This week's episode features Ruth Bomar, PhD who is a recent graduate of a PhD program in special education. She talks about starting a PhD program later in life and about her current role as a Professional Coach for students pursuing PhDs and other graduate degrees. Check out her services at the links below! https://www.facebook.com/RuthBomarAcademicCoach/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqppKcBPZhMoZbAD_pOJFcg www.ruthbomar.com  Follow us on Instagram at @impactfactorpod Logo design by Rebecca Van Aken. Music by Katie Van Aken.

This week's episode features Parth Desai who is in his final year as a PhD student in Synthetic Biology. Parth shares his story and how he became interested in doing cancer research many years ago. He is now fulfilling his dream and will soon be looking for research jobs! Tune in to hear more! Follow us on Instagram at @impactfactorpod Logo design by Rebecca Van Aken. Music by Katie Van Aken.

This episode features my conversation with Melanie Stark who is wrapping up her senior year as a Chemistry major while also applying for PhD programs and fellowships. Mel shares some of the reasons she wants to get a PhD and we chat about the scary and stressful parts leading up to it. She also gives some advice for others who are planning to apply in the next few years! I hope our conversation is valuable for anyone else who is thinking about doing a PhD or has decided to apply. Enjoy! Follow us on Instagram at @impactfactorpod Logo design by Rebecca Van Aken. Music by Katie Van Aken.

In this week's episode I had the pleasure of chatting with Professor Babak Anasori, who is an old friend of mine from my time at Drexel. Babak was a PhD student when I arrived at Drexel in the Materials Science department and by the time I was graduating, he was a post-doc in my lab. We had some great times at conferences and some even better research conversations. Babak is now a professor with his own research group and it's exciting to hear about all the things he is working on, including an international competition for science as art masterpieces called Nanoartography! Check it out! Follow us on Instagram at @impactfactorpod Logo design by Rebecca Van Aken. Music by Katie Van Aken.

In this week's episode I had the pleasure of chatting with a professor who has just started his role at Rutgers only two weeks ago! Professor Chris Shuck did his post-doc in the same lab at Drexel that I did my PhD and it was fun to hear about his experience in the lab after I had left. He also had a wild path from undergrad through to where he is now, always finding himself studying materials while never getting a degree in Materials Science. I hope you enjoy our conversation! Follow us on Instagram at @impactfactorpod Logo design by Rebecca Van Aken. Music by Katie Van Aken.

In this week's episode I had the pleasure of catching up with an old physics classmate from college. Oliver Elbert, PhD was an astrophysics major who followed his interests straight through grad school until his was presented with an opportunity to pivot fields. He is now a Computational Scientist at NOAA and has some great advice about writing your own story and making the decisions that are best for you! Follow us on Instagram at @impactfactorpod Logo design by Rebecca Van Aken. Music by Katie Van Aken.

This week I got a chance to (virtually) meet and interview Anurag Roy who is currently a post doc in the UK! He tells me his story of how he ended up doing a PhD, what he has learned about himself, and what his goals are in the future. He's also just a very cool guy and I had an awesome time chatting with him. I hope you enjoy the episode! Follow us on Instagram at @impactfactorpod Logo design by Rebecca Van Aken. Music by Katie Van Aken.

In this week's episode I had the pleasure of catching up with an old High School classmate of mine. Rob Wexler, PhD was an undergrad interested in chemistry who seemed to always create unfortunate situations as an experimentalist. Once he found his way to theoretical chemistry and modeling, he never left academia. As a professor now, Rob has a lot of entertaining stories and we had a super fun time catching up. I hope you all enjoy our conversation as much as I did! Follow us on Instagram at @impactfactorpod Logo design by Rebecca Van Aken. Music by Katie Van Aken.

This week's episode features Oscar Huang who is pursuing a PhD in Chemistry! We chatted about his experience picking a program, where he wants to go next, and some very wise thoughts on what it means to get a PhD. Tune in to hear more! Follow us on Instagram at @impactfactorpod Logo design by Rebecca Van Aken. Music by Katie Van Aken.

This week's episode features my conversation with Marshall Lougee, PhD, a recent graduate from the UPenn Chemistry department. I had the pleasure of chatting with Marshall about his experience changing majors in undergrad, working in industry for a year in between, and then ultimately switching labs in grad school. He has some excellent advice for students at all stages in the PhD journey. I hope you enjoy listening! Follow us on Instagram at @impactfactorpod Logo design by Rebecca Van Aken. Music by Katie Van Aken.