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News releases about doctoral theses

Doctoral theses of major public interest may be relevant for press releases or news articles on ki.se. On this page, you will find information from the Communications and Public Relations Office on how to go about disseminating your thesis via, for example, KI's news site or by notifying journalists.

Vacation period

Please note that the KI Comms Office will have reduced staffing between Midsummer and the end of August. Consequently, we will have to decline many requests to publish news articles and press releases during the summer. 

Unfortunately, it is not possible to issue news releases about all doctoral theses from KI or share information about them through KI’s central social media accounts. However, we do our best to give as many doctoral students as possible a chance to communicate broadly about their research in connection with their thesis defence.

An alternative to the services of the Communications Office is to consult the web editor at your department. In addition to posting a note about your public defence in the KI Calendar, the department web editor may be able to publish a short news article about your thesis on ki.se. Contact the web editor to ask about the routines at your department.

Furthermore, it is important to know that all doctoral theses at KI should include a lay summary in English. To help with this, the University Library offers courses for doctoral students in popular science writing.

Getting in touch

Contact the Communications Office as soon as your thesis has been “nailed” and no later than a couple of weeks before the public defence. Send an email to both the press office [email protected] and our popular science magazine, Medicinsk Vetenskap, [email protected] . 

The email should include the following:

• The title of your thesis, date of public defence and a link to the summarizing chapter (“kappa”) in the University Library’s Open Archive.

• A few sentences describing the main results of your thesis and why they are of interest to the public or a specific target group outside the research community. Feel free to include the popular science summary from your thesis in the email.

• Your name, department at KI, other important affiliations (e.g. hospital or university), e-mail address and mobile phone number.

• If you have a request for a special geographical distribution area in Sweden or internationally.

• Information about scientific illustrations or other images to illustrate your research (please attach).

• Cc to your main supervisor to let us know he or she is informed and approves media outreach.

How we select which theses to promote

News judgment is not an exact science, and there are lots of factors that influence which theses get promoted at any given time. Some research areas that lack high-impact journals may be overlooked in the selection process for news releases on single scientific articles. In these cases, a four-year thesis project including several scientific articles may be a suitable alternative.

Selection keys used in our assessment:

• The thesis has been “nailed” and can be found in the library’s open archive. The date for the public defence is set, with at least a few weeks to go.

• The thesis addresses a topic that is of interest to a wider audience or fits in thematically with another communication effort that we are currently working on.

• The various articles in the thesis hold together thematically, so that it is possible to write about the entire doctoral thesis and not just focus on a single article.

• To avoid repetion, the articles underpinning the thesis should not have been covered in previous news releases. In these instances, there must be a new angle that is supported by the entire thesis. 

• There are high quality and educational illustrations available to further the understanding of the research.

Theses in collaboration with other organisations

As a medical university, educating new scientists is one of KI's core activities and of major importance to the brand. Press releases about theses presented at KI by students who are employed elsewhere should therefore still be distributed primarily by KI's Communications Office. In these situations, we are generous about naming collaboration partners in the text, including hospitals, private enterprises, public authorities or other universities. A collaboration partner may also send news tips to a few selected journalists, providing that information about KI is included. Collaboration partners may, of course, also publish news stories about the thesis on their own websites.

Advice to department web editors

If the Communications Office has turned down a request to issue a press release or news tip about a thesis, it is possible for the department to publish a news article on ki.se. To avoid duplicated articles, please contact our central news editor on [email protected] (or the science communicator who has been in contact with your doctoral student) to coordinate before you start. Here are some general advise on writing and publishing news articles on doctoral theses:

• Ask the doctoral student to summarize the findings in a way that can be understood by a non-scientific audience. Feel free to use the brief template with questions provided by the Communications Office. If you're struggling to understand the information provided, don't hestitate to ask the researcher to explain in a simpler language. If you don't understand it, chances are most readers won't either!
• Remember to adapt the news article so that it also fits in contexts beyond your own department's website. KI's news site is open to everyone, and news items are filtered onto other pages where readers may be unfamiliar with the original purpose of the news story.
• Also remember to distinguish the news article from the calendar event in terms of presentation and content. Both are published on the website news.ki.se in Drupal, but news articles have longer lifespans and turn up in other news feeds than calendar events. Feel free to link together the different pages.
• An easy way to inform about new research results is to write the news article as a Q&A. This should be preceded by a short introduction and headline.
• Avoid writing he full title of the thesis in the headline and preface of the news article. Instead, try to describe the results of the thesis in an easy-to-understand and attention-grabbing way.
• The thesis headline should be added at the bottom of the news article, with a link to the thesis “kappa” in KIB's Open Archive. Please use a linked h2 subheading with the words “Doctoral thesis” above the thesis headline.

Contact 

The press office.

Phone: +46 (0)8-524 860 77 | Email:  [email protected]  

Opening hours:  The press office is staffed 09:00-17:00 CET on weekdays. The press office is closed during major holidays, such as Christmas, Easter and Midsummer, and opening hour may be limited during the Swedish summer vacation period. 

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How to prepare an excellent thesis defense

What is a thesis defense?

How long is a thesis defense, what happens at a thesis defense, your presentation, questions from the committee, 6 tips to help you prepare for your thesis defense, 1. anticipate questions and prepare for them, 2. dress for success, 3. ask for help, as needed, 4. have a backup plan, 5. prepare for the possibility that you might not know an answer, 6. de-stress before, during, and after, frequently asked questions about preparing an excellent thesis defense, related articles.

If you're about to complete, or have ever completed a graduate degree, you have most likely come across the term "thesis defense." In many countries, to finish a graduate degree, you have to write a thesis .

A thesis is a large paper, or multi-chapter work, based on a topic relating to your field of study.

Once you hand in your thesis, you will be assigned a date to defend your work. Your thesis defense meeting usually consists of you and a committee of two or more professors working in your program. It may also include other people, like professionals from other colleges or those who are working in your field.

During your thesis defense, you will be asked questions about your work. The main purpose of your thesis defense is for the committee to make sure that you actually understand your field and focus area.

The questions are usually open-ended and require the student to think critically about their work. By the time of your thesis defense, your paper has already been evaluated. The questions asked are not designed so that you actually have to aggressively "defend" your work; often, your thesis defense is more of a formality required so that you can get your degree.

• Check with your department about requirements and timing.
• Re-read your thesis.
• Anticipate questions and prepare for them.
• Create a back-up plan to deal with technology hiccups.
• Plan de-stressing activities both before, and after, your defense.

How long your oral thesis defense is depends largely on the institution and requirements of your degree. It is best to consult your department or institution about this. In general, a thesis defense may take only 20 minutes, but it may also take two hours or more. The length also depends on how much time is allocated to the presentation and questioning part.

Tip: Check with your department or institution as soon as possible to determine the approved length for a thesis defense.

First of all, be aware that a thesis defense varies from country to country. This is just a general overview, but a thesis defense can take many different formats. Some are closed, others are public defenses. Some take place with two committee members, some with more examiners.

The same goes for the length of your thesis defense, as mentioned above. The most important first step for you is to clarify with your department what the structure of your thesis defense will look like. In general, your thesis defense will include:

• your presentation of around 20-30 minutes
• questions from the committee
• questions from the audience (if the defense is public and the department allows it)

You might have to give a presentation, often with Powerpoint, Google slides, or Keynote slides. Make sure to prepare an appropriate amount of slides. A general rule is to use about 10 slides for a 20-minute presentation.

But that also depends on your specific topic and the way you present. The good news is that there will be plenty of time ahead of your thesis defense to prepare your slides and practice your presentation alone and in front of friends or family.

Tip: Practice delivering your thesis presentation in front of family, friends, or colleagues.

You can prepare your slides by using information from your thesis' first chapter (the overview of your thesis) as a framework or outline. Substantive information in your thesis should correspond with your slides.

Make sure your slides are of good quality— both in terms of the integrity of the information and the appearance. If you need more help with how to prepare your presentation slides, both the ASQ Higher Education Brief and James Hayton have good guidelines on the topic.

The committee will ask questions about your work after you finish your presentation. The questions will most likely be about the core content of your thesis, such as what you learned from the study you conducted. They may also ask you to summarize certain findings and to discuss how your work will contribute to the existing body of knowledge.

Tip: Read your entire thesis in preparation of the questions, so you have a refreshed perspective on your work.

While you are preparing, you can create a list of possible questions and try to answer them. You can foresee many of the questions you will get by simply spending some time rereading your thesis.

Here are a few tips on how to prepare for your thesis defense:

You can absolutely prepare for most of the questions you will be asked. Read through your thesis and while you're reading it, create a list of possible questions. In addition, since you will know who will be on the committee, look at the academic expertise of the committee members. In what areas would they most likely be focused?

If possible, sit at other thesis defenses with these committee members to get a feel for how they ask and what they ask. As a graduate student, you should generally be adept at anticipating test questions, so use this advantage to gather as much information as possible before your thesis defense meeting.

Your thesis defense is a formal event, often the entire department or university is invited to participate. It signals a critical rite of passage for graduate students and faculty who have supported them throughout a long and challenging process.

While most universities don't have specific rules on how to dress for that event, do regard it with dignity and respect. This one might be a no-brainer, but know that you should dress as if you were on a job interview or delivering a paper at a conference.

It might help you deal with your stress before your thesis defense to entrust someone with the smaller but important responsibilities of your defense well ahead of schedule. This trusted person could be responsible for:

• preparing the room of the day of defense
• setting up equipment for the presentation
• preparing and distributing handouts

Technology is unpredictable. Life is too. There are no guarantees that your Powerpoint presentation will work at all or look the way it is supposed to on the big screen. We've all been there. Make sure to have a plan B for these situations. Handouts can help when technology fails, and an additional clean shirt can save the day if you have a spill.

One of the scariest aspects of the defense is the possibility of being asked a question you can't answer. While you can prepare for some questions, you can never know exactly what the committee will ask.

There will always be gaps in your knowledge. But your thesis defense is not about being perfect and knowing everything, it's about how you deal with challenging situations. You are not expected to know everything.

James Hayton writes on his blog that examiners will sometimes even ask questions they don't know the answer to, out of curiosity, or because they want to see how you think. While it is ok sometimes to just say "I don't know", he advises to try something like "I don't know, but I would think [...] because of x and y, but you would need to do [...] in order to find out.” This shows that you have the ability to think as an academic.

You will be nervous. But your examiners will expect you to be nervous. Being well prepared can help minimize your stress, but do know that your examiners have seen this many times before and are willing to help, by repeating questions, for example. Dora Farkas at finishyourthesis.com notes that it’s a myth that thesis committees are out to get you.

Two common symptoms of being nervous are talking really fast and nervous laughs. Try to slow yourself down and take a deep breath. Remember what feels like hours to you are just a few seconds in real life.

• Try meditational breathing right before your defense.
• Get plenty of exercise and sleep in the weeks prior to your defense.
• Have your clothes or other items you need ready to go the night before.
• During your defense, allow yourself to process each question before answering.
• Go to dinner with friends and family, or to a fun activity like mini-golf, after your defense.

Allow yourself to process each question, respond to it, and stop talking once you have responded. While a smile can often help dissolve a difficult situation, remember that nervous laughs can be irritating for your audience.

We all make mistakes and your thesis defense will not be perfect. However, careful preparation, mindfulness, and confidence can help you feel less stressful both before, and during, your defense.

Finally, consider planning something fun that you can look forward to after your defense.

It is completely normal to be nervous. Being well prepared can help minimize your stress, but do know that your examiners have seen this many times before and are willing to help, by repeating questions for example if needed. Slow yourself down, and take a deep breath.

Your thesis defense is not about being perfect and knowing everything, it's about how you deal with challenging situations. James Hayton writes on his blog that it is ok sometimes to just say "I don't know", but he advises to try something like "I don't know, but I would think [...] because of x and y, you would need to do [...] in order to find out".

Your Powerpoint presentation can get stuck or not look the way it is supposed to do on the big screen. It can happen and your supervisors know it. In general, handouts can always save the day when technology fails.

• Dress for success.
• Ask for help setting up.
• Have a backup plan (in case technology fails you).
• Deal with your nerves.

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Thesis Defense by Nafiz Rahaman

In the News

Biostatistics Graduate Program

Jamie gudeon joseph dissertation defense – june 20.

Posted by duthip1 on Thursday, June 13, 2024 in News .

PhD candidate Jamie Gudeon Joseph will defend her dissertation on Thursday, June 20, at 11 a.m. Central Time. Her advisor is Andrew Spieker . All are invited and encouraged to attend.

The defense will be held in the department’s large conference room on the 11th floor (suite 1100, room 11105) at 2525 West End Avenue. It will also be streamed virtually on Zoom; for virtual access, contact the department at biostatistics[at]vumc[dot]org.

Causal Approaches to Quantifying the Role of Engagement in Studies of Mobile Health Interventions

Recent technological advancement has resulted in the proliferation of interactive text message-based interventions to support medication adherence in patients managing chronic illnesses. Several recent clinical trials have identified these interventions as a strategy to improve outcomes, particularly when used in combination with other interventions. In such settings, patient engagement with these text messages may drive the a portion of the intervention’s effects on key outcomes. Such trials typically include a control arm with no opportunity to engage with text messages. Nevertheless, the relationship between engagement and outcomes may be subject to unmeasured confounding. Quantifying treatment effects using engagement as a post-randomization variable is therefore challenging. In this dissertation, we develop approaches to handle these challenges and provide researchers with principled tools to understand the role of engagement with mobile health interventions. Our first focus involves methods to estimate and bound functional local average treatment effects (i.e., an effect of treatment at theoretical levels of engagement under the intervention), when the exclusion restriction cannot reasonably be assumed. We investigate these methods cross-sectionally and longitudinally in regression-based framework, and derive closed-form sandwich variance estimators for key contrasts of interest. We further show that this method accommodates multiple pathways from treatment to outcome, and consider how operationalizing engagement over time can affect these approaches. Our next focus involves direct investigation of engagement as a mediator, suitable for the setting in which we believe key common causes of engagement and the outcome have been measured. The first fundamental goal of of this aim is to delineate (and interpret) the mediation effects that are applicable to studies of mobile health interventions under strong access monotonicity, and the second is to formalize the assumptions under which they can be identified. We propose using a parametric g-computation based approach to estimating key effects, and evaluate finite-sample properties through simulation studies. We illustrate the utility of our proposed methods through application to a recent clinical trial of patients with type 2 diabetes that showed significant overall effects on key psychosocial outcome measures.

Tags: causal inference , chronic illness , clinical trials , dissertation defense , mobile health interventions

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Noor Habib Dissertation Defense

On Monday, July 8th 10:00am ET, PhD candidate Noor Habib will defend her dissertation entitled

"Mapping Modernism: Translation and Travel in Twentieth Century Indo-Persian letters"

The defense will be held over Zoom , under the following link : https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/j/9302830626?omn=99836768620

430 Herter Hall  161 Presidents Drive Amherst, MA  01003-9312

(413) 545-5808

• iSchool Connect

Paul Hur's Dissertation Defense

Paul Hur will defend his dissertation, " Metacognitive Effects of Confusion During Learning: Continuous, Real-Time Self-Report Methods and Insights. " 

His doctoral committee includes Professor Michael Twidale (co-chair, co-director of research, member); Assistant Professor Nigel Bosch (co-chair, co-director of research, member); Associate Professor Chad Lane; and Assistant Professor Cynthia D'Angelo.

Confusion is a complex yet common student experience with cognitive, motivational, and emotional attributes that can be either beneficial or detrimental to the learning process, depending on how it is managed by the student. Current research methods for understanding student confusion conventionally administer time-based, interval confusion self-report survey prompts alone, or in conjunction with affect data such as automatically analyzing eye gaze, facial expressions, or behavioral log data. In this dissertation, via an in-depth 14-student ethnographic study and a large-scale 280-student online experiment, I evaluate novel, continuous, real-time confusion self-report methods designed to be used while engaged in computer-based learning tasks. I examine how these methods could address the shortcomings of existing confusion detection methods. Notably, continuous, real-time confusion self-report methods enable the capture of granular (i.e., high data collection frequency) and rich (i.e., detailed changes to confusion intensities) grounded student confusion data, which can provide representations of confusion’s dynamic nature. This dissertation presents findings on the usability of these tools, including the differences between the physical and digital formats, as well as the implications for research methods and supporting student metacognitive processes. Ultimately, this dissertation takes a step towards developing confusion measurement methods which can accurately capture and depict the uniqueness of how individual students experience confusion when encountering difficulties during learning.  

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