLESS the advisor was actually using the process as a "wake-up call" rather than an authentic attempt to force the student out.

In the cases where an advisor is using the process as a real authentic attempt to force a student out, the advisor is communicating that they no longer desire to have you as a PhD student. The department is going to be reluctant to force that advisor to continue with you, despite the soundness of your logic. The reluctance is partially because it creates an uncomfortable/unproductive mentoring situation when one party is not enthusiastic. The reluctance is also related to an overall ethos of not wanting to oppose faculty on issues of academic judgement.

The presence of another ally/advisor who will take you on as a student after the process is concluded allows the department to evaluate your claims independent of their reluctance to force your original advisor to take you back. It allows everyone to put this down to a matter of "fit" rather than genuine problems with your work or your advisor's judgement.

IF your advisor is actually on the fence about this, you could attempt to convince your advisor that you now are "awake" to the stakes and they will find working with you to be much better/more productive in the future.


How to find a "virtual" mathematics conference?

Mathematics research is mostly published in journals, sometimes books. Not conferences. Submit your papers to journals instead. You do not need to travel or speak to do that.

Conferences in mathematics are pretty much exclusively an affair of presenting your own research live in front of a mostly captive audience, and talking to the other participants between the presentations. A "virtual conference" (an online list of notes?) fills none of the missions, so I do not expect many to exist.

Even things called "proceedings" work much more like journals than conferences, to my knowledge. Most conferences have no proceedings — at best a list of abstracts online, perhaps even a copy of the slides if any.

(I have heard of (one) conference happening in two cities with live retransmission of talks from city A to city B and vice-versa, but that does not seem to be what you are looking for.)


LaTeX Document - would I make every instance of a term internally hyperlinked?

Yes you should. But hide all the links: \usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}.
You cannot expect the reader to start on the first page and finish at the last, someone interested in a particular topic jumps to a subsection and will be happy to find a linked glossary term.
Manually linking the terms at the beginning of each chapter contradicts a main advantage of Latex.


Mathematical Equations in Research Papers and Plagiarism

Following up on my comments, you state that your context is writing a review article on variational approximations. There's no need to cite individual equations. The standard format might be:
"Rasmussen et al 2021 introduce the SuperVar method, which uses a factorised joint p(x, y) = p(x)p(y). Under these assumptions, they show that
[ equations ].
They also bound the variance of the SuperVar estimator as
[ equations involving a,b,c ]
where a,b,c are some things."
Since this is a review article, there's no a priori expectation that any equations/results are your own. So much so that if you were to give any of your own results, I'd point that out, rather than pointing out equations from other papers.


What are the benefits (if any) of disclosing a mental health diagnosis/disability?

I'll answer this part:

  are there benefits to disclosing a serious mental illness

If you are teaching, there are benefits to your students.  Many students have disabilities.  Students do better when they see successful people who are like them.  These role models increase students' belief in their own abilities, which is called self efficacy.  Students with higher belief in their own abilities learn more.  If you disclose your disability, it will help students with disabilities succeed academically.
For hiring and promotion purposes, some institutions consider performance relative to opportunity.  This sort of assessment is common in Australia, for example.  If your disability has reduced the opportunities available to you, then disclosure may make your achievements seem more impressive.

You did not ask about the potential disadvantages.


How do I respond to my professors email about recommendation letter? He is out of the country for sometime and his FIL is ill

Just say thank you and send best wishes for the health of his father in law. Nothing more is needed.

Three is no need to feel bad about your request. It is perfectly normal and natural.


Should departmental talks be included on a CV?

As you suggest they likely have minor value, but not no value. If you include them, use a separate section. Of course, if the topics of the talks are interesting in themselves they might be useful to include, depending on the type of position you are interested it. Having done a lot of talks might be especially interesting to an undergraduate institution. Having done a lot of research talks, especially on different topics, would likely interest a more research oriented institution.

But if your CV is solid overall you needn't worry about padding. But you have what you have and you need to present yourself in the best light possible.


Is it proper to cite something when using it just as an example?

I am not sure about other disciplines, but this is certainly neither uncommon nor in any way frowned upon in my field (Computer Science).


Who should I specify as my affiliation if re-writing an undergraduate paper?

Your affiliation is listed so that you can be identified/contacted. Thus, your affiliation should be listed as your current employer.

Given that your university provided resources to conduct the research, you should list them in the acknowledgements section.

You should probably invite whoever supervised your project to co-author the paper. You should also invite your fellow team members to co-author the paper too.


Unprofessional to write (in a paper) that something is "really cool"?

It sounds unprofessional and unscientific. Imagine also your readers in 30 years, what will they think? They may not even take the paper seriously. Indeed, current potential readers may not take the paper seriously.

What would you think if you read an old paper that describes a black hole simulation as "groovy"?


Publish own work online, ethics and platform

how is this seen by the academic world?

Generally speaking, as inferior to a peer-reviewed paper. But the 'academic world' is made up of a lot of different people. Assuming you have conducted a high-quality study, the extent to which a reader would consider your findings valid or robust or believable really depends on how they feel about the value added by peer-review. Given the growing evidence of the inadequacy of peer-review, the academic world may increasingly see this type of publication as acceptable. But I would suggest that we are not there yet. A more important question for the context of medical research might relate to how the clinical world would see it.

  Are there any online services or platforms that provide this service?

Yes. For example, PeerJ Preprints.

  Is this usually seen as a problem by the institution in which one may
  work?

In terms of medical research I would say it definitely would be seen as a problem if used as an alternative (rather than a complement) to publication in a peer-reviewed journal. At an absolute minimum, your institution would probably expect your research output to be indexed by PubMed. If, however, you use the preprint route as a complement to publication in a peer-reviewed journal then it should not be seen as a problem in itself. It could become a problem if your target journal does not accept papers previously published an another form.


How can I cite my dissertation in a paper that will be double-blind reviewed?

The challenge here is seems to be to ensure that if the reviewers do stumble across your thesis, then the failure mode will be penetrating blinding rather than accusations of plagiarism.

It is my belief that with an "extract" paper like this, the thesis should be cited in any case.  In most cases, there will be some connection to other portions of the thesis that could motivate such a citation (e.g., a motivation or an application).  I also think that it is good to explicitly acknowledge the relationship to the thesis, e.g., "This manuscript is based on work also presented in [cite]", though the customs of your field may differ.

Then you can appropriately blind the citation to the thesis, e.g., "Ph.D. thesis, blinded for review."  This makes the relationship clear without violating blinding.  At that point, you are preserving blinding to the best of your ability, and while a reviewer can certainly try to penetrate blinding if they want, you certainly won't run into any problems with misunderstanding about plagiarism.


How can I detect a toxic environment while on the interview circuit?

What I found useful was to be very watchful of how the interviewers act towards each other. Typically some sort of meal is part of an on-campus interview and you will be eating with several of the faculty members. If they can't make it through the meal without doing something objectionable you probably have a toxic environment. The funny thing is that they know to act properly towards you but will still forget to do so to their colleagues even though you are right there.

As an example there was one such dinner where I was pressured into drinking alcohol the night before the real part of the interview and the junior (and female) faculty member who was present was the target of most of the jokes from the senior male faculty members. Both of these details did not help their chances of getting me to accept their offer. Fortunately I had another offer to take instead.

This is by no means going to catch every situation you want to get away from but the general idea is to watch their behavior. In larger departments where the jerks are kept away from the candidates you may have to be more active in searching for these issues. I was mostly interviewing in small departments where I was able to meet everyone.


A lot of us who live in both worlds (I am German and frequently visit there, but live and work in the US), we call colleagues we don't know well by their first name when we meet in the US, and by Professor X when we meet in Germany. In other words, we use the common convention of the place we're in. That's probably a good rule for you to live by as well.


Finishing a Phd in two years and few months

It likely doesn't matter much. The major question is whether finishing in two years will adversely affect the quality of your dissertation. If the quality of your publications is high and your dissertation makes a strong contribution to your field of research, it's unlikely that a search committee will care that you finished early. Depending on the type of institution you are applying to, they'll have specific criteria that they're looking for with regard to your ability to produce high-quality research, conduct high-quality teaching, etc.
If you believe that taking a third year to finish your dissertation will help you produce better work, then you should take the third year.


Applying to Math PhD programs with an math degree completed online

First, @scaaahu correctly observed some formal complications: e.g., looking at that web page, it seems that the closest thing to a degree in mathematics is a baccalaureate in "arts, letters, and science". It is important not to be even inadvertently inaccurate about your degree.

But, apart from that, the issue I'd anticipate in your situation is not the name of the degree, nor the on-line-ness. After all, one can read books and papers (or PDFs) without being registered at all. The problem arises in how to "prove" to an admissions committee that you have learned things.

In the U.S., even a transcript that says an undergrad got good grades in typical-sounding math coursework does not enable an admissions committee to understand what the student has learned. You should take the GRE (both general and subject test in math) to add data points and to show awareness, despite the fact that there is not universal agreement about the significance of these scores.

The problem is that you will not have letters of recommendation from three PhD'd mathematicians. Glowing letters from people who do not have PhD's in math (or something closely related) are not optimally helpful to admissions committees for predicting your success in grad school, much less gauging your natural talent. Very often these letters of recommendation are of decisive importance for admissions to top-50 programs, at least.


How to communicate realistic expectations for science faculty research to administration

I'm assuming that, among other things, you want to help the college develop a realistic plan that can be fairly applied in the future.

First, a bit of background. The type of college that you describe, normally has primarily a teaching mission. But expectations of faculty are almost universally threefold: Teaching, Research, and Service. While other colleges provide different weights, small liberal arts colleges mostly reward faculty for teaching, and normally say so explicitly. But the other two can't be ignored. With one exception, everywhere I spent my career had some research component in the expectations, even if it was poorly supported. But "Scholarly Activity" might be closer to the expectation than edge of the known universe research.

Moreover, at different times in a career, an individual might want to put more or less focus on one or the other of these and that should be supported, within reason, by the institution. For example, older faculty might want to focus more on service than the others, taking on administrative duties or duties outside the college proper, such as taking on tasks in professional organizations.

In my view, a "reasonable" faculty evaluation system will leave it to individuals to (a) present a short term (yearly) plan of activities in each area and (b) report on how they fulfilled the previous year's plan. The administration should then have a chance to reflect on this and to make suggestions and adjustments for the coming year's plan, with some consensus required in how it is finalized. Thus, if the institution wants more research, it can insist, each year, that a bit more be done than the individual had suggested in their proposed plan. Thus, the pressure is constant, but not intense on an individual. No one is told in year 15 that they can't be promoted (surprise) because they didn't do any research, though no one previously suggested that they should.

But, another aspect of the above that may not be particularly obvious, is that you can be "a leader in your field" if you get to define (self-define) your field. That means narrowing it, not dumbing it down, though. There are a lot of possibilities.

I think that expecting that a chemistry professor (a lab based science) will suddenly have a major article in Science when working with no inputs from the institution, would be unrealistic. I think lab sciences may be the hardest here as there are hard costs to cover and grants may not be open to small places. But in most other sorts of fields, one can find a niche in which to become well known. Mathematicians, of course, focus on very narrow fields, and there are a lot of these small sub fields. CS, also, has many opportunities, both in theoretical matters, in applications, and in human factors and management aspects. One field that is especially open to people who are primarily teachers is pedagogy. How can we best teach, say, Chemistry in the first year. The existing ways of doing it may be outmoded. But for this to work, the individual has to be able to decide for her/himself what field they will choose to become experts in. It is unlikely to be the overall field: not Chemistry, per se, but Teaching Chemistry in the first year. I've known people who have become, for example, leaders in computing ethics, computing pedagogy, even research opportunities for educators. Small fields, but valuable.

And if your "field" is the teaching of your larger field, then you can become a leader by book publishing or even "pamphlet" publishing if those pamphlets give good teaching support and become well known. Pick some small topic that is difficult to teach and find ways to do it better. Write it up. Publish it, even if on a web-site. Learn to teach in ways that are more effective than the ways that were handed down to you. Find a way to spread the word. You are suddenly "leading" not following.

Some funding is required, of course. Travel to conferences is a prime example. If you want to be known, you need to meet people and have a way to collaborate with them. That collaboration can lead to both research ideas for the professor and for smaller scale research ideas for students. For the sciences, in particular, this need to foster collaboration within the larger field is essential. The web makes a lot possible, but people have to make the contacts first so that they can become part of larger projects. New faculty, in particular, should be encouraged to keep their old contacts active and to develop new ones. If student research is a desirable goal, then you may need ways to let students develop those contacts also, either by funding student travel or by bringing in visitors frequently.

A college can't suddenly expect teaching faculty to acquire grant funding. That normally takes a lot of support from the institution, but it can pay off. Both governmental and private grants can be found, but it may take cultivating. Many small institutions have a few people dedicated to finding grant opportunities, to developing contacts, and to assisting in grant preparation.

The essence, I think is (a) let the faculty member define the niche field, (b) let the individual present a plan, (c) let the administration suggest and even impose small adjustments to the plan and (d) let the faculty member state how they have or haven't fulfilled the plan and why.

If the administration wants to apply pressure, make it incremental but continuous at point (c).

And, of course, faculty are strongly advised to retain all of their plans and reports, including any administration responses.

It is possible to build a system that guarantees failure. This benefits exactly no-one. Secret expectations or suddenly imposed major obligations are often features of such failure inducing systems.


How important is the statement of purpose in a PhD application for admission to a top school in the US?

This is an extremely general question, since it doesn't refer to the discipline. Since another answer comments on the social sciences, I'll speak up for physical sciences. (I'm in chemistry.)

We look at every facet of the portfolio. To do otherwise is to ignore useful information on the applicant. Let's be honest, we don't have much data. We get grades, GRE general scores, GRE subject scores, and recommendation letters. Plus the statement.

I mentioned in my answer to another question that GRE scores will sometimes serve as a first screen, to cut the pile down to a level we can really analyze. But that's not a "tacit acceptance". (I don't even know what that might mean.)

Yes. After a first cut, we look at the statement of purpose 100% of the time.

And yes, if someone writes a lousy statement with an otherwise good package, it's a bad sign. It tells us that the student just doesn't care to do a good job. Is that someone I want as a grad student? Probably not.

Even if a student has stellar grades, GRE, and a paper in Science but the statement is poorly written, I'm going to think twice compared to a student who might be a bit behind, but seems to have a vision and sells themselves well in the statement.


Why some faculty have teaching reduction in the last semester or two before being tenured?

As I understand it, the point of such reduced teaching loads is to allow for more time for writing papers and research proposals, as well as preparing any "package" required as part of the tenure application. Ideally, such a reduction would be done a little bit preceding the last semester before submitting the tenure application, so that the papers and proposals can be reviewed and published (or accepted, as the case may be) before submitting the application.


Exclusion from PhD in Economics selection in Italy for degree

This is a very specific question and the answer may even depend on the particular university and how they interpret the rules.

I suggest you approach the secretary that is responsible for graduate admissions, and ask him/her directly whether you need the 2-year master's program or are there other options.


Congratulations! It sounds like you have two very reasonable options. A few questions for you to consider:

First, to evaluate the risk of getting lost, ask: how independent do you think you are capable of being right now? In your  graduate school projects, think about how much input you had both in developing all aspects of an idea and carrying it out. The ideal sign that you would be OK independently is that you had one paper that was in an area different than your advisor's main research, that you proposed, and that you carried out with little feedback. This is relatively rare, though. However, if you can't point to a project where you both A) developed the central idea/hypothesis, and B) wrote the paper to a near-final stage without advisor feedback along the way, you might not be ready yet.

Second, the career value of both positions. I know of several people who have been very successful in highly independent postdoc positions, e.g. Lewis-Sigler Fellows at Princeton. However, those I know of who were the most successful ended up developing close collaborations with many senior people in their broad field. This does benefit you in terms of adding letter writers, and (sadly) in getting papers into good journals. It also creates a lot of benefit in terms of doing good science, too!

What worries me about your position (i) is that it may be a prestigious school, but could not be one of the best places to work on your chosen topic. If there are no faculty members working on similar things, not only do you lose their scientific expertise and letters, you also will not gain the benefit of things like speakers from that field coming to visit, conferences organized on campus on your topic, specialized journal clubs, etc. Those things matter a lot!

How much the absence of support should affect your decision has to depend on how you mean that there are no people "directly knowledgeable in what I am working on". For instance, there are several very strong physics departments that nonetheless have no AMO or plasma physics research. If you plan to work on AMO or plasma physics, even as a theorist, I would not suggest going to one of those departments. The support structure and culture of a department matters a lot. However, if you are just saying that you work in general in a field X, and a subfield Y, and want to use technique Z, but there are no Z experts - maybe that would be OK.

Also ask yourself: how confident are you in knowing what you want to work on? If that will change, the lack of immediately relevant faculty is also not as big a stumbling block.


Long story short: Depends. It is difficult to answer these questions without understanding the precise details of your situation. Getting experience is always a good thing, especially if it is programming experience, and you are considering a possible career shift towards more programming/machine learning heavy field of research . However, your part-time contribution to a different scientific project might distract you from finishing your PhD: which should be, considering the year you are in your main worry. If possible, I would discuss this with your supervisor and ask them for a honest opinion: if they feel like your particular situation (expected time commitment, skills, the nature of the work...) allows to go for outside research opportunity, and they think it is good for your career, good for you. I believe that simply bringing up the subject is very unlikely to upset them: after all, their main purpose, at least from your point of view is to supervise you and advise you on starting of your scientific career. If however they express doubts about the extra project being a good fit for you at this point, you might consider focusing on your PhD and then looking for extra learning opportunities: remember that life is just starting after you're done, and there will be plenty of time for various projects afterwards. As to whether the experience would count: depends on what do you understand as 'counts'. But personally I believe that at least familiarity with programming is a skill which counts a lot regardless of the field you end up with.


Ask both the editor and the colleague to change the corresponding author to yourself. Make it one mail to both parties. Explain in the mail that there has been a mixup and you want to correct it. You don't need details in a first correspondence, but supply them if required.
Hopefully the journal's procedures will permit this and hopefully your coauthor won't cause a stink.


How to foster gender diversity as an organizer

Aimed at a different point in the pipeline, you can try to make it more possible for speakers to accept your invitation. One step that can make a huge difference for certain people (in many cases, converting a 100% impossibility into an acceptance) is to provide resources for childcare at or near the conference.

For some ideas about specific steps you can take, Matilde Lalin recently wrote a nice overview of different ways conferences can and do support attendees traveling with children (published on Terry Tao's blog).

One that's not mentioned there is to allow attendees to purchase a hotel room in the conference-reserved block for a nanny. I know that the American Institute of Mathematics does this, and it can make the difference if the only other option would put the nanny somewhere far from the conference.

Depending on the size of your conference, this needn't necessarily mean that you subsidize or even organize the childcare; it can help even just to put attendees in touch with local daycares/nannies/babysitters, or provide other information. However unless your conference is very small, I hope you'll give thought to implementing some of the other steps that Lalin outlines.

Added February 2015:

Greg Martin has written an excellent paper "Addressing the underrepresentation of women in mathematics conferences" that addresses exactly this question, which is simultaneously scholarly and actionable. In particular, in Section 4 (pp 17-21) he gives thirty-eight concrete suggestions that organizers can follow. Not all of them will be applicable in a given situation (including that of the original question here), but many will be.


What license to choose for a model which we will freely distribute?

The site http://choosealicense.com/ will probably be helpful to you. The front page of the site offers a simple choice in fairly plain language:

I want it simple and permissive. The MIT License is a permissive license that is short and to the point. It lets people do anything they want with your code as long as they provide attribution back to you and don’t hold you liable. jQuery and Rails use the MIT License.

I’m concerned about patents. The Apache License is a permissive license similar to the MIT License, but also provides an express grant of patent rights from contributors to users. Apache, SVN, and NuGet use the Apache License.

I care about sharing improvements. The GPL (V2 or V3) is a copyleft license that requires anyone who distributes your code or a derivative work to make the source available under the same terms. V3 is similar to V2, but further restricts use in hardware that forbids software alterations. Linux, Git, and WordPress use the GPL.

The site also has a more in-depth page giving more choices, and more detail about the differences between licenses.
I would strongly advise that you don't use a Creative Commons license for your code. Creative Commons themselves caution against this:

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

More detail in their FAQ.
Personally I use the GPL (version 3) for most of the code I release. For very small programs -- roughly speaking, anything shorter than the license text of the GPL itself -- I tend to use the MIT license. This is partly because I'm less concerned about the fate of such small code snippets, and partly because it feels a little silly to have more license than code in a release.
As a side note -- although you haven't mentioned this possibility -- please resist any temptation to invent a new license, unless you have a really compelling reason. License proliferation is a big problem, and your code will be less useful if people have to pay a lawyer to determine whether your license is legally compatible with some other software they're trying to use in conjunction with yours. In general, I would suggest picking one of the "big three" mentioned above unless you have specific reasons against this.
Edit: I just saw your comment about the appropriateness of using a GNU license for Matlab code. There is no problem here: there is no concept of "contamination" between the license of your code and the license of the language it's written in. In fact, it would be hard to implement such a restriction, because languages as such don't have licenses: only their implementations do. Many programming languages have both closed-source and open-source implementations -- this includes Matlab, although Octave, the GPL implementation of the language, is not 100% compatible with the original version. However, for Matlab specifically, you might want to consider the BSD license, because it's the only one permitted on MATLAB central. (If you never intend to share your code on MATLAB central, this is less of a problem.)


Invited to a meeting where I will receive a postdoc offer, what should I discuss/prepare the meeting?

Read the agreement between your university and the union (presumably UCU) if applicable.  It's boring.  This defines what you can request.
Read benefits information on the HR website.
Read visa rules on the government website.
Figure out your preferred start date.
Estimate your relocation costs.
Find out what local taxes are.
Find out local housing costs from a regional housing website.  (In the UK they are often unreasonably high.)
Make a list of questions to ask.  Questions should demonstrate that you are genuinely interested in the position. They are not negotiation.
Reread the job ad.  Some places will try to offer you a job you didn't apply for.

For a postdoc, it is not called a startup package.  If you ask for "startup", people will think you don't understand what a postdoc is.
Unless you are an experienced negotiator, do not try to negotiate during a meeting.  Negotiate by email.  Get everything in writing.


If I had no further information about what happened and it was me, I'd not mention it on application materials. That is, not try to explain it away. List it as a research experience on a CV, without other explanation. I'm assuming the grade you got is on a transcript. So, it isn't something you are hiding, but just not emphasizing.

If you are asked about it, you can honestly say that you don't understand the grade and that your supervisor stopped replying to your updates. You don't know why that was. Things happen. They aren't your fault. If the experience itself was valuable in setting your thinking then it was a net plus in spite of the mediocre grade. You can say those kinds of things.

But, as I mentioned in a comment, it would be good to also know why it occurred. I think I'd refrain from explaining it in written materials in any case, but you would have some additional background if the issue comes up.


A question about continuing education in an Engineering major or Sciences

It is very possible to go to a PhD program in applied math with a masters or even bachelors degree in engineering. I am in an applied math PhD program and many of my colleagues only took a couple of upper level math classes in college. Applied math is very broad and people with all sorts of backgrounds can get into these sorts of programs. But the question is what can you do now to explore your mathematical interests (an perhaps get into an applied math PhD program too)? The key is to do a few of the following

take a few junior/senior level undergraduate math classes (or if you can handle it, graduate level math courses). You likely have the requisite background to take a class in undergraduate Real Analysis or differential equations. Basically you need to convince an admissions committee that you are capable of writing proofs. You don't need a math degree to do this; you don't even need a math minor to do this. If you do well in a single semester of real analysis some great applied math programs are more than willing to take a gamble on you if you have interesting engineering research and a good personal statement that really explains how you got a passion for math while working in engineering.
incorporate math into your research. You say you do numerics, so prove your method converges, develop analytical error bounds, prove the existence or uniqueness of a solution. If your method is too complex to do the above, or you lack the knowledge to make progress in such an endeavor, create a "toy" problem which is similar but vastly simplified and prove something related to it. Toy problems often lead to stand alone publications, they are interesting to us applied mathematicians in and of themselves, and they have the added benefit of giving insight into your engineering research.
Read math. Get yourself a book and work your way through it in your spare time. Just 1-2 hrs a day, of intense mathematical focus will surprisingly allow you to learn a lot more math than you would think. Start at the right level, for some this will be advanced and for others this will be not so advanced.
think about math a lot. Just ask yourself questions a lot. Math is a mindset. Get away from the computer and coding and work with pen and paper (or a whiteboard) for a couple hours each day. Do problems -- putnum exams, course websites, math.stackexchange. They are all great resources.


PhD applications and explaining poor results

First of all, I hope you are doing fine now, have recovered from depression, or are on the way to recovery!
I believe that there is no need to give insight in your mental health to a possible future employer. I would advise you to generally speak about „health conditions“ instead of disclosing your mental state, if you feel the need to explain your grades.


Should I reference the book I got a formula from, or the source that book got the formula from?

You should try to cite primary sources whenever possible; in this case, that means citing the original paper "B".
However, as GEdgar says, a textbook may be an easier source for people to find, particularly if that book is the de facto standard text in your field. It is therefore a good idea (and perfectly acceptable) to cite both "A" and "B", for example:

We use the formula given as g = 4x^2 ("B", 1950, "A", 2001).

Personally, I prefer to be more verbose and might write something along the lines of

The formula we use is given by Author B ("B", 1950) as
g = 4x^2.
This was later used [confirmed/ expanded on/ usefully re-derived/ etc] by Author A in their book "A" ("A", 2001).


What does a Doctoral program mean: MS, PhD or both?

In general, a Doctoral program ends in a Ph.D ("doctor of philosophy"). If the program does not grant doctorate degrees, it cannot be doctoral. However, a doctoral program may end in a master's degree. For instance, if I chose not to finish my doctoral program, I could instead get a master's degree on the basis of the coursework and research I've done so far.


You are asking why people might choose a doctoral candidacy over a better-paying job in the industry.
The straightforward answer is that - at least to the respective people - other factors are given more weight than achieving a maximum in payment alone.
These other factors can include:

freedom in choice of tasks
flexibility in working style
ownership of what you work on
autonomy in collaboration with internal and external partners
authority to draw further people in to your tasks
your colleagues are probably there because they're enthusiastic about what they're doing, not just because they want some job with an acceptable salary
your organisation probably covers a wide range of topics, and any acquisition of knowledge within (or sometimes even outsode of) your organisation can be reasonably counted as working time

Evidently, various of these aspects depend a bit on the concrete situation a doctoraĺ candidacy takes place in.

Lastly, even a payment angle can play into it: I consider it a significant advantage that during the time of my doctoral candidacy (this being a government-funded job), I used to be paid based upon a salary table with automatic raises rather than having to negotiate for any amount of money.


Could a paper be rejected due to poor quality of figures?

Of course a reviewer can point out poor figures, and if they get not improved he or she can surely state that he doesn't recommend the paper for publication in this state.

However, a reviewer does not reject a paper, that is the editor's job, based on multiple reviews and possible other information (e.g. how many papers are needed to fill the journal).


Is it normal that what I studied in my bachelor's and master's is rarely useful to my PhD?

It's quite normal for your bachelor's and master's studies to have little, if any, influence on your PhD research, particularly in the sciences and engineering. I think this is especially true in engineering, as the contents of engineering curricula tend to be more "conservative" than the research ongoing in most departments.

Moreover, though, one of the skills you need to learn to survive as a research professional is the ability to learn a brand new topic to which you have not previously been exposed. This is because it's quite likely that you'll move into another research area multiple times during your professional career, and the only way to figure out what makes for good research in the field is to become an expert in it. So studying something brand new in your PhD is not only not a problem, it represents a great opportunity for your future career.


Unpleasant situation with a collaborator made worse by supervisor. Am I overreacting?

I think that how it plays out in the future depends on you and on your relationship with your advisor, so protect that relationship carefully.

You seem to be frustrated and speaking from that frustration only. This isn't, generally, a path to success.

It also reads as if your advisor "blamed" you for ending the collaboration just as a way to save face. This is a sign of weakness, of course, but not necessarily ill intent.

Find your own path, but make sure that your advisor supports what you do and is happy to support your next steps with recommendations, etc.

After you finish the degree it is unlikely that anyone will remember what is happening here for very long, unless you act in a way that makes it memorable. I recommend against that.


Locating a specific German Ph.D. Dissertation from 1959

In general,

I'd always expect the university library where the dissertation was done to have at least one exemplar in their archives.
The national library is also supposed to have at least one exemplar of every book published in Germany.

For searching books within Germany, the university libraries of several German Länder have a common online catalgoue (Gemeinsamer Verbundkatalog, GVK), see also https://www.bszgbv.de/ which also include Baden-Württemberg and Saarland.

GVK lists 3 exemplars of the dissertation at the Göttingen University library: https://kxp.k10plus.de/DB=2.1/PPNSET?PPN=146113365
https://www.worldcat.org/ is an online catalogue covering even more libraries from around the globe.


How to Estimate Times for Projects in a Programming Workshop?

Test drive

Grab a couple of local students of comparable level and have them do the assignments.

Your own speed is not indicative - something that takes you five minutes may take ten minutes or may be incomplete after an hour; only practical experience can show how it will turn out.

In addition, usually setting up a working development environment can be a major time sink - if people use their own hardware and various operating systems, then some of them can waste a lot of time until they are able to run a 'hello world' program; you should have a clear plan on how you will handle it.


Where to include the Summer School or Winter School participation in the curriculum vitae (CV)?

I have included a sub-section as "Non-Formal Education" under main section "Education" where I put important courses. You can put recent/important summer schools/ online courses/ conference participation under that.
I have seen some people list them in Skills and competencies as a supplement for a specific skill.
Hope that clarifies your problem...


How to stay motivated for grant applications

Depending on your field, and the kind of postdocs you are applying for, 4-5 days might not be enough time (for European fellowships such as Marie Curie, for example, I would spend maybe 2 weeks).

But as far as maintaining motivation, it is not easy. You have to keep in mind that there are a LOT of other bright people applying for these, and an important factor is always luck (who is chosen to review your application, and what specific things those reviewers choose to emphasize).

Best advice: Don't give up.  Keep applying, at some point you will maybe get lucky. Until then, keep publishing, keep working. And remember, these big postdoc fellowships are not necessarily required to be a successful academic.


Phd application procedure in European universities, specifically in Scandinavia and the Netherlands

I have some issues with the formulation of this question; first of there is a contradiction between the question title and the first sentence. The OP first asks for the application procedure in the question title, then goes on to describe it in the first sentence as if to answer his/her own question...
Then there is the issue of seeing Europe as one big consistent body. Anyone who has dealt with academic bureaucracy in Europe would likely laugh at the notion. I would personally give the ECTS system as a beautiful example of how little collaboration and consistency there is in higher education system in Europe.

According to the Swedish "Law of Higher Education" (Högskoleförordningen) Ch. 12 par 2 employment on a PhD position can not be appealed by other applicants. Text in "[]" is a attempt to translate the Swedish text.

12 kap. Överklagande [Appeal]
...
2 § Till Överklagandenämnden för högskolan får följande beslut av en högskola överklagas: [The following decisions made at a University/College may be appealed to the appeals board]

beslut om anställning vid en högskola, med undantag av anställning som doktorand, [Decisions on employment ata university/college, with the exception of PhD positions]

Since this is the law that dictates higher education in Sweden it matters not whether the University(/College) is state or private.

I have a couple of additions and clarifications:

there are two schools that are not state-owned, Chalmers University and Jönköping Business School. These schools have their own regulations which I suspect is very similar to all the other universities but slight differences might exist.

the statement that you apply directly to research groups (i.e. group leaders) is simply not true. It is praxis (and actually good manners) to get in contact with the group leader prior to application but it is in no way compulsory, neither does it have any formal meaning.

Like all other state-owned organisations, the universities in Sweden have to have a transparent recruitment process that is open for general public. Universities have HR departments and centralised recruitment applications (typically on the university homepage) where positions (for instance PhD or post-doc positions) are posted.

At Lund University (and I am pretty confident this applies to other major universities in Sweden) applications are then collected and directed to the person responsible for recruitment of that particular position in question (often the group leader) who then does an assessment of the applicants based on the job description and qualifications. If necessary one or more steps of filtering is done, and top N candidates are typically invited to some sort of interview (in person or via skype).

Once a single candidate is chosen out of all applicants the group leader then needs to write a formal letter where the decision is motivated; i.e. why was the chosen applicant better than the other ones.

The applicants are then informed whether they are accepted or not.

I cannot swear for all Danish universities, but I know that DTU has a similar procedure to the one described possibly differing in, if anything, being even more formal and controlled.


A university does not allow its employees to use its affiliation on papers done in spare time; how normal is that?

Generally the opposite is true in the United States -- the university wishes to have jurisdiction over all work done using university resources -- which includes the laptops and computers we use. Since faculty are exempt employees presumably we have no "free time," but instead work 24x7 for the university (except for the summer months for 9-month employees). So basically any idea that I come up with from August to May of the calendar year and that I use my school resources to work on, is the property of the university unless specifically disclaimed.

Just ask your patents and licensing office to sign a document saying that your university hereby releases you of all possible intellectual property and inventions that may come out of your paper (even if it's in History!) and see if they change their tune.

Note also that many American universities require their faculty to fill out a "Faculty Activity Report" every year that details all of their publications (as well as service/teaching work). The university uses it internally to determine promotions and retention; but it also forwards this data to organizations such as the National Research Council -- that determine university and department ranking using criteria such as number of publications.

Thus it is in the university's best interests (both for IP and for ranking purposes) to capture every single faculty publication that it can. So I would think your scenario would be implausible for most R1 universities in the USA, at least.


When is it appropriate to ask for spousal hire?

When is it appropriate to ask?  In negotiation, you can ask for anything that's legal at any time.  Spousal hires are, as far as I know, always legal in the US.  In some countries it is not legal, oddly.
It used to be that an accomplished academic could demand a spousal hire as a condition of employment.  Don't try that now.  US universities laid of 650,000 people this year.  Most universities don't have the ability to meet any demands at all.  Under current conditions, your negotiation leverage is extremely limited, so I suggest you ask for something you are more likely to get, like a small pay increase.
Do universities need IT managers?  They probably do.  Many universities will pay their managers less than the private sector, resulting in a shortage of managers.  Since, as an IT manager, your spouse can work remotely, it might be smarter to look for work outside the university.


Advisors come in many flavors, from those who are very hands-off, to those who micromanage.  If you are really spending countless hours arguing over details that are seemingly unimportant (although what books/papers you read is most certainly not unimportant!), then you need to have a serious conversation with her about it.

That kind of conversation is difficult as the advisee -- if she is paying for your degree, then you work for her, and she has a lot of leeway to determine what she thinks is important.  You have to tactfully lay out for her why you think she is micromanaging you too much, and see what she says.

At the end of the day, if you don't agree with how you are being advised, you have a number of possible avenues:

Talk to another faculty member (probably the department chair).
Talk to the faculty ombudsman, if there is one.
Do nothing, and carry on.  PhD programs don't last forever (though they often seem like it), and if you can still produce good work while working for the advisor, it can still work out in the end.
Try to find another advisor (or, possibly, another school)

Changing advisors is not a trivial thing, although many people do it early on in their graduate career.  That also involves tact, as professors generally don't like other professors poaching their students without a mutual discussion about it.

Bottom line: before you make any long-term decisions, have a discussion with your advisor about your perceptions, but be tactful and have a plan on what you are going to say before the meeting.


Social etiquette for interacting with PhD peers who complain *a lot*

(as suggested by jabberwocky, I have moved the last part of my answer from here to this question)

Kvetching is a perfectly normal part of mental and social hygiene, but to what extent depends on the person. It is also a self-affirming activity: If complaining leads to positive social experiences (people you talk to relate to your experiences and opinions and share them), you will do this more often. If unchecked, this vicious circle can easily cross your tolerance threshold for complaining (which is different for each person). So, first of all you should keep in mind that "too much complaining" is your subjective view, not an objective truth (absent a concrete case of someone spending the day complaining instead of working and then failing to meet a deadline). Of course, if you'd rather have less complaining around you, it's perfectly legitimate to try to break that circle.

The best strategy (outside of avoiding complaining peers, which you apparently now follow) is often to lead by example: Do not respond to complaining with your own complaints (especially not with ones about their complaining), but try to steer the conversation to happier grounds by

getting them to relate positive experiences about their PhD;
mentioning ones you might have had (without showing off -- this one can be tricky);
taking an interest in their lives outside of academia.

In short, show them that they can have positive social interactions without complaining. If enough people around you feel the same way as you do, this usually works.

To your final remark: This is by no means limited to PhD students (or even academia) -- you get similar "hot spots" among early-career faculty simultaneously applying for permanent positions (in Europe) or trying to get tenure (in the US), or among tenured faculty of any seniority any time a major evaluation (of a grant or institute) or reaccreditation is imminent.


Necessity of MoU for researcher exchange or collaboration

MOUs serve several purposes in my experience. First, they put down in writing what the two labs have agreed to do together. This formalizes the relationship a little and allows the participants to refer back to their commitments. Sometimes people get busy and forget to do some parts of the agreement. The MOU allows the other side to gently remind their partners that everyone committed to something and ask them when they will start on their part. People don't generally intend to shirk their responsibilities, but academics and researchers get busy, so informal and unpaid promises are first to slip. MOUs which formalize the relationship are often enough to make sure each side holds up its end.

Second, they allow others inside and outside the respective organizations to recognize that the relationship exists. Labs have directors, their directors have bosses (often department chairs, deans, or research vice presidents), and their bosses have bosses on up the chain. Having an MOU between labs establishes a formal relationship that can be recognized by these people. In fact, depending on the organization, the boss of the lab director may have to sign off on the MOU (not just the lab director themselves), which gives the agreement some level of officialness.

This official recognition generally doesn't get used for much more than promotion of the relationship between the labs. Though, it may also serve as the first step in a deepening relationship between larger parts of the overall organizations (departments, colleges/schools, and even whole universities or government entities). These formal relationships can also be helpful in pursuing government funding in some countries to help support the collaboration.

I've never used an MOU to formalize a simple summer student exchange. Those, in my experience, were always done with a verbal or email agreement. However, everything longer than a summer or more complicated than a student exchange that I've been involved in has had a written MOU. They lay out the expectations and give the signers cover with their higher-ups when the questions come about what two groups are doing together.

It's not generally seen as a contract, but does up the seriousness of the relationship to have an MOU.


Research supervisor is easily distracted in meetings with me

Most people can concentrate better when they are still fresh, so my suggestion is try to schedule a meeting with him early in the morning, or as early as possible. Like the other answer has suggested, try to keep the meeting as compact as possible. Also, you might also have to try to keep him occupied on you so that he don't have any time to start thinking of something else. This can be done by keeping the discussion on. You have to learn to write while thinking and talking at the same time.


How to get reference from lab I worked with, when lab head seems unlikely to help and I was advised not to ask postdoc

One option is to ask the postdoc and professor if the postdoc can write a strong first draft that the professor would be willing to sign (and ideally edit). Most admission committees will probably know that the letter was written by the post-doc, but the fact that it is signed by the professor (in addition to the postdoc) means that the head professor agrees with the assessment.

This letter will likely be stronger than if only one of the two wrote it because (1) The postdoc will be able to provide detailed examples that the professor doesn't know about (2) The professor's name recognition, through the signature, adds credibility (3) the professor will typically have more experience writing these things and hence he or she may improve the letter by carefully recrafting a few of the post-doc's sentences. Note that (3) and (1) work synergistically. Without the examples provided by the postdoc the professor's experience in letter writing is likely to be less helpful because their letter will sound too generic.

Additionally, this option will also provide the post-doc good feedback for future letter writing (assuming the professor shares her/his edits with the postdoc). So it is really a win-win situation for everyone.


Invitation to review for an unknown journal

The title of the journal is very suspicious. You cannot even tell whether the journal is within your area of expertise.

This is probably one in the sea of many worthless journals. I am the editor of the SCI indexed journal and have trouble finding reviewers, so they are probably essentially spamming everyone.


How to see citation contexts of all the papers that cite a paper?

From my experience, I think ResearchGate is the only platform currently offering exactly that. Wherever there is a paper fully available in its database being cited by another fully available paper, it shows an excerpt of the citation. Example below:

"... The number of cases where these approximations are used is vast. For instance, among many, 1[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] for the single- or few-mode approximation, or, e.g., [9][10][11][12][13] for the usage of 1+1D cavities. While simplifying the problem, some- times the rationale for these simplifications remains to be justified, above all in relativistic regimes. ..."

Reference: Interaction of a moving two-level atom with a single-mode quantized cavity field

Citing: [6] Relativity and quantum optics: accelerated atoms in optical cavities

The above was copied from the platform's citation display of a random reference.

I believe this is an interesting and powerful feature, however it would rely on everyone having a ResearchGate profile plus all references uploaded to the platform. And I do not see that happening any time soon.

Hope that helps? Good luck.


I used “we” (except for the acknowledgements). It’s what I’m used to when reading academic writing. Anything else wold seem weird to me.

Although the primary reason was that It was a stapler thesis and that is what the papers I was copying from used. It would have been too much effort to change it.

Customs may vary by field and country. The best thing to do is look at a few theses coming from your department and copy their style.


How can I do a literature review efficiently?

If you know that the relevant literature is mostly in one community, then the approach you've described works fairly well. It may be "inefficient" if there are lots of related papers, but (to use computer science jargon), it's efficient in the size of the output :)

I have found that finding a recent survey helps a lot, because it taxonomizes the literature and provides many backward pointers (as well as forward pointers via papers that cite it).

But ultimately, the best test is if you start coming across the same papers in references over and over again. At that point you can feel a little more confident that you're converging.

Some specific tips:

Look carefully at how papers are cited. That provides clues on how to prioritize your searching.
Learn how to skim a paper really quickly to see its main contribution, which will indicate whether it merits further interest.
If certain researchers keep popping up, go to their websites to see if other papers might be relevant (or if they have a review article that Google search didn't reveal)
Look at venues where papers are typically getting published, and look at recent issues of those journals/conferences to see if you've missed something.

Apart from that, going across communities is trickier, and often requires some luck, or the right keywords. Again, some knowledge of the researchers in the area helps: odds are that if the topic spans disciplines, at least some of the researchers involved also span disciplines and can point (via their work) to new paths to explore (see the above note about conferences)


In certain citation styles, you indeed need to add the month (respectively day and month) when you cite monthly (respectively weekly) periodicals. In which case, definitely use the month of publication: online publication if it's an online-only periodical, print publication otherwise (either print-only or print-and-online).

But such styles are a rather rare occurrence. It may be that using the month is not correct at all for what you intend. Could you give more details?


Actually your Statement of Purpose should talk about your purpose in seeking the degree. Often the purpose of seeking a Master's is different from that of a potential doctoral application. Sometimes one seeking an MS doesn't intend to go further and apply the knowledge in industry. Sometimes the real purpose is just a stepping stone to a PhD.

State your purpose honestly. What are your real goals. It isn't normal in North America to have a lot of research experience at the end of a BS. Whether it is at the end of an MS depends on the field and the university. A terminal MS may not include a lot of research either, as the purpose is different. But one leading to later doctoral study will probably get you started in doing research.

Also, in North America, in many (most?) fields, you can apply directly to a doctoral program with a BS/BA. The term of study will be longer than if you already have an MS, but you can be accepted. The MS may come along more or less automatically as you progress, perhaps with a required MS Thesis.

But in any case, the SOP should state what your goals are no matter the degree you seek. It is even acceptable at that stage to be somewhat tentative about your goals, provided that your background and work ethic is good. You don't have to decide for the rest of your life when you are only about twenty years old.

It isn't the degree that determines what is appropriate. It is your own goals as you see them and want to work towards them.


I'm international PhD student and I may get terminated soon. Advice urgently needed

How many chances to take a qualifying exam are extended to you depends on how much support you have in the faculty - how much they, or at least someone, believe(s) in you. I’ve seen people being counseled out after one failure, and others passing in their third try. Even if it’s nerve-wrecking, you should treat every exam as if it might be your last chance.
As to “mastering out,” if you went through the entire coursework and were given at least a second chance, they quite possibly would offer you to leave with an M.Sc. anyway, if it comes to that.
Finally, as to changing fields, that depends on how much work you have put in in the field you might be thinking about, and if you have connections in a different department. You could also switch advisers, but from what you write here, your adviser sounds supportive and not the source of your problems.
You’d probably have to leave the country if you’re here on an F1, but for now I’d focus on passing the field exam coming up.


It certainly depends on what the school you're applying to and the career you'd like to have. If the school is heavily interested in pharmaceutical statistics for drug development in clinical trials, macroeconomics probably won't be the most important course for you to take. In general though, if you're heading for a PhD, it can't hurt to have a very broad background knowledge on the different application areas in which statistics is used.

I'll also mention that if a course is important to you, you should detail (in your admissions essay or other medium) why and how it helps you to be a better student in statistics. Macroeconomics isn't the same as probability theory, but if you make a convincing argument that your knowledge of macroeconomics has helped you to better understand the field of statistics, then the admissions committee will probably take that into consideration.


In a limbo stage in PhD. How to get out of it?

Scientific work is always a high stakes gamble. You are never guaranteed to succeed and several failures in a row usually result in a quite depressing state when you lose the willingness to try anymore completely. It is nothing unusual. Here are the techniques that I usually employ when getting nowhere for a long time.

1) Step back and relax. Forget about it all for a month at least. Live your life (I hope there are some things you enjoy besides solving problems, working in the lab, and writing papers).

2) Talk to people in your field or go online (to MathOverflow, say) to see what they are working on and have trouble with. If you are not at the very bottom, there will always be a lot of people whom you can help. Boosts your self-confidence quite a bit.

3) Remember that you are under no obligation ("obligation" is not the same as "pressure") to produce anything or to prove to anyone that you are any good. You came to the parallel universe to wonder, explore, and play. So, just do exactly that. Read something funny in your field, ask yourself some "stupid" questions, etc. Just get the feeling that you belong to the scenery around you and can enjoy small streams and hills before trying to cross a big river or to climb a mountain.

4) Look at Hubble telescope images and try to imagine all the distances, times, and energies involved. That puts you with all your worries, ambitions, and desires in the right perspective. Don't care too much about the problems of something as insignificant as one unit in over 7 billion on some God's forgotten planet in the far corner of some minor galaxy, totally dispensable and replaceable any time. Concentrate on the outside world. You can figure out something about it before your time is over, that is the only game really worth playing in serious, and you are totally qualified to participate in it despite the fact that there always will be much stronger players around.

There are more, but these four work well enough. And, of course, complain about your situation to your friends any time you want. No need to handle everything alone :-)


Is strict adherence to a citation format really necessary in actual research?

First of all, almost nobody formats their references by hand. Typesetting systems such as Latex have a tool for auto-generating references, for instance from a bibtex file (which is essentially a local database of papers that the researcher often cites). Entries into this file are also not really manual in most cases, as bibtex entries for papers can usually be obtained via a quick web search from the publisher. For instance, in the ACM Digital Library (see example entry here), you can click on the right-hand side on Export -> Bibtex and obtain a bibtex entry. Other typesetting systems, such as Microsoft Word, usually have similar plugins or features.

Now, why would your English teacher (or publishers) even care about whether you write Thomasz Antonie or T. Antonie (or Antonie, T., ...)? At the end of the day, this is not so much about understandability of the reference, but more about giving the paper a more professional look-and-feel. For journals it is important to retain their "trademark" optics. This includes obvious aspects, such as font size, column layout, or margins, but also extends to using a consistent reference style within each paper, and also across papers published in the same journal.


Should I admit students who are waitlisted for my class?

In my department for lower level courses I have no control over the enrollment of my classes.  For upper levels, it's rare the the capacity maxes out but here's a general way I would look at it from an instructor and/or administrator.

How frequently is the course offered?
There's a huge difference between a course only offered every year or two, and every single semester.
Is the course required for graduation?
If not, there's far less reason to give the override.  If so, why stand in the way of someone's graduation (particularly if they're a senior)?
Are the other sections of the course full?
If the course has multiple sections, why don't they take one of those?  If there is a legitimate reason they can't (a required course at the same time) I might be more inclined, if not, they can take it the other one if they really want it.
Whose student is it?
My department has one to let majors and minors always take the classes, but those who are not in our department will only get it in exigent circumstances (must have course to graduate).  This is because we are penalized if our majors don't graduate on time and we need to always make any marginal spots available first and foremost to them.
Is there a general policy?
Your department may have a policy for this.  If so, use that.

I don't think that there is any benefit to intentionally reducing numbers to increase demand later on.  If your class is required, people will take it because they have to, not because it's popular (your department has created an artificial demand).  If your class is not required, then students will just find a different class and not bother with yours another semester.  The demand for a non-required class only tends to go up if it has the reputation of being easy, fun, relevant to other majors, or some combination thereof.


Send reference letters from mathjobs to other positions

Short answer: no.

As suggested by user4050, I contacted Mathjobs directly and they answered the following:

  Hello Sebastien,

  Applicants do not have access to the letters uploaded into MathJobs.
  There is some import capability between MathJobs and
  AcademicJobsOnline, but you do not have the ability to export your
  letters otherwise.

  If you need anything else, please let me know.

  Regards,

  Kim Kuda
  Senior Program Coordinator


Formal letters: is it okay to list your credentials in a long sentence?

A sentence like you present looks just fine to me: there's nothing wrong with being a bit formal in an official formal statement, and although the sentence isn't short, it's not too long and it's very straightforward to understand.


How can I decide on taking four classes for first year in graduate school?

In the U.S., to have a fellowship as opposed to teaching assistantship really does free up considerable time each week, so four classes rather than the norm of three is completely plausible, if that's the way you decide to go.

I would want to strongly disagree with some of the claims, in comments above, that you'll never use most of the Prelim-level material "in your research". This is not naturally true, but can certainly be made true by being sufficiently ignorant, and/or sufficiently misconstruing the material in the Prelims and corresponding courses. (Also, one may encounter caricatures of Prelim exams.)

I would also strongly disagree with the claim that a (typical) undergrad degree in math (in the U.S.) provides sufficient breadth. This is even more crazily false than the supposed irrelevance of Prelim exam material. But, as with most things, clever people can contrive arguments for or against almost anything.

The genuine question is whether you should do four "core" courses, rather than take "electives", and/or self-study or group-study. First, this obviously depends on how effective/disciplined you are at self-study. If "very", then this is probably optimal to some degree, because it can be more flexibly scheduled, if nothing else. If you do better in a group setting, or with an instructor organizing things and making a schedule, then coursework might be better.

But there does remain the question of whether or not to try to do all the basic things (by which I don't mean standard U.S. undergrad math) prior to everything else. I generally don't think this is a good idea. Instead of all four basic grad courses, maybe do three and an "elective" in the/a direction of your curiosity. Maybe with less homework, and less "adversarial" feeling.

Over the years, I have seen many people "get tired" from (arguably over-assigned) homework, to the point that they have forgotten why they came to grad school, have forgotten their affection for math, and have lost a sense of genuine curiosity, from being "over-driven".

For that matter, much of the "basic" material is deemed essential-for-everyone (not only for general cultural sense, but) because it comes up all the time. (Sure, there is tradition, too, whose inertia sometimes swamps sense.) If/when people (especially novices, e.g, grad students) tell you that you "don't need to know" various things, you really should not believe them too strongly (because they probably don't know what they're talking about, or else, if nothing else, they'd have subtler opinions about it), even if they are your friends and/or peers.

It is true that thinking in terms of "research", especially if this means something opposite to the artificially over-ordered world-view of textbooks and established curriculum (and grades, and schedules), is a very good thing. Genuine mathematics is not as highly ordered/structured as one might imagine from textbooks and standardized course concepts. Nor are the questions/issues at the end of any particular chapter, so that one knows the relevant theorems! It is also not "graded". So, yes, experiencing something opposite to classwork is very good... but this is absolutely not an either/or.

That is, whether you acquire basics by self-study or guided study or coursework, that is just one thread. There is at least one other, the one where you make the decisions, based on your curiosity, etc, and are not graded or judged. We can call this "research", but that word has much other baggage these days, which is not immediately relevant to the practice of mathematics.