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How to be a Balanced, Effective, and Joyful Scholar

Monday, March 18, 2024

Learning how to do graduate-level research is hard.  Life is hard.  Thankfully, we don’t have to navigate the challenges of being a scholar on our own.  There is a vast body of research and learned wisdom from our predecessors that we can apply to our lives in graduate school and beyond.  In this talk, I will share the ten key lessons I have learned from personal experience, mentors, and the research literature for how to be a balanced, effective, and joyful scholar.  It is my hope that these lessons may be similarly helpful to the audience as they continue their journey of personal and professional development. 

headshot of jonathan boreyko

Dr. Jonathan Boreyko

Associate Professor

Mechanical Engineering

Jonathan Boreyko is an Associate Professor and John R. Jones III Fellow at Virginia Tech in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.  His research lies at the intersection of fluid mechanics, phase-change heat transfer, and materials science and has been covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and NPR.  He has published over 75 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters which have been cited over 5,000 times.  In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and five children, playing classical piano, and adventuring in the outdoors.  He has made many mistakes during his research career that were instrumental to his formulation of the ten lessons that he will share.  He plans on making (and hopefully learning from) many more mistakes in the future.