My first publication:
Article title: Merging electricity and environment politics of Hong Kong: identifying the barriers from the ways that sustainability is defined
Journal title: Energy Policy
DOI link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2008.01.006
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Preparing for my PhD (1)
Good news, I have another big name to be my co-supervisor. Dr Sp_ash directly talked to him - Prof J. Dry_zek in ANU, one of the top environmental political scientists and got his agreement several days after we met.
Now I am thinking about my PhD project. I have a plan but it seems to be too big for a PhD project. I raise my question about resource contraints and feasibility in an email to Dr Sp_ash. He suggests me to start with searching for a problem (or an issue) that is interesting and important, then methodology and techniques, and then availability of resource and logistics. He is right, it is far more important to look at the problem/issue first because it determines the nature of the research, which in turn points to what approach you should and can use. Any research has to be contrained by resources available but you should not let it determine your research questions.
Now I am thinking about my PhD project. I have a plan but it seems to be too big for a PhD project. I raise my question about resource contraints and feasibility in an email to Dr Sp_ash. He suggests me to start with searching for a problem (or an issue) that is interesting and important, then methodology and techniques, and then availability of resource and logistics. He is right, it is far more important to look at the problem/issue first because it determines the nature of the research, which in turn points to what approach you should and can use. Any research has to be contrained by resources available but you should not let it determine your research questions.
Friday, February 8, 2008
My trip to Australia
These three days I am in Canberra, Australia for visiting CSIRO, where I may have a chance to do PhD with a renowned professor, Dr Sp-ash.
On the first day I met him for the first time. We had dinner (or tea?) in a pub and got a long chat. We talked about some academic stuffs, what kind of project I can/want to do, and a little on the procedure. He is friendly, knows a lot about this field and is insightful. I really enjoy talking with him. After this he drove me around to have a quick look on Canberra.
On the next day we went to the CSIRO office where I may work later. I chatted with his current PhD student about the living here. Then, he took me, with his Post-doctoral fellow, to a restaurant to have a dinner. Other than meat and dissert we had beer, wine and coffee after finishing all. The dissert was pretty good! (it is something like French燉蛋). We talked a lots of issues, from democracy of different countries to local culture....but in most cases I could only listen because sometimes I found difficulties to understand what they are talking about, I could just say 'yea', 'oh'. My speaking is just ok, at least they could understand although I often got some grammatical mistakes.
On the third day I first went back to the office and talked to the personnel officer about the visa issues. It sounds uneasy to get a PR until I graduate. Then I had a practice for my presentation to get myself familiar with the situation. At about 11am the Post-doc took me to the new Parliament building. I looked around and knew more about the political history of Australia. I then presented in the afternoon with 7-8 audience. I talked about my previous MSc research project and the current one. There were some follow-up questions from the front but I didn't handle them very well. Overall I would say I can do it better. The final activity was chatting with the professor in a pub. We talked more on my plan for the PhD and some other academic stuffs. Again it's a nice chat. Talking to people with similar intellectual mind with me is always a good experience.
Canberra is quiet but it is good for doing research because you can make your mind clearer, though some people may find it boring. Goods are 2-3 times more expensive than HK. Australia accent is ...ok but a little different. I am just worring about the housing and transport here - I don't even have a driving licence.
Very likely that I will to come to Canberra for the 3-year PhD programme later this year. But I know it will definitely be a big challenge for me, not for the life here but the difficulty in doing the project. It's not hard for me to deal with theoretical issues, but it will be painful to implement survey like what I am doing now. And it will get more problems as I will probably do the survey in China and Australia. Hopefully I can get some fundings to hire someone to do the time-consuming jobs. Another issue is that I have seperate with my GF for 3 years. It's hard, I don't know how my life will be.
On the first day I met him for the first time. We had dinner (or tea?) in a pub and got a long chat. We talked about some academic stuffs, what kind of project I can/want to do, and a little on the procedure. He is friendly, knows a lot about this field and is insightful. I really enjoy talking with him. After this he drove me around to have a quick look on Canberra.
On the next day we went to the CSIRO office where I may work later. I chatted with his current PhD student about the living here. Then, he took me, with his Post-doctoral fellow, to a restaurant to have a dinner. Other than meat and dissert we had beer, wine and coffee after finishing all. The dissert was pretty good! (it is something like French燉蛋). We talked a lots of issues, from democracy of different countries to local culture....but in most cases I could only listen because sometimes I found difficulties to understand what they are talking about, I could just say 'yea', 'oh'. My speaking is just ok, at least they could understand although I often got some grammatical mistakes.
On the third day I first went back to the office and talked to the personnel officer about the visa issues. It sounds uneasy to get a PR until I graduate. Then I had a practice for my presentation to get myself familiar with the situation. At about 11am the Post-doc took me to the new Parliament building. I looked around and knew more about the political history of Australia. I then presented in the afternoon with 7-8 audience. I talked about my previous MSc research project and the current one. There were some follow-up questions from the front but I didn't handle them very well. Overall I would say I can do it better. The final activity was chatting with the professor in a pub. We talked more on my plan for the PhD and some other academic stuffs. Again it's a nice chat. Talking to people with similar intellectual mind with me is always a good experience.
Canberra is quiet but it is good for doing research because you can make your mind clearer, though some people may find it boring. Goods are 2-3 times more expensive than HK. Australia accent is ...ok but a little different. I am just worring about the housing and transport here - I don't even have a driving licence.
Very likely that I will to come to Canberra for the 3-year PhD programme later this year. But I know it will definitely be a big challenge for me, not for the life here but the difficulty in doing the project. It's not hard for me to deal with theoretical issues, but it will be painful to implement survey like what I am doing now. And it will get more problems as I will probably do the survey in China and Australia. Hopefully I can get some fundings to hire someone to do the time-consuming jobs. Another issue is that I have seperate with my GF for 3 years. It's hard, I don't know how my life will be.
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