Advice for PhD Supervisors

Question

My first PhD student is having his viva tomorrow. Hence, I began contemplating a bit about the whole process of supervising. One thing I realized is that while there seems to be plenty of advice for PhD students I cannot recall ever seeing advice for supervisors. So

What resources are available for PhD supervisors?
If you are experienced supervisor, then what would be your advice?

You may find something interesting in Handbook for PhD SUPERVISORS by LSE: http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/LSEServices/TLC/Publication%20files/Handbooks/Handbook-for-PhD-supervisors-2014-16-FINAL.pdf — Waldemar, Sep 14 '15 at 10:14
@JoelDavidHamkins Viva is a PhD examination in this context. — Yiftach Barnea, Sep 14 '15 at 10:27
"Viva" is a term I always associate with English universities. In C.P. Snow's introduction to A Mathematician's Apology, he recounts meeting Hardy for the first time when, learning that Snow had an interest in cricket (and interviewing him as potential cricket companion), he put Snow through a "moderately stiff viva", peppering him with various hypothetical questions such as what he would do as captain of this or that team. Anyway, looking it up just now, it's short for viva voce and it's a synonym for oral examination (which thesis defenses -- or is it defences here? :-) -- tend to be). — Todd Trimble, Sep 14 '15 at 11:50
For advising not specific to mathematics, maybe try http://academia.stackexchange.com — Gerald Edgar, Sep 14 '15 at 13:47
A small amount of advice may be found here: http://www.cs.indiana.edu/how.2b/how.2b.advice.html — Timothy Chow, Sep 14 '15 at 14:49
Magic phrase that fixes 90% of problems: "clearly communicated expectations". — Greg Martin, Sep 14 '15 at 20:22
@Greg: In mathematics, my short experience (as a grad student anyway) is that nothing labeled "clearly" is ever "clear". :-) — Asaf Karagila, Oct 30 '15 at 16:13
See this text by Anatole Katok: http://www.personal.psu.edu/axk29/reflections.html — Jairo Bochi, Jan 05 '16 at 19:46

score 33 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:58

There is a previous MO thread about this: Resources for mathematics advising.

Here is a list of resources:

Section 2B of Indiana University's How to be a Good Grad Student is Advice for Advisors.
The Assistant Professor's Guide to the Galaxy: section 7 has to do with advising. This section focuses more on what grad students can do for you, but does have one concrete suggestion:

In my personal work with students, I set goals for them and insist that they document their progress with draft manuscripts. My work with them on these drafts often leads to conference papers. My students always publish before they finish, sometimes jointly with me and sometimes on their own, depending on the degree of my own involvement.

Going off my own experience: there is a lot of value to an early publication before starting the thesis process. I think it builds confidence and probably also helps when the student hits the job market.

Advice to a young mathematician by Atiyah, Bollobas, Connes, McDuff and Sarnak.
Ravi Vakil's website has information for potential students but you can read from it his advising style: http://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/potentialstudents.html
There's also a nice (though a bit outdated) report from the National Academic Press in 1997 called Advisor, Teacher, Role Model, Friend. That definitely sums up the best advisors I know, so perhaps there is some timeless information in there.
Steve Krantz's Mathematician's Survival Guide has a lot of information, though little about advising as I recall.

Hope that helps!

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 10 '18 at 00:16

10

A new blog post came out yesterday from the AMS, with some nice advice:

https://blogs.ams.org/matheducation/2018/01/08/advice-for-new-doctoral-advisors/

answered Jan 10 '18 at 00:16

David White

29,779

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 14 '15 at 19:30

3

I think the below book is very good for both students and their supervisors. I hope it can be helpful.

"HOW TO GET A PhD, A handbook for students and their supervisors-FIFTH EDITION", by ESTELLE M. PHILLIPS and DEREK S. PUGH.

answered Sep 14 '15 at 19:30

Shahrooz

4,746

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 30 '15 at 15:56

-1

Of course a supervisor has to work hard in helping his student to study,to learn and to get good results. I think that is his job. But, in my opinion , it is not a good thing to sign any publication as joint work with his student (at least before his viva !). This does not help to evaluate the work done by the student himself, and it does not help much more in his forthcoming career. A common publication by a supervisor and his student (before getting PhD) is not, in general, beneficial to the student. But the student must be helped to publish as soon as possible (in his own name ). I think so.

answered Oct 30 '15 at 15:56

Al-Amrani

1,427

1

I agree with the first part of the first part of this part, as far as evaluation in France in fundamental math is concerned. If the main PhD works of a student are cosigned with the advisor, it is widely interpreted as the sign that the student was helped by the advisor more than one would have wished. I'm aware of different traditions in other countries, although I don't approve it. The goal of a PhD IMHO is to transform a student with a substantial mathematical luggage into an independent researcher and an expert in his/her field. (...) – YCor Jan 10 '18 at 00:55
3

(...) This is also why I disapprove the last claim "the student must be helped to publish as soon as possible": the benefit of a thesis is that for at least 1 or 2 years publishing is not a priority and enhance quality and deepness of research can be performed, rather that stampede to quick publication or assisted publication. – YCor Jan 10 '18 at 00:57
@YCor: I do not disagree with your comment in principle, but I think it ignores the realities of the academic job market. If the student is to have a chance, he/she has better odds by starting publishing even before beginning work on a PhD. – Michael Renardy Jan 12 '24 at 03:52

Advice for PhD Supervisors

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