Emily chats with Henry Powell-Davies, who tried a PhD and decided it wasn’t for him, choosing to exit with a Masters. He discusses what supported him through the isolation, making this decision, and moving on.
Henry opened up previously, in episode 16, about the mental health impacts of pandemic isolation, and making the difficult decision to exit his PhD with a Masters.
This episode covers:
· Breaking habits, #ChemistsWhoCook, skydiving and visiting Australia
· How academics seem to lean towards being productive, even in our downtime
· Twitter as a supportive community
· How Henry’s experiences have led him to become an advocate for young people in S.T.E.M.M through his work with the Salters’ Chemistry Festival.
· How Henry used his learned knowledge of himself to make decisions for his future
· How Henry initially found it difficult to accept academic support for his disability
· The usefulness of disability supports but how they may not be enough to help overcome the pressures of the academic system
· Pandemic isolation ideas – online communities, research group food challenge
Resources:
· Books: Atomic Habits by James Clear – for shifting habits, 5 minutes in the morning – a journaling book to help zero in on what brings happiness in life
· App: Headspace - for meditation
· Chemistry Salters’ Festival – for young students with additional support needs – Henry advocacy video
· Twitter: #RealTimeChem – big chemistry community, #DisabledInStem, @ChemConvosPod
· Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC): Twitter conference, listening and wellbeing service
Full transcript of the podcast is available here, with many thanks to Dan Ranson
Mental health support: please contact your GP or use the appropriate support for your country at https://checkpointorg.com/global/
You can find out more about Voices of Academia & other personal stories at @academicvoices or our website.
Mindset by Ketsa is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, available through Free Music Archive.
