Build Your Profile as a Researcher

Biswadeep Dhar recently earned a Ph.D. in health disparities and health promotion at the University of Florida. (Photograph courtesy Biswadeep Dhar)

For students who enroll in a Ph.D. program at a U.S. university, choosing a research topic for a dissertation need not be a daunting task. University departments have many resources to help students identify unexplored research topics that they might be passionate about.

“We don’t expect students to choose a topic on day one,” says Kaushik Dutta, associate dean of undergraduate studies and international relations, and the interim director of the School of Information Systems and Management at the University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business. Students usually go through a series of classes and seminars that allow them to explore their interests and choose a topic that fits their research goals.

Makings of a doctoral degree

Doctoral studies typically involve two years of classes, followed by two to six years of research and end with a detailed paper on the findings, known as a dissertation.

In the first two years, explains Dutta, doctoral students attend classes, do a small research project in each class and publish some of their results at specialized academic conferences. “They work with multiple faculty members, often outside their immediate field,” he says. “We work with them daily in classes and seminars. We have coffee together, maybe they call you in the middle of the night [to discuss an urgent new idea]. Once they’ve done [all] that, they find out what their passion is.”

Both scientific knowledge and the number of Ph.D. degrees awarded have grown sharply over the past half century. As a result, say experts, it is important for students to attend conferences, interact with other researchers in their field and read research papers to get ideas for good topics and make sure they come up with a subject that has not yet been fully explored.

Kaushik Dutta says students usually go through a series of classes and seminars that help them choose a topic for their research. (Photograph courtesy Kaushik Dutta)

The ups and downs

Biswadeep Dhar, a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, recently earned a Ph.D. in health disparities and health promotion at the University of Florida. He says that while choosing a research topic, it is important to know and understand your interests through questions like do you prefer fieldwork, lab work or computational work? “I was pretty sure I was not interested in more lab work, but I was very interested in population work,” he says. Population work may include surveying groups of people and conducting in-depth interviews and focus groups to understand why people make the choices they do.

After an exhaustive literature search, he chose to work on how modernization changes diets and lifestyles, which could lead to obesity, heart attacks and other noncommunicable diseases around the world. However, his Ph.D. adviser told Dhar the topic was too broad and that the “research could take a lifetime.”

So, Dhar narrowed it down to researching how more “modern” consumption and lifestyle patterns are leading to a rise in obesity and noncommunicable diseases in India. His adviser approved this proposal and Dhar went on to do the research, write a dissertation and successfully defend it before a panel of experts.

Finding an adviser

Experts say it is very important to find a Ph.D. adviser with whom the student has a good rapport. “You need to have a good match,” says Dhar. “Talk to [other] Ph.D. students they are advising.”

Dhar says he was fortunate to find an adviser, also called a supervisor, who was skillful and supportive in guiding his research and writing. He says if students need to, they should change their Ph.D. adviser sooner rather than later. And this is where university resources are useful. The school’s graduate coordinator handles such changes so it doesn’t affect the student or the professor.

“Getting a supportive supervisor,” says Dhar, “is way more important than getting a famous supervisor, or one who is a Nobel laureate.”

Burton Bollag is a freelance journalist living in Washington, D.C.

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