This article is contributed by Dr Lizz Ultee based on their recent paper with Alex Robel and colleagues: For whom and by whom is glaciology? Robel et al., 2024. How do glaciologists choose what to work on? Group leaders more or less choose our own research questions according to what interests us. Many of us, …
Dear friends, colleagues, I’m delighted to write that I have just been informed that as of 1st August 2024 I will be awarded a Personal Chair and will become Professor Bethan Davies. I’m truly delighted to have been awarded this and will seek to use my new position to continue to support and work with …
In this post, I thought it might be interesting to outline some of the typical work tasks for me as a mid-career academic. Hopefully this is not too self-indulgent; I thought that if you’re an early career researcher or student considering future careers, this may be of interest to you. Perhaps you’re an international academic, …
Day 2 Today is another day in the office. On office days I’m usually busy with meetings, teaching, emails and administration. I try and keep a couple of days clear a week for more thoughtful work, and try and work from home, but it’s not always possible. 0800: I’m in the office bright and early, …
Day 1 This is an example of one typical day at work for a mid-career academic. This semester I’m teaching a couple of undergraduate courses, a postgraduate course, and teaching a field class abroad. I’m supervising 5 PhD students and 1 MRes student, and am currently Director of Research and REF2029 lead for the Department …
Friends, some personal news – really pleased to say that I have moved from Royal Holloway University of London to Newcastle University. I’m excited to move to a new institution and the new collaborations and opportunities that this provides. I’ll be in the Department of Geography at Newcastle. New email: bethan [dot] davies [at] newcastle …
Hello folks, I’m delighted to say that I’ve been honoured with the 2022 medal for Antarctic Education and Communication by the international body for organising Antarctic research and collaboration, the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research. I’m absolutely thrilled and very indebted to my nominator Huw Griffiths. The medal is awarded for my work in Antarctic …
Friends, I’m really excited to say that I will be joining the University of Vienna for 5 months from September 2022 to January 2023 as the Ida Pfeiffer Professor, a visiting professor position in the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy. I’ll be taking research leave from my university to allow me to take …
If you’re preparing for an interview at a university for a lectureship, good luck to you! The UK system tends to involve a presentation, often to the whole department, and then a panel interview with a few senior members of staff. This can be very daunting, but it does get easier with practice. I’ve attended …
Having now been lecturing for a few years, I’ve had the opportunity and time to think about what kind of lecturer I want to be. I wrote this down a while ago but decided to share it now – because thinking about and sharing best practice makes us all better teachers, and because ECRs just …
