Dr Kris Ford on Plasma Physics, Analytical Chemistry, and Life After Graduate School

The Spotlight Report

This week Dr. Kris Ford sat down to talk about his dissertation topic on plasma physics, and his life after graduate school. Dr. Ford received his PhD in nuclear physics studying plasma diagnostic methods. After graduating, he has gone on to lead an analytical chemistry lab studying and classifying cannabis products. Dr. Ford shares interesting insight regarding receiving feedback that your dissertation topic may not be novel, how to complete a thesis, and what challenges exist in industry post graduation.

We have also shifted to a new format with the podcast, and we have a new host! Please let us know what you think of the new format.

Related Reading:

Plasma (Wikipedia): a high-level overview of plasma physics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_%28physics%29

Pulse Plasma (UT Dallas): an older report on the uses and methods to pulse plasma. Probably outdated at this point. https://personal.utdallas.edu/~overzet/Puls_97/

Effective Altruism: the website for a group that supports effective altruism. Not necessarily meant as the definitive guide on it. https://www.effectivealtruism.org/

Peter Singer TED Talk on Effective Altruism: a brief TED talk discussing the merits and methods for effective altruism. https://www.ted.com/talks/peter_singer_the_why_and_how_of_effective_altruism

Why introductory chemistry lab is boring by Trevor Klee: an article discussing why intro chem lab is boring and may not serve us well when learning chemistry. Highly recommend. https://get21stnight.com/2019/12/27/why-introductory-chemistry-is-boring-a-long-term-historical-perspective/

Golijov: La Pasión según San Marcos: Lating/African contemporary classical music. Absolutely beautiful and highly recommend. https://www.amazon.com/Golijov-Pasi%C3%B3n-seg%C3%BAn-San-Marcos/dp/B0036OC9ME/ref=pd_sbs_15_1/135-5854595-2558859?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0036OC9ME&pd_rd_r=d55f40a5-bb93-495f-99ee-206472608ff3&pd_rd_w=F8snG&pd_rd_wg=yqtOp&pf_rd_p=bdd201df-734f-454e-883c-73b0d8ccd4c3&pf_rd_r=07CAMTV3BK24DAJN8K4T&psc=1&refRID=07CAMTV3BK24DAJN8K4T

Electrostatic Chromatography: an intro to electrostatic chromatography on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrophilic_interaction_chromatography

Conversations with Tyler: a podcast hosted by economist Tyler Cowen which covers a truly stunning array of topics. Recommend for just about anyone as there is almost assured a guest you will find interesting. https://conversationswithtyler.com/

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