This guide is meant to help you orient yourself before applying to
the PhD program and throughout your doctoral studies. Face-to-face
discussions will, of course, be more meaningful, but until then you
can get a sense of my academic profile by reading my
habilitation thesis thesis, which I
wrote precisely for this purpose. Here are some key points to
consider when choosing the right path.
Are you pursuing a PhD only to
advance more quickly in your career?
Then this is not the right place for
you. My mentorship is dedicated to building a research career, and
taking one of the at most eight places available in total—for all
active PhD students—purely
for personal gain is unfair to those pursuing this goal in the long
term.
Are you passionate about nature
and thinking of doing a PhD?
That’s a good starting point, but it’s not enough. Passion for
nature and research can complement each other, but one can never
substitute for the other. Research involves multiple stages, and
fieldwork is, at best, just one part—usually related to data
collection. If you view a doctoral thesis primarily as an outdoor
activity, it’s time to reconsider your intentions. There are many
ways to turn your passion for nature into a successful career
without necessarily pursuing a PhD.
Do you have a strong sense of
observation?
Research is about knowledge, and knowledge can always be improved.
If you often identify the “missing link” and approach problems with
meticulous care, if you see failure as a challenge, and if you
understand the principles governing the living world, here are the
steps to take:
Think long-term.
The Doctoral School is just the beginning of a research
career—look ahead to your next step, the
postdoc.
Choose your supervisor wisely.
Study their academic profile. Don’t expect your research topic to be
handed to you—design your own project aligned with the supervisor’s
expertise. If you have never written a project before, you may need
more preparation. You can find a
template
here.
Build relevant experience.
Ideally, you will have completed a research-focused master’s program
and gained experience in data collection, analysis, and
interpretation. This experience becomes credible only when
materialized in scientific publications, as publishing itself is
part of evaluating the quality of your work. If you have this track
record, it will be much easier to show that you can manage your own
project.
Check project alignment.
If your topic matches my academic profile, contact me
immediately through the Contact
page. We will likely refine your project together, and I will
suggest areas where your contribution would be most valuable.
You can find a
tutorial.
Meet the language requirement.
Both your thesis and publications will be in English, so you
need at least a B2 level (with certificate).
Prepare for the admission
process. Entry into the
Doctoral School of Exact Sciences and
Natural Sciences
is through a
competitive examination, usually
consisting of a general knowledge test
and the presentation of your Individual Research Project
(IRP). The general knowledge test
will cover: (i) Native crayfish species in Romania and Europe,
(ii) Invasive crayfish species in Romania and Europe,
(iii) Main threats to
native crayfish globally. I recommend preparing thoroughly for
these topics, a good starting point can be
here.
The
themes proposed for this year’s competition are:
(i)
Crayfish evolution in the
context of spatial ecology
(multiple topics available) — scholarship position
(ii) Biodiversity informatics and
data-driven conservation
(multiple topics available)
(iii)
Eco-behavioural processes and
adaptations in crayfish (multiple topics
available)
Once your doctoral studies begin, your work will focus on the agreed
IRP, the hypotheses to be tested, and the production of scientific
papers. I am open to remotesupervision
(within the regulations of the Doctoral School), but you will need
an exceptionally strong project to convince me that you can achieve
your objectives.
All theses I supervise will be
written in English and published in full (with possible restrictions
only for appendices containing sensitive data) on both the
ProQuest Digital Collection and the
dedicated page of the Romanian
Ministry of Education and Research.
I
recommend the cumulative (paper-based) format—essentially a
compilation of the articles we publish together. One important
detail: a manuscript takes, on average, about a year from submission
to a journal to its final decision. You can learn more about the
doctoral process in
tutorial.
The conclusion is simple: there is no time to waste.
