I submitted my thesis on Monday!
The very catchy title is "Polarimetry of hot-Jupiter systems and radiative transfer models of planetary atmospheres". It covers a range of topics from deuterium on Uranus, to new polarimetric observations of exoplanet systems, to applying a very robust radiative transfer program called VSTAR to hot Jupiters. All of the topics tie into exoplanet characterisation and planet formation.
For any students who may have landed here and are about to start writing up, I can offer three practical tips:
- Do stretchy things. Maybe you don't have time to attend your yoga class but you can do a few moves or stretch near your desk. It sounds like nothing but makes a world of difference for me. I find it helps when observing too.
- I used this thesis template, and think it's the absolute tops. Highly recommended.
- Consider changing your environment. I was fortunate to have a desk to work at, but it wasn't always the best environment. Libraries (on your campus, on other campuses, city libraries, etc.; my favourite in Sydney is the State Library of New South Wales) and coffee houses (depending on the culture; in Sydney my favourite was Berkelouw Books) are both places that worked for me.
I'm happy to have some "free-time" back to finish the papers based on the thesis, work with collaborators, and get a couple of blogs posted on here.