Who Are You?

No, this isn’t an existential post following yesterday’s birthday post!

What title do you give yourself as a researcher? How do you describe what you do?

When I was doing my PhD, to people outside my immediate circle I would say I was a PhD student. To other people at my university I might say I was a mathematician; perhaps a pure mathematician if I felt they would understand the distinction.

In my department I would say I was a knot theorist. If it was someone fancy I would say I was a low-dimensional topologist. If it was someone knowledgeable I would say I was interested in finding effective algorithms for calculating certain polynomials of particular classes of knotted objects.

Who you are and how you describe yourself might change from person to person.

How do you describe yourself to you? What labels do you use? Are they accurate? Are they kind?

And, whatever your work, whatever your stage of your PhD or however close your viva is, do you remember that you are more than your research? You are a researcher but that’s just one part of who you are and what you do.

Who are you?