Graduation Week at UOW

We are in the midst of graduation week at the 澳大利亚卧龙岗大学 (UOW). As the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) celebrates the graduation of Sujani Abeywardena , ZHIQI (RONALD) CHEN and Carly Baker this week, it causes us to reflect on the PhD journey and what is needed for success in research.

First, what is success? A demonstrated ability to acquire and utilise existing knowledge to create new knowledge and the ability to work with others to make sure that findings are deployed to the benefit of our communities.

That sounds easy, doesn't it??

Well, imagine day one of your PhD journey and about to embark on an exploration that no human has ever undertaken. Imagine being confronted with the mountains of knowledge relevant to that exploration and planning to take your first experimental steps into the unknown. Daunting? Overwhelming?

As supervisors, we obviously need to provide training that instills the technical skills necessary to confront today’s interdisciplinary challenges. Many of these skills are complex but given the talent of the individuals involved, this is often the easy part of the journey.

As supervisors, we also need to mitigate the fear that arises in these early days when? embarking on a personal research journey. We need to plan the course of action in detail together with these new researchers, step by step. We need to create an environment that builds confidence, that accepts that all new knowledge obtained in a controlled and reproducible way is valuable - that teaches we can not control the outcome of an experiment that is delving into the unknown. That confidence building is no trivial task - it is complex. It involves researcher self-confidence and that in turn is built on confidence in supervisors, colleagues and indeed the host organisation.?

With confidence comes courage, and there is no doubt this will be required at so many levels. The courage to present new ideas to others much more experienced. The courage to question their ideas. The courage to submit a manuscript based on your experimental findings and have that critiqued by the world's experts. The courage to get on a flight and fly to a global research conference and present your first body of experimental work and proclaim to the world what that means. There are so many times you have to tell yourself; I CAN do this.

When one delves into the unknown, with courage, there will still be times of disappointment. Even when we know all new knowledge is valuable there will be experimental outcomes that bring one to their knees because the outcome expected, but not realised would have cracked the code and enabled a major advance. This brings me to another personal trait that must be developed in researchers, resilience. I mean real resilience! Some experimental outcomes can be devastating (I don't use that word lightly), denting confidence, questioning courage even doubting one's own talents. This resilience is not genetic, it is learned through sometimes bitter experiences. The building of resilience is fuelled by the experimental breakthroughs that do occur - those moments when you could "dance all night" because this is a real advance.

This week we celebrate a major achievement for three Individuals; Sunjani, Zhiqi and Carly, who have made significant contributions to the IPRI team. Please read their accounts of the journey so far:

• IPRI Interview: Sujani Abeywardena
• IPRI Interview: Zhiqi Chen
• IPRI Interview: Carly Baker

When we embark on the research journey we do so to return new knowledge to the communities we work for. These three individuals are to be applauded for that.

The IPRI Interview Series continues next week with two candidates who have recently submitted their PhDs.