Bettina Lier (she/her) is a PhD student in Computational (Bio)Chemistry at the Institute of Molecular Modeling and Simulation, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. She is enrolled at the international doctoral school for biomolecular technology of proteins. She is passionate about biomolecular simulations to study the behaviour of biomolecules and investigate their physicochemical properties. Her PhD project deals with the development and application of a neural network based hybrid simulation technique to study metalloproteins at the quantum level of theory. With her project, she is recipient of the DOC fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Follow her on Twitter: @BettinaLier

PhD Scholarship Proposal: Why I Would Write It Again!

In this article, Bettina Lier shares her experience of applying for a PhD scholarship and how she initially found the application process overwhelming. With the support of her supervisor she overcame her doubts, and successfully completed the proposal. Her story is a great example of how with the right mindset and support, we can overcome any challenge.

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Full-Circle Journey of a Doctoral Student: Applications, Interviews, and Mentoring Others 

This article takes the reader on a journey of a doctoral student, from applications, interviews, and building a relationship with supervisors, to coming full circle by mentoring other students starting out and facing challenges. The writer shares their advice and their own personal experience of each stage, including their fulfilling mentoring work promoting awareness of mental wellbeing among PhD students.

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Coping with Bereavement During a PhD: Grow Around the Grief

Grief is a lesser-discussed topic in academia, but processing grief due to the loss of a loved one compounds the challenges of doing a PhD. In this thought-provoking article, Kathryn Zacharek shares her experience of navigating a PhD during bereavement, where she took time out, leaned on her support networks, and researched ways to let her life ‘grow around the grief’.

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