For some reason, I end up in PhD committees for topics that are far our of my field. Never thought I'd feel more lost being on the other side of the defense, but here I am. Again.
(Seriously, that whole statement that the PhD candidate is the biggest expert in the room in their area? That's not just people being nice, it's incredibly often true!)
Seriously, if you have a PhD candidate or are a PhD candidate working in black hole or neutron star X-ray binaries, invite me to be part of the committee? I'd like to feel once like I know stuff 😅
@vicgrinberg Yeah, I actually studied outbursts in low-mass X-ray binaries for a little while before settling on a specialty in grad school, and I know it seemed like a bit of a small world.
@internic I really feel like any corner of astro is small - we are not that big of a field and often highly specialised 😅
And huh, now I'm curious who you worked with back then and whether I know them or if we ever intersected!
@vicgrinberg Thus far I've been keeping my public posts on mastodon a little vague on personally-identifiable specifics, but if you are sufficiently curious I could tell you by way of a DM.
@internic if you feel comfortable, I'm a but curious. But also fully understand if you are not willing to.
@internic alas not enough folks in my particular little corner even if I get invited to all the defenses there are 😅