Timeline for What should be done when the theory behind a PhD thesis turns out to be wrong?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Dec 6, 2019 at 15:02 | comment | added | Christian Hennig | Personally as supervisor I had PhD students who wouldn't for the life of them admit that the idea that they have been investigating doesn't work that well. Sometimes it was my idea and they even thought they owe it to me to show that the idea is good, but occasionally it wasn't. Surely I am fine with a well written well founded and understood thesis with a (largely) negative result. Of course one needs to elaborate what the field can learn from this. But it can drive me to dispair that students just can't get themselves to admitting that something doesn't work well. | |
| Dec 6, 2019 at 14:59 | comment | added | Christian Hennig | @Dan Romik: In many fields/institutions/cultures the quality of the thesis is not measured by whether the investigated theory comes out positive. So the problem explained here will not result in not getting a PhD or having a very weak thesis (although the thesis of course can be weak for other reasons, so it's always good advice to worry and lose sleep;-). This however depends on field/institution/culture, so discussing this with the supervisor is mandatory. | |
| Dec 6, 2019 at 5:08 | history | edited | Allure | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Dec 6, 2019 at 3:12 | comment | added | cag51♦ | The supersymmetry part may be controversial :-) It's true that most SUSY models predicted sparticles that would have been discovered by now. But that just encourages more creative models (e.g., "stringy naturalness") | |
| Dec 6, 2019 at 3:10 | comment | added | Dan Romik | Really, the fact that you may not get a PhD (or may write an extremely weak thesis and be in a shitty position to move your academic career forward) is not something to lose sleep over? Can you clarify what you mean exactly? These vague metaphors about losing sleep and being in good company aren’t really answering the question. | |
| Dec 6, 2019 at 1:48 | history | answered | Allure | CC BY-SA 4.0 |