How to find a suitable PhD supervisor

‘We’re not robots; we are people,’ says Michael Mauro, a cell biologist who defended his PhD at Yale University, US, in September 2021. ‘We bring baggage from outside life into the lab … having a PhD adviser who’s aware of that and can understand that if you need a minute, you got to take a minute, that’s really important.’ In fact, a functional relationship with an adviser is critical to a doctoral candidate’s wellbeing.

If you’re entering a pre-designed PhD programme, such as those offered by many institutes in the UK, you are likely going to work under the researcher heading the programme. But if you’re among the many PhD aspirants worldwide who are crafting their unique research projects, then you’re likely to explore a few research groups before you finalise one. In some parts of the world you may even have the opportunity to do lab rotations (work for a short whil in several different labs). Whatever your situation, it’s important to investigate whether you’d work well with a potential supervisor.