King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), founded in 2009, is an international, graduate research University located on the shores of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. KAUST is dedicated to advancing science and engineering through interdisciplinary research, education and innovation. It was announced in 2013 that KAUST had one of the fastest growing research and citation records in the world and in the 2016 Nature Index Rising Stars was ranked #19 in the world of the fastest rising universities for high quality research output. KAUST was ranked #1 in the world in citations per faculty ranking indicator as per QS World University Rankings for 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.
Advice
to applicants
- To be a
successful researcher requires an enormous amount of self-motivation. We
recommend Ph.D. students read “What makes a good PhD student?” article on the
Nature website for further information.
-
A
working definition to critical thinking in the Environmental Nanotechnology Group
is 'giving scientifically defensible reasons for
whatever you choose to do and not to do and why it is this and not that in your
research'. Developing
critical thinking skill is the major focus of one’s PhD training if he/she hasn’t
had it when starting. A satisfactory postdoc is supposed to have possessed the
critical thinking skill upon completion of his/her PhD. With the critical
thinking capability, one is able to comfortably defense every details of his/her research from
all possible angles and address challenges from his/her critics with confidence.
- Environmental Nanotechnology Group's Philosophy in critical thinking skill development: our group members are very tough and we assume that you are wrong until you convince us otherwise. In the group, we encourage the group members to challenge each other at scientific level during regular meetings and daily interactions. We challenge ourselves and each other ‘why’, ‘why not’ and ‘how’ in every statement we make, every sentence we read in the literature, every seemingly trivial procedure we take, every result we present, every conclusion we draw in our research. Challenges continue on until we have made ourselves clearly understood. By pushing ourselves and each other very hard to a corner, we ‘force’ ourselves and each other to think the research through and critical thinking skill gradually evolves out of this process.
-
Are you ready to publish? I am sometimes puzzled by the situation where some students
ask to write a manuscript to publish their research findings when they are still
at an early stage of understanding basic concepts of the field. They fail to
realize the seriousness of getting their results in the public domain and being
judged by the experts in the world. Here is what I have in my mind regarding when one is ready
to publish: (1) when you fully understand the
field (however small it might be); (2) when you have original and
good results; (3) when you can confidently
and comfortably defend things related to the research project scientifically; (4) as the first or co-first
authors, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure the accuracy of every sentence
on the manuscript you write. Scientific
accuracy is the life to a successful research, so if you have difficulty in defending
your research and thus in assuring its accuracy, you are not ready to publish.
Go back and work on your critical thinking skill patiently. Only when you start
taking this responsibility on your shoulder, you make a stride in becoming an
independent researcher and critical thinker, which is what the society expects from you when you
walk out of your PhD program.
- We encourage the group members to restrain from working at home. We believe one is more inspired while working around the group at our workplace. Intellectual, physical, and spiritual isolation is always a big enemy of a great research. Cultivate your team spirit by sharing with other group members your knowledge, ideas, know-how, constructive criticisms, and even your problems, concerns, worries and this is how we work as a team.