I'm striking the first time in my life. Send me good vibes, and if you are at TU/e or Fontys strike with me

#doehetniet #stopdesloop
#tue #eindhoven #phdlife #strike

I am have question about “adding up” standard deviations. Do I know anyone who can help? #statistics #PhDLife

Posterpreis beim LIGO Virgo KAGRA Collaboration Meeting

Glückwunsch an unseren Kollegen Lorenzo Pompili! Lorenzo ist Doktorand in der Abteilung „Astrophysikalische und Kosmologische Relativitätstheorie“ am @mpi_grav in Potsdam. Letzte Woche hat er den Preis für das beste Poster in der Kategorie „Theorie“ auf dem @LIGO Virgo KAGRA-Kollaborationsmeeting im März 2025 in Melbourne, Australien, gewonnen.

Sein Poster präsentierte neue Tests von Einsteins allgemeiner Relativitätstheorie mit Gravitationswellen von der Endphase einer Verschmelzung zweier schwarzer Löcher. Während dieses „Ringdowns“ nimmt das Schwarze Loch seine endgültige Konfiguration nach der Verschmelzung ein und strahlt Gravitationswellen mit bestimmten Frequenzen ab.

Wenn Einsteins Theorie stimmt, hängen diese Frequenzen nur von der Masse und dem Drehimpuls (Spin) des Schwarzen Lochs ab. Misst man die Frequenzen, ist es möglich, Abweichungen von Einsteins Theorie zu testen.

Poster Prize at the LIGO Virgo KAGRA Collaboration Meeting

Congratulations to our colleague Lorenzo Pompili! Lorenzo is a PhD student in the “Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity” department at @mpi_grav in Potsdam. Last week he won the prize for the best poster in the “Theory” category at the March 2025 meeting of the @LIGO Virgo KAGRA collaboration in Melbourne, Australia.

His poster presented new tests of Einstein's general theory of relativity using gravitational waves from the final stage of a binary black hole merger. During this “ringdown”, the black hole settles into its final post-merger configuration and emits gravitational waves at specific frequencies.

If Einstein's theory is correct, these frequencies depend only on the black hole's mass and spin. By measuring the frequencies, it is possible to test for deviations from Einstein's theory.

That’s a wrap! The SAIL Spring School 2025 at Bielefeld University was an inspiring event, bringing together young researchers to explore AI evaluation beyond accuracy & precision.

A highlight: our poster & pizza session – Congrats to Kathrin Lammers & Thorben Markmann for winning Best Poster Awards!

A big thank you to all speakers, participants & organizers! See you at the next SAIL Spring School 2026 in Paderborn!

Had a chat with a fellow PhD student, we started in the same month and we are finishing at about the same time. We are both struggling financially and FLAGGING. But after my whinge, he convinced me to work as hard as possible to finish my thesis by June. It will not be easy. But PhDs are not easy. #PhDLife

My current research project is an evolutionary computation experiment inspired by biology (specifically, this amazing experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plVk4NVIUh8&pp=ygUOYmF5bSBtZWdhcGxhdGU%3D)

Unfortunately, evolutionary computation is a field generally quite ignorant of the biology that inspired it. A lot of work they do, while exciting to computer scientists, makes no sense to biologists.

So, I brought my WIP to a biology professor I've been working with to ask for feedback. He gave me the highest praise I could ask for:
This is all completely boring and obvious from a biology perspective.

I'm quite relieved! Now my challenge is: how to get CS people to care about these findings ported over from biology.

Organising a (conference-style) workshop @YoMosEco : Getting all kinds of heavy admin tasks done like coming up with a budget plan or a schedule for the week; but also constantly forgetting that I have to formally apply and send an abstract just like everybody else

While I am reading an article about DeSci on medium, I found something interesting.

Young scientists are being left behind.

In 1980, 20% of NIH grants went to researchers 35 & younger. By 2014? Just 1%.

Meanwhile, funding for 66+ scientists keeps rising.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing but without support, young innovators leave science—taking their fresh ideas with them.

We’re losing the next generation.

Weekly Lab report:

First week back after a month of incapacity followed by cyclone-induced lab closure.

I re-connected to the science store and workshops to restart - completion of empty gas cylinder removal; safe small cylinder storage; and "sample and hold" system for rectification of the inter-optical table laser stabilisation system.

We have identified the optimal argon gas flow, source chamber vacuum settings and current for striking a discharge producing ions and metastables for atomic beam alignment purposes. The faraday cup was lifted out o f the beam path and significant ion and metastable counts were recorded on the MCP detector.
A timing signal from the Signal and Delay Generator(SDG) in the laser system (10 kHz) is connected and used for timing of the collection. a signal delay was introduced with a signal generator to broaden the sample window.
Placement of a suitable magnet deflects the ions and we recorded a reduced count, suggestive of metastable neutrals. We then varied the volage of plates in the atomic beam path sufficiently to induce field ionisation of those atoms in Rydberg states.
We are now in a position to move to the next stage of usingf the pulsed laser to produce metastable argon atoms and detect them, along with their time of flight.
I installed coaxial cable runs to tap into the 10 kHz signal for use in the "sample and hold" system.

As a PhD student, you will try to publish your work in peer reviewed academic journals. But how does peer review work? What things do you have to do, what can you do, and what should you not do? Here are some meta science insights on peer review in science. https://renebekkers.wordpress.com/peer-review/

I hope this is helpful! Do you miss anything? Let me know.

Are PhDs losing their lustre? Why fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees
Several countries are seeing a decline in PhD enrollments as high living costs, stagnant stipends and limited job prospects deter students from pursuing doctoral degrees. Australia recorded an 8% drop in domestic PhD enrollments from 2018-2023 despite population growth of 7%, while Japan's numbers fell to 15,014 in 2023 from 18,232 in 2003, data from education authorities showed.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00425-4 #PhDLife

Two days of work from home and no meetings. This means I can concentrate on writing #PhDLife

Time to dive into revising my first paper after receiving feedback from the reviewers.

Any advice on how to tackle this? What’s the best way to approach revisions (and maybe what to avoid)?

We still have a few spots left and thus decided to extend the application deadline for this year's #YoMos workshop until the end of March!
Find out more about the workshop and apply here: yomos.org/next-workshop

Sir Terry Pratchett was one of two people who I quoted directly in my dissertation. This line from Feet of Clay was the motto for my introductory chapter:

"This is where we’ve filled ourselves up with so many questions that they’re starting to overflow and become answers."

It resonated with me, because this is what doing research often feels like for me.

Finished meeting with supervisor, not much was discussed about my PhD and much time was spent on doing admin #PhDLife #work #stopThePointlessBusywork