https://share.transistor.fm/s/c774864a
Tag: PhD journey
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Jag har fått ett pris! / I have received an award!
(For English, scroll down)
Idag fick jag ett brev från Parkinsonfonden: Jag har tilldelats Elsa och Inge Anderssons pris 2023 för bästa doktorsavhandling inom parkinsonområdet. Priset är på 100 000 kr, varav 25 000 är ett personligt stipendium och resterande del ska gå till min fortsatta forskning inom området.
Jag är glad och väldigt stolt över denna ära! Jag ser utmärkelsen som en signal om att jag är på rätt väg och att jag har ett ansvar att se till att min forskning ska komma till verklig nytta. Detta ansvar tar jag på allra största allvar! Tack Parkinsonfonden!
In English:
Today I received a letter from the Swedish Parkinson Foundation: I have been awarded the Elsa and Inge Andersson Prize 2023 for the best doctoral thesis in the field of Parkinson. The prize is 100,000 SEK, of which 25,000 is a personal scholarship and the remaining part will go to my continued research in the field.
I am happy and very proud of this honor! I see the award as a signal that I am on the right track and I have a responsibility to ensure that my research results in real benefit. I take this responsibility very seriously!
A big thank you to the Swedish Parkinson Foundation!
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How I became a researcher in personal science
I was recently asked a question that I hadn’t been asked before:
How to become a researcher in personal science?
Can you describe your process
from idea to completed doctor’s degree
in personal science?I replied by making a list of some of the blog posts that I have written during my journey. I started in early 2010 and I got my PhD degree in March 2022. In those 12 years I have learnt a lot, and many of my learnings were things I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Below are the 20 blog posts I have chosen to represent that journey.
Enjoy and let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Link number 1, from February of 2010:
Link number 2, from December 2010:
Link number 3, from April 2011:
Link number 4, from April 2011:
Link number 5, from September 2012:
Link number 6, from October 2012:
First time I wrote about my image with 8 765 blue dots and 1 red:
Link number 7, from October 2013:
Link number 8, from May 2014:
Link number 9, from October 2014:
Link number 10, from October 2015:
Link number 11, from January 2016:
Link number 12, from March 2016:
Link number 13, from August 2016:
Link number 14, from August 2017:
Link number 15, from September 2018:
Link number 16, from January 2019:
Link number 17, from July 2019:
Link number 18, from July 2020:
Link number 19, from November 2020:
Link number 20, from March 2022:
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On this day 10 years ago…
On this day 10 years ago, March 28th 2012, I was registered as a PhD student at Karolinska Institutet. My research plan, which was going to guide my work over the following years, was titled “Personal observations as a tool for improvements in chronic disease“. Reading through that plan today, on the 10 year anniversary, I am genuinely surprised at how close to that plan I have stayed over all this time (see excerpts below).
Background section from my original research plan from March 2012 
Overall purpose from my original research plan from March 2012 Today I am also thinking back to last Friday, March 25th 2022, when I successfully defended my PhD thesis at Radboud Universiteit in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. My thesis is titled “Personal science in Parkinson’s disease: a patient-led research study“, and it can be downloaded here: My PhD thesis is now available! The defence ceremony was live-streamed and I will post a recording of it soon.
Last Friday gave me memories for life and I am still processing everything that happened. I am eternally grateful to all the amazing people that have been part of my PhD journey during this decade and a very special thank you goes to my wonderful supervisors: Bas Bloem, Maria Hägglund, and Martijn de Groot! And to Eli Pollard, who captured the event below as a Live Photo (which I was able to turn into a video). Eli, Per is forever envious of you for taking the best photo of that day! 🙂
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Personal science day 25 March 2022
PhD thesis defenceI will defend my thesis on Friday 25 March 2022 at 10:30 am CET at the aula of the Radboud University, Nijmegen. Members of the Doctoral Examination Board are: Jan Kremer, Effy Vayena, Tamar Sharon, Marina Noordegraaf, Sabine Oertelt and Teus van Laar. You can follow the livestream << online here >>.You can download my thesis << here >>.Personal science symposium
Later the same day, 3-5 pm CET, there will be an online symposium dedicated to the emerging field of personal knowledge creation. Speakers will include Bas Bloem, Jakob Eg Larsen, Thomas Blomseth Christiansen, Gary Wolf, and myself. The program will be a mix of keynotes, show&tells, Q&A, and a very special announcement… You do not want to miss it! << Sign up here >>What is personal science?
Quoting the Wikipedia entry on the topic: personal science is “using science to solve your own problems“. In my PhD thesis, I define it as “the practice of exploring personally consequential questions by conducting self-directed N-of-1 studies using a structured empirical approach“. This is very much an emerging field and I am sure that the definition will be developed further as we keep working. More importantly, I am really looking forward to seeing the practice of personal science being developed further including concrete examples of how people use it! -
My PhD thesis is now available!
A few weeks into the new year and I am happy to announce that my PhD thesis is now available!
Below you can find links for downloading, some tips on how to read the thesis, and information about the thesis defence ceremony.
Download PhD thesis here:
Download thesis propositions here:
Tips for reading the thesisIf you’re not used to reading a PhD thesis, it can appear a bit overwhelming. Also, different countries and different universities often have slightly different regulations and recommendations for how a thesis should be structured. For my thesis, I would recommend the following:
- Start with the thesis propositions (separate file for downloading above). It’s a list of, in my case, 7 main insights from my work with a wider perspective at the end.
- Then read the prologue and Chapter 1. It will give you an overview of what I see as the starting points of the research presented in the thesis.
- Next, I would suggest that you skip to Chapter 8, which is a summary of Chapters 2-7. The summary is available in English, Dutch, and Swedish (and I did not write the Dutch translation myself… Thank you Mariëtte and Martijn!). If something in Chapter 8 really sparks your interest, you can go back to the corresponding chapter and read in more detail.
- The final chapter is the most interesting one (at least I think so). That is where I look at all the work and research I have done put together and give my perspectives on what I think it means for the research field and practices. This is presented in the General discussion in Chapter 9. Later in Chapter 9, I also give my view on some Future directions and recommendations. And, unusual for a PhD thesis, I present recommendations for academics and clinicians, as well as for persons with PD.
- For the academically interested, feel free to dive into Chapters 2-7 in more detail!
Dissertation / Thesis defence
Friday 25th March 2022
Recording of the defence ceremony can be found here: My PhD thesis defence -
PhD trajectory update
I figured that an update on my PhD trajectory was in order so here goes:
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“But Sara…”
“But Sara, why would patients want to do research on themselves anyway? Isn’t it better if you all just give your data to a proper researcher?”
I think that those who know me will agree that I am not often lost for words. However, when the question above was posed to me, I can definitely say that I didn’t know what to say for, what at least felt like, a really long time.
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