The Otago Post Issue 4

Postgraduate E-newsletter, Issue 4. March 2009

Thomas Alva Edison, the American inventor who developed the practical electric light bulb, the motion picture camera and the phonograph, once said, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration," to which he added, "I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident. They came by work."

So why did he carry on, what motivated him? While he was certainly a businessman, something other than success and making oodles of money was driving him — a passion to understand perhaps?

Postgraduate study is a bit like this. After the initial exhilaration of becoming a postgraduate student, ready to push back the frontiers, work at the cutting edge of your field and make new discoveries, the novelty can wear off when you appreciate that some hard and often tedious work is necessary. But, rest assured, the flame doesn't go out; it is still there to energize and inspire you. Intense curiosity enslaves you and, when you do understand something properly or construct a bulletproof argument, when it clicks, Zap! Pow! Boom! — it's the best feeling there is. All that work makes it happen and, like Edison, I wouldn't want it any other way. Hey, and some of us get to carry on doing research afterwards and be paid for it too.

Professor Vernon Squire
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic & International)

Latest News

	Minister's mandate expanded by postgraduate programme Auckland-based Presbyterian Minister Linda Hope has found the distance-taught Master of Ministry a huge bonus to her professional, personal and spiritual life.
	Supervising success: the secrets of successful postgraduate research and supervision There's more to thesis supervision than meets the eye, as those who have recently won plaudits for their supervisory roles confirm.
	Law PhD explores medical practitioners' duty to inform patients of alternative treatments A PhD student from Shandong Province in China is researching the duty of medical practitioners from both western and Chinese traditional medicine to inform patients about alternative medical treatment options.

In Brief

• Mentor programme provides postgraduate peer support
• August to celebrate postgraduate research
• Journeys of Discovery