In this very first episode, I hosted my supervisor Prof. Peter Kuppens.  He is an affective scientist at the Catholic University of Leuven. His work focuses on theories of emotions and affect dynamics.  

I asked him some questions about his academic journey, his opinions about academia, his work schedule, and so on… 

Beyond his impressive research record, as you will hear in the interview, he comes off as a laid-back person with a positive and flexible attitude toward his work (I’m not the person to judge but that’s the impression I had). 

He also suggested a paper to anyone interested in his research field. You can find it here: (PDF) Core affect and the psychological construction of emotion | James Russell - Academia.edu

If you are interested in specific questions, you can skip to them directly here: 

01:06 How long have you been in academia ? 

01:47 Before choosing academia what were the other options you were considering? Was it your dream job? 

06:10 How has been your journey so far, in terms of your field of interest? Did you more or less stay in the same broad topic? Did you have a radical shift? 

10:55 What research question are you currently trying to answer/explore? Why is this problem important?

13:27 If you had all the funding and resources in the world, what would you try to answer/explore?

17:35 How do you think academia has changed over the years? Are there any areas that you think should be improved: for example, quality of articles, grant proposals or the funding process, psychology education. 

21:11 Who is your favorite researcher? Is there anyone in academia that you look up to?

24:34 What is your typical day and week like? Overall how much time do you spend on research, teaching, and administrative things? 

27:50 What do you enjoy most about your job and what do you least like about it?

34:23 Any advice to bachelor and master’s students who want to stay in academia? Any advice to PhD students?