Diary of a PhD student

Lucy Kissick was wrapping up her first year of a PhD studying the surface of Mars when her sister asked her a few questions. ‘She was considering doing a PhD in chemistry, and she asked me all the questions I had had [when I started],’ Kissick recalls. ‘How do you contact professors? Do you need to come up with your own project? What is imposter syndrome? How do you write papers? There was no real go-to guide… so I thought I could do it myself.’ Kissick decided to set up the PhDiaries: a video chronicle of the ups and downs of doctoral life.