[Nescafe]

Hello,

I dont want to be a debby downer but most recently I successfully defended my PhD at a top school and a question by one of the committee members made me really think... The question was simple, what was the most significant contribution of your thesis... browsing in my head the 7 chapters I had written made me realize I could not pick out one or two things that really advanced science. Sure I had positive data but they were all a continuation of other people's work. Sure I know how to do research and investigate, but did I add a wow factor or do some impressive reaction that noone else has done, not really.

Made me feel like a dumbo despite passing the defence. I was wondering if anyone had anything to share or whether they felt something similar.

Thanks in advance,

Nescafe.

[billnotgatez]

If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants. Sir Isaac Newton

[Corribus]

Let's face it, 99.9999% of all academic research is unlikely to impact the world directly or immediately - if ever. Does that make it all a waste of time? I think knowledge has intrinsic value beyond whether it can help you make a smaller ipod, and there's joy in the discovery of new things beyond what value they may have toward driving technological progress. Besides, science is iterative and moves too slowly to see sometimes - but it does move. It's hard to predict which incremental steps will prove the most critical to humans down the road. Your discovery may not itself be directly important, but who knows what dominos it'll tip over down the road.  (I mean, did Einstein's great-great-great-great-grandfather accomplish anything at all? Who knows... he might have been a street vendor who never accomplished anything...but without him, Einstein wouldn't have ever existed.)

The irony is that most funding agencies don't like to award squat for applied science research, which actually has a better chance to impact society in the short term. Figure that one out!

[curiouscat]

Made me feel like a dumbo despite passing the defence. I was wondering if anyone had anything to share or whether they felt something similar.

I felt somewhat the same by the time I defended. I never found a solution really.

[curiouscat]

The irony is that most funding agencies don't like to award squat for applied science research, which actually has a better chance to impact society in the short term. Figure that one out!

Even more ironic, isn't it mostly professors & ex-professors that serve on these committees?

[Arkcon]

Exactly, they simply wanted to make you think, that's all.  I remember when I asked the Ph.D. I worked for at my first job, "What was your thesis?"  He basically told me, that he'd set up a complex instrument to make one run, a very complex and elegant confirmation of the Michaelis-Menten using advanced technology of the time.  He had one shot, and the University was in the process of moving its facilities.  it didn't work.  Still, he go credit for all the other work he'd done to get that far.  He continued to work as a physicist for many major optical firms over the rest of his career.

[Nescafe]

Nice replies, thanks.

It just felt like my PhD (4.7 years) was just a really long long road and to sort of feel at the end "Wait, what did I really add?" made me take a step back and go, blimey.

I wish I did my PhD in the year that my Boss did his, there used to be a time you could get a PhD in 3 years in the UK! All those years gone by now could have been saved for gaining some real work experience.

Sorry if I am being a debby downer, things actually worked out for me as I have secured a PDF at top schools in the world but still, I think those days that you hoped to land a 80K job right after a PhD is over. Without PDF most people will turn away from you in industry.

Nescafe.

[Furanone]

I really like the points Corribus made. Sometimes it is hard to judge your contribution so soon after you finished the project, since it could be a catalyst to a major breakthrough years ahead and you might share the Nobel prize with those researchers that built on your work.

Also, the way I look at it is not so much in the contribution I made with my PhD thesis, but what did I get out of that experience. I have a lifelong passion for learning and problem solving and many tools to solve them and a good job that keeps me mentally stimulated and not having to worry about major money issues.

[FlutterGuy123]

I'm only in High School and my PhD is still a far away dream for me, but I think I can sort of understand what your saying. I've asked myself the question of if I'd ever truly do anything great and win a Nobel Prize and be remembered and all that. My answer to that is that all science no matter how much it's been researched in the past or weather it's new research or not doesn't really matter. Science is a big loop with no end, so it's the journey that matters. It's about doing the science and learning new things whether they were known before or not. I recently scrapped a lofty project trying to revolutionize clean energy. It was futile from the start and secretly I knew that, but I kept going and with that I learned more than I did in school, and that will stay with me forever. I'm sorry for rambling on like this. I'm very good at that, but I'll close with this statement that I truly believe. We don't need to revolutionize science. As long as keep learning, keep exploring, and question everything in a big way, anyone big and small is just as great as Tesla, Newton, or even Einstein.