This week’s episode features Sonali Majumdar, Ph.D., Assistant Dean for Professional Development at Princeton University. We discuss an array of issues related to career development, challenges faced by international students, and science policy, including:
– Sonali’s significant and successful transitions in her academic and professional journeys and what surprised her and what she wishes she’d known in hindsight.
– How Sonali applies her philosophy about the Ph.D. skillset in her current leadership role at Princeton
– Two of Sonali’s professional passions – science communication and science policy – how she developed them and why she is so energized by them
– Challenges Sonali encountered as an international Ph.D. and some ways she’s handled or overcome these challenges, including relating to visa issues
– Sonali’s role as Assistant Dean for Professional Development within the GradFUTURES Team at Princeton University and GradFUTURES programming, some of which is available to listeners who don’t attend Princeton
– Sonali’s thinking about the future for Ph.D.s, particularly amid COVID and the discruptive forces it accelerated and unleashed, and how academic training at the Ph.D. level can help in adjusting to new norms around work and best positioning yourself for success in this “brave new world” of work
Resources mentioned in the episode:
