How to Get Your PhD

Gavin Brown is Professor of Machine Learning, and Director of Research for the Department of Computer Science, at the University of Manchester, UK. He obtained his PhD in 2004 from the University of Birmingham, winning the British Computer Society Distinguished Dissertation Award, given annually for the most outstanding UK thesis in Computer Science. In 2005 he joined Manchester, and since then has built a team working on Machine Learning and Data Science, contributing both fundamental and applied research, funded by the UK and EU government as well as industry sponsors

• 1: What is a PhD? 2: Things you need to know 3: Things that will happen 4: How to Find your New Idea 5: How to work with a Supervisor 6: Work on Yourself 7: How to Read 8: How to Write 9: How to give Presentations 10: What happens in a Viva? 11: Your Post-PhD Life 12: Skills you will have gained i: Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell DBE FRS: Choosing a Career in Science ii: Professor Victoria Burns: Becoming a Reflective Professional iii: Professor Steve Furber CBE FRS FREng: Doing your PhD as part of a team iv: Dr Lucy Kissick: Saying yes to opportunity and no v: Professor Hiranya Peiris: The Rewards of Risk in Research vi: Professor Melanie Leng MBE: Top Writing Tips vii: Professor Jeremy Wyatt: Mistakes your Supervisor will make viii: Professor David Hand OBE FBA MMC: A PhD in Statistics & Data Science ix: Dr Carolyn Virca: Building a Strong Support Network . x: Dr Shakir Mohamed: Inventing Ourselves: Responsibility & Diversity in Research xi: Dr Jonny Brooks-Bartlett: Public Engagement in Research xii: Dr Jennifer Polk: Your career is up to you

One of the aspects of this book, besides the content, that makes it so captivating is simply the writing style. The book is written so that reading it is easy, the ideas digestible. In the chapter on how to write, Brown shares his secret to writing so engagingly ... What I took away from reading this book, though, was just how universal the experiences of graduate students are. From wallowing in feelings of inadequacy to the exhilarating sensation of figuring out something that nobody has ever figured out before, Brown captures the essence of what most graduate students experience. He arms grad students (and potential grad students!) with information that will make their journey a bit easier, regardless of what field they're in.