My name is Nik Papageorgiou. I’m a cell biologist with a PhD in neurodegeneration. Ran the whole gamut of the academic track (degree-postgrad-PhD-postdoc-despair) and now I’m discovering what lies beyond pipettes and microscopes. I love science, but I lament the current state of the scientific business.
I write fiction and non-fiction for Lablit.com, and I occasionally draw comics for Labguru and the RSC’s Chemistry World. I also write novels (psych/crime thrillers, science fiction), and my first novel, LAZARUS, was published in 2012.
I am also a Christian, which is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I dig into theology, apologetics and philosophy a fair bit, which generally leads me to hold Reformed views.
Finally, I’m an INTJ. That’s important because it probably explains why this blog doesn’t have a single theme. I hope you’ll find here something that engages you.
If you want to find out more about me, you can visit my LinkedIn profile.
Email: spesaeterna[at]gmail dot com
If you have a number of novels written already you should look into self-publishing them.
A good place to start is at a site called Smashwords – http://www.smashwords.com – you upload the book and then they convert it to all the different ebook formats (for Kindle, Nook, etc.). Then after they manually check the formatting they push it out to the various ebook shops like Barnes and Noble, Apple bookstore, Nook store and soon Amazon as well.
Thanks for the link (and apologies for the late reply). I’m going down that route, since life is short, but I’m starting with Amazon and depending on how that goes, I’ll expand to other formats.
I really like your comics! They are very funny.
Thank you!
Hey Nik, I’ve just finished reading all your stuff! Love your material and the way you write…..also having been a postdoc for 8 years and having left academia a year ago, I *totally* understand what you are talking about. I ended up working in a really famous university, but no matter how I tried it was just impossible to stay….and frankly I’m glad I didn’t….my life in industry has proved 100 times better.
There is a level of brainwashing that occurs during the early period of a postdoc that is hard to deprogram. It is easy to blame academics but in reality they are also victims of the funding system and the number of people wanting to do research. To be fair postdocs themselves also need to take some share of the blame….the evidence for declining opportunity is clearly evident if you give yourself even a short time to investigate. None of the facts on academic employment are hidden…..you just need to give yourself the time to look at it!
I think the tipping point for me was a period when I worked very closely with my Professor as a teaching fellow interacting with about 50 academics. I realised that even if you did get an academic post this was not the end of the hard slog but actually just an extension. Young academics in my University worked just as hard as the Postdocs….sure they had a form of job security, but the pressure to win grants and the amount of admin, exams etc etc would send shivers down your spine. A fellow postdoc spent 2 years looking for an academic post. To his credit after about 6 interviews he scored a lecturship at a very minor country university. His reward is to teach no less than 43 hrs of lectures a term….forget about winning a grant or having time to do research…..some prize.
One caveat on moving to industry though should be that you really should only work in a place where the managment also have PhD’s. If this is not the case then your qualification and background will never be understood or valued. But generally this should usually be the case anyway if you plan on using your research skills.
The silver lining to all this is that commercially I think society will benefit much more with researchers working outside of universities than inside. I have gone down the path of trying to commercialise research through the university and in general UK universities are very poor at this. I now work in industrial research and whilst commercialisation is still difficult, you have a much greater chance of success…..and for me this is the real goal, to know that your research has made a tangable difference and is not just an intellectual story that nobody understands.
Thanks for sharing, David – and for your kind words.
You know, these are really the kinds of insights that were missing during my spat in academia (just 2 years postdoc, nowhere near as much as you). And you’re right, there is a kind of “programming” that goes on in academia that is really unfair to PhDs and postdocs. Being made to feel like a loser simply because you don’t pursue an academic career route is unacceptable, and yet it’s a definite trend.
I’d personally love to see PhDs/postdocs develop and progress transferable skills and become better educated about what lies beyond the academic research world.
Thanks for sharing and stay in touch!