Academic Dissertations in the News

There are two possible paths to success:
1) Planning Ahead. Few take this path. The few who do leave the University so quickly that they are hardly noticed. If you want to make a lasting impression and have a long career as a graduate student, do not choose it.
2) Perseverance. All you really have to do is outlast your doctoral committee. The good news is that they are much older than you, so you can guess who will eventually expire first. The bad news is that they are more practiced at this game (after all, they persevered in the face of their doctoral committee, didn't they?).

Here are a few guidelines that may help you when you finally get serious about writing.... Read more at https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.dissertation.html

The Completion Agenda, Part 5: Your Publishing Plan, in The Chronicle of Higher Education by David D. Perlmutter.

My dissertation — all two volumes and 750 or so bound pages of it — sits on a shelf in my office and could be accurately characterized as both a success and a failure.

On the one hand, the completed version earned the approval of a committee and meant I could put "Ph.D." after my name forevermore. My dissertation also assisted me on the job market since its title and topic — with some rebranding — fit a tenure-track opening that I was hired to fill at a major research university... Finish reading at The Chronicle of Higher Education

Grants of $20,000 each to be awarded to 20 doctoral scholars.

Read more at http://www.virtual-strategy.com

A final-year student at the University of Dundee has used his dissertation to find more ways to use footprints found at crime scenes.

Read more at http://phys.org/news/2016-06-dissertation-ways-footprints-crime-scenes.html#jCp

Rep. Tim Huelskamp's dissertation: Agricultural price supports ignore 'economic reality'
Republican, opponent differ on support for some subsidies

Twenty-one years ago, a Ph.D. student at American University wrote a 400-page dissertation on congressional agriculture committees. Now, that student, Tim Huelskamp, is embroiled in a re-election primary fight centered, in part, on his removal from the House Agriculture Committee.

In the dissertation, Huelskamp rails against New Deal-era agriculture subsidies and price supports, saying they “ignored the productivity advances in the industry, not to mention any semblance of economic reality.”

Read more at http://cjonline.com/news/business/2016-05-14/rep-tim-huelskamps-dissertation-agricultural-price-supports-ignore-economic#

Would you trust a robot to escort you out of a burning building? Maybe you shouldn't. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with roboticist Paul Robinette, author dissertation titled, "Developing Robots that Impact Human-robot Trust in Emergency Evacuations."

Read transcript of NPR internview at http://www.npr.org/2016/03/21/471316328/would-you-trust-a-robot-to-rescue-you-from-a-burning-building

Download PDF dissertation at https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/54415

This adorable video from 2009 shows a very proud father and his son. The dad has good reason to be proud! David, the young man in the video, was leaving home to defend his doctoral dissertation in math at Stanford University.

Tradition mandated that David ride to the defense on a unicycle while juggling. He juggled 4 balls, as math and natural sciences scholars usually do (social sciences: 3 balls, humanities: 2).

He was successful! The father now calls him "Dr. Dave."

See video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KQQyMZqLIE

A state lawmaker wants to stop a graduate student at the University of Missouri from continuing research for her dissertation on the impact of a 72-hour waiting period on women considering abortions.

Read more at Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/abortion-study-university-of-missouri_563fab2be4b0411d307168a3

(From Inside Higher Ed by Sonja K. Foss and William Waters.) Your relationship with your dissertation adviser affects the kind of dissertation you write, your experience while doing it, the time it takes to complete it and your career options once it is done.

Read more at https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2015/10/02/essay-making-most-relationship-dissertation-adviser

Such as 9) Becoming obsessed with sitting in the same place in the library every day and getting there extra early so you can reserve it.
10) Having your closest and most intimate relationships be with people you sit near in the library.
16) Finding an article that basically summarises your entire argument a week before it’s due.

Read more at http://www.buzzfeed.com/sophiegadd/referencing-can-die#.guBZy6Dkm