It has been two years since I started my PhD and one thing that fascinated me has been how other people came up with their research topic. I had even started thinking that it would be a great subject to look into once I submitted my thesis – hopefully a year from now. Of course, that meant it was pretty much on hold, which was frustrating. Indeed, I even had a rough idea as to how I was going to collect research – probably starting off with interviews of PhD students at whatever university I would be based at. Of course, I would have to somehow convince others that knowing how PhD students come up with research topics was worthwhile or, in the current parlance, had impact. (more…)