For Episode 15, my guest is Erin McGrattan, from County Down in Northern Ireland. She did her undergraduate degree in Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) in Food Quality, Safety and Nutrition and completed a Master’s degree in Ulster University in Human Nutrition, which qualifies her as a nutritionist by the Association for Nutrition.

She completed a summer studentship at QUB in the Centre for Public Health, and following continuing working there part-time, she was offered to do a PhD. Her title is Identifying characteristics of asymptomatic oesophageal cancer and Barrett’s oesophagus patients to inform novel prevention and early detection opportunities.

Erin and I discuss PhDing, mental health and so much more!

May I introduce you to two AMAZING academics in Episode 14!

Dr Lauren Saunders and Dr Allen Roda, Vice President of Editing and Research, and CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the Dissertation Editor respectively; and authors of the fantastic book PhDone, which I was given an ARC for and throughly enjoyed and found useful. It is a #2 Wall Street Journal best-seller!

Enjoy this episode!

In Episode 13 of Meet the PhDs my guest has a very interesting and multicultural background. Yuliya Samofalova is a third-year PhD candidate in Information and Communication at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Her thesis is focused on analyzing climate change communication on social media in order to understand obstacles and barriers to pro-environmental behavior. Yuliya has a multicultural and interdisciplinary background. She got her Bachelor of Education Sciences in Kazakhstan, her first Masters degree in Linguistics in Russia, second Masters degree in Arts, Humanities, Civilizations in France. Besides her research work, she's passionate about teaching languages and digital communication, and learning more about art and how to do it. I met Yuliya on Instagram, and I started by asking her about her wonderful multicultural background.

What could the podcast Producer/Creative Director, James Taylor, be talking about with the podcast creator, Vicky Loras?

Tune in for PhDs, podcasts and pop! Pop? Well, tune in!

In Episode 11, I am thrilled to have Dr Helen Kara as a guest! I have followed her on Twitter for years, read her books and learned so much from her! In this episode, we talk about everything: doing a PhD, writing books, working in academia with autism and so much more.

Let's introduce this amazing academic: Dr Helen Kara is a leading independent researcher, author, teacher and speaker specialising in research methods, particularly creative methods, and research ethics. With over twenty years' experience as an independent researcher Helen now teaches doctoral students and staff at higher education institutions worldwide.

Thank you so much, Helen and to our listeners: enjoy this episode!

For Episode 10, I have a very special guest - Dr Roland von Euw from Switzerland! 

Roland is the founder of a ground-breaking education organisation, called vE Educational Excellence which is committed to excellent vocational, professional and higher education. It focuses on education, consulting and research. I am fortunate enough to work for this amazing organisation!

Roland is also the CEO of eFachausweis, which prepares students from all over Switzerland and the world for federally-recognised vocational exams

He has a PhD in Education from the University of Liverpool and is really focused on the research part of his educational organisations. 

Listen to Roland discussing doing a PhD while working and the challenges and advantages of doing it in another language; founding a successful business and so much more!  

For Episode 9 my guest is...Jen Horne!

I met Jen on Instagram in a study community and we have even been study buddies! It was great to have her on the podcast. Listen to what she has to say about her studies and life! What will come after the MA? 

Jen is a final-year Open University Global Development Masters student. She has three kids, a very supportive husband and a wonderful dog! She is also a huge reader.

For Episode 8, we are travelling to my parents' homeland...Greece!

We had a lovely discussion with Thanassis Godelitsas about teaching in Greece, the positive aspects and the challenges, and how much he supports his students!

Athanasios Godelitsas received his PhD in Chemistry from Aristotle University (Greece) and then he did a postdoc in mineral surface science and nanogeoscience in the group of Prof. A. Putnis at University of Muenster (Germany). He is Professor of Mineralogy-Mineral Chemistry at National & Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA, Greece), Visiting Professor of Environmental Mineralogy and Geochemistry at Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) and Erasmus+ Visiting Professor at University of Oulu (Finland).

He is actively involved in a wide range of research areas in modern mineralogy, mineral-chemistry and geochemistry. For this purpose he mainly uses electron and atomic force microscopies, surface analytical techniques and accelerator/Synchrotron-based spectroscopies.

You can follow Thanassis: 

• On Twitter 
• On ResearchGate