In this PhD café article, Karishma S Kaushik, IndiaBioscience, recounts her transformative experience at an American Society for Microbiology (ASM) conference during her PhD, highlighting mentorship, networking, and professional growth. She emphasises the conference's value beyond scientific input, offering tips for maximising benefits, including attending diverse sessions, and following up post the event.

Zill e Anam is a PhD student at the Special Centre for Molecular Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru University. In this next article in our PhD Cafe series, she discusses some of the speed-breakers in her journey, solutions that helped her, and what she learned from each episode.

Debdutta Paul is a PhD student at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. In this article, he writes about a few myths often believed by graduate students throughout India, which often prove detrimental to their scientific journeys. He also discusses a few good practices to follow in order to ensure an efficient, productive and healthy PhD journey.

In this next article in our PhD Cafe series, Pushp, a recent PhD graduate and science writer, discusses the importance of learning how to give effective scientific presentations as a graduate student and shares some tips and strategies from his personal experience during his PhD.