Life After the PhD: Three Roads Forward

On March 18, the Barcelona Graduate School of Math (BGSMath) held its first session on career paths following a PhD in mathematics. The activity, organised as a new initiative within the BGSMath’s training program for early-stage researchers, responded to a need that doctoral programs in mathematics rarely address directly: the transition from thesis to professional life, and the range of directions that transition can take.

The session brought together 46 participants, including PhD students, master’s students, and postdoctoral researchers from nine institutions: the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Universitat de Barcelona, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica, the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, the CSIC, IDIBAFS, the Université Paris Dauphine, and the University of São Paulo.

Three speakers presented their own professional trajectories and took questions from the audience. Carlos D’Andrea, professor at the UB and affiliated researcher at the CRM, spoke about building a career in academic research: what it requires, how it develops, and what doctoral students should know before they find themselves in the middle of it. Patrick Morris, from the UPC, shared his experience as a postdoctoral researcher, a stage that comes with its own particular uncertainties. Anna Tamarit Sariol, currently at the data visualisation studio Bestiario, described how her doctoral training in mathematics shaped her work outside the university system.

The format was deliberately open. Rather than offering a roadmap, the session allowed participants to hear accounts of different paths and to ask questions that don’t always find space in standard academic settings. For researchers at an early stage of their careers, that kind of direct conversation can be difficult to find elsewhere.

With this first edition, the BGSMath signals its intention to support young researchers not only in their research training but in their broader professional development.