• Question: What is a PhD?

    Asked by #Monkanaut Twin to Julia on 7 Dec 2015. This question was also asked by Zaphod_Beeblebrox.
    • Photo: Julia Attias

      Julia Attias answered on 7 Dec 2015:

      Hi @827nch28,

      A PhD stands for a Doctorate in Philosophy. Basically it is a research degree; you carry out a number of research studies over 3 years. You plan the studies, carry them out in the laboratory with lots of different equipment measuring different things, then you take a look at all the data you have collected, analyse it by means of comparing averages, or looking at trends, and then write down why you think you may have found what you found. After you have completed a series of those, you write everything you have done up into a large book-like thing called a Thesis. Passing it and getting a PhD means that you can put Dr before your name, and means that you are a “trusted” researcher/scientist… People normally do PhD’s in something they are particularly interested in so that when they finish, they are one of the few people that do what they do, so they become an expert in that field.

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