Welcome to PostdocPartum

Dear readers,

Welcome to my blog, "PostdocPartum". Many of you are coming as readers of a few of my lengthy facebook posts, such as my thesis-writing journal "dissertuesday", but "PostdocPartum" will have content that expands beyond the confines of social networks. For a long time now, I have had many ideas and writings to put somewhere and this website will be my first attempt at a public repository.

One question you may have right now is about the origin of the name "PostdocPartum". Inspired by the portmanteau of "dissertuesday", I wanted to find something that captured the sentiment of being a postdoctoral researcher. From many other academic blogs and the postdoc experiences of others, it seemed that depression was a common emotion in job prospects, working conditions, and satisfaction with life. That made an associative link in my mind to "postpartum depression", which typically occurs in new mothers soon after the birth of their child ("postpartum" meaning in Latin, "occurring after birth" or more precisely, "occurring after bringing forth [the child]"). Lastly, the link I made between "postdoc" and "postpartum" was inspired by this blogpost, which calculated the opportunity cost of an academic postdoc (and arguably, the equivalent amount of grant money invested in educating a PhD student) as roughly equivalent to the cost of raising a child from birth to 18-year-old adult. In summary, "postdocpartum" refers to "occurring after PhD"; whether depression follows is yet to be seen.

As a sneak peek, here is a glimpse of what topics I plan to write about in the future:

• Interesting facts about Norway and Norwegian lifestyle
• Reflection on life and career pathways as a postdoctoral researcher
• Featured photos from image collections with accompanying discussion
• Lists of short thoughts and long-form analytical posts on society, politics, science, energy, the environment, and other topics in current and trending events
• Occasional fun posts on less serious topics
• And more, as time and ambition allows ...

The blog also has a page dedicated to some of my projects and creative works. You can browse them for a brief summary and hopefully be inspired by them. I plan to add more details, projects, and creative works as they come to fruition.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate any comments and feedback you may have, especially on the blog design. I will do my best to read them all, if I can't reply to them all.

Yours,

Samson