For me this year will definitely be interesting. Since the beginning of January I've been working at a new university: UEF. Nevertheless, my office is the same as before, and the daily work has hardly changed at all. As usual, this kind of reforms cause some extra nuisance due to changes in computer systems and bureaucracy, but hopefully the benefits of combining two clearly distinct universities will appear sooner or later.
What makes this year different is of course the fact that I should finally finish my PhD. Doctoral student's main job should of course be concentrating on the thesis research, but often time must be allocated to more pressing matters. These include, for instance, various side projects, cooperation with other researchers, seminars and seminar preparations, statistics courses, browsing the web, writing funding proposals, and reporting your progress. And I don't even have teaching responsibilities... The proposal and reporting parts feel the most like wasted time. Especially begging for funding seems to be the most discouraging part of a researcher's daily life, especially when your ideas are good and you work hard to make a good application, but the likely result is nothing.
The above listing is of course meant to explain why finishing the last sub-study (laser scanning) has taken much longer than I expected. But now, I think I'll finally be able to focus on that more than anything else. Later in the spring the laser study must be put forward as it is, and the next phase includes writing the thesis summary and finishing the remaining compulsory studies. Everything should be ready in autumn. Easier said than done.
What makes this year different is of course the fact that I should finally finish my PhD. Doctoral student's main job should of course be concentrating on the thesis research, but often time must be allocated to more pressing matters. These include, for instance, various side projects, cooperation with other researchers, seminars and seminar preparations, statistics courses, browsing the web, writing funding proposals, and reporting your progress. And I don't even have teaching responsibilities... The proposal and reporting parts feel the most like wasted time. Especially begging for funding seems to be the most discouraging part of a researcher's daily life, especially when your ideas are good and you work hard to make a good application, but the likely result is nothing.
The above listing is of course meant to explain why finishing the last sub-study (laser scanning) has taken much longer than I expected. But now, I think I'll finally be able to focus on that more than anything else. Later in the spring the laser study must be put forward as it is, and the next phase includes writing the thesis summary and finishing the remaining compulsory studies. Everything should be ready in autumn. Easier said than done.
