Many students have used the seminar to do dry runs for conference presentations, dissertation proposals, and dissertation defenses. They also use the seminar to present their research at various stages of development to get feedback from their peers and help to refine their ideas. According to participants, the experience has been extremely helpful. Some graduates have told me they don’t know how they would have made it without KRYPTON.

The seminar is open to anyone who is interested. My mailing list includes PhD graduates who like to check in on their alma mater, and students from many departments.  I send the announcements to the entire SEOR PhD student list and to the students in my Bayesian inference class, many of whom are PhD students or researchers in other departments. I hope you will participate in this opportunity.  Even if you are early in your research, please tell us about your area and what you are thinking about as a topic.  Many students have found the seminar helpful in formulating their dissertation research topic and plan.  If you are further along, it’s a great opportunity for feedback on your progress. And of course if you have a presentation coming up, please use this as an opportunity to do a dry run!

I sent out a call last week for people to sign up for Spring 2022 slots, and the only responses I got were “I’m not ready to talk yet but would love to participate.” This is typical for the beginning of the semester.  So this week we will have a get-acquainted meeting. Please come in person if you can, or participate virtually at the Zoom link. If virtual, I do hope you will turn your camera on. I’ll project the Zoom so we can all see you, and we will try to aim the camera so you can see the people in the room.  You can introduce yourself and tell us your research interests (and dissertation topic if you have one). Then we can take volunteers for time slots — come early because the slots at the end of the semester go the fastest!

I look forward to seeing you on Friday!

Kathy Laskey