Before winding down for the winter break it felt like a pretty busy and productive few months. From supervising new students and presenting conference papers, to grant applications, patent filings, and a trip to Japan – I managed to pack in rather a lot!
Here’s a quick round-up of what I’ve been up to, plus reflections on 2025 as a whole.
For previous monthly updates see here: Beyond the PhD Series.
Work
Student supervision
In October I began supervising five undergraduate final-year project students, working across topics in AI for health and the environment, including coral reef monitoring.
Two of the students are working on projects I proposed (the coral ones – which has been an interest of mine for a long time!). The other three students are led by a colleague for projects I’m co-supervising. Working with students is one of my favourite parts of my academic work.
In December one student submitted an abstract to an international conference, which is an impressive achievement at this stage. Over the past few years we’ve published work from 3 or 4 student projects, but this has historically always been after the students have finished their projects and left the university.
Over this period we also submitted the work of a previous undergraduate project student to a conference. Unfortunately, it was rejected but we did receive useful feedback and have since submitted a revised copy to another conference.
Grants
Over the past few months I’ve been a part of a few grant applications at Bristol:
- At a networking event I met a new collaborator and together we submitted a £10k grant application
- Followed by a £100k application with the same collaborator
Both were rejected. Disappointing – but we did receive useful feedback, which is often more valuable than a silent rejection and will feed into future applications. We met again just before Christmas and will certainly be making use of the content and feedback.
This is one of the first times at Bristol I’ve forged my own collaboration and worked independently of the research group I’m in: I’ve really enjoyed it and would like to do more of it.
At the larger end of the scale, I also submitted a £980k funding application for the spin-out company. Fingers crossed.
Research outputs and papers
We had some good successes in the last quarter:
- Enabling Fast Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inference from Satellites with GATES: a Graph-Neural-Network Atmospheric Transport Emulation System was accepted at a great journal, the final copy will be published online shortly.
- Counterfactual Explanations via Locally-guided Sequential Algorithmic Recourse. After a long wait for reviews, this paper got accepted at another great journal. We submitted this in late 2023 and it got published in November 2025!
- Uncertainty assessment in satellite-based greenhouse gas emissions estimates using emulated atmospheric transport. This is the work I’m first author for, and which I presented recently in Sheffield. This coming quarter I’ll be working on extending this work to become a journal article.
- Automated three-dimensional measurements of maximum pulmonary artery diameter and ratio with aorta on CT pulmonary angiogram are predictive of pulmonary hypertension in patients with low probability echocardiography. This is just an abstract of work with the spin-out company, presented by clinical colleagues recently at a national conference. A full journal article hopefully isn’t too far behind.
I also presented our greenhouse gas emissions work at the Royal Society, which was a real privilege.
The report from the Dagstuhl seminar I attended earlier in the year is now published and available online, though I’m not an author of it.
Spin-out progress
On the commercial side of things, we filed a patent at the spin-out (https://ingeniumai.com). It’s one of those major milestones that takes a lot of time, paperwork and careful wording but feels like a meaningful step forward once it’s done.
It was the first time I’ve been involved with filing a patent, so it was an interesting experience.
2025 work reflections
I continue to really enjoy my academic work and having a lot of freedom to work on various projects all of which I thoroughly enjoy. I’m now splitting my time between healthcare and environmental projects, and have started tailoring projects more to my personal interests, such as coral.
All in all 2025 was a pretty good year for research outputs (ie papers), and I’ve got a few unconventional outputs on the way which I’ll describe in due course.
I applied for my first lectureship, which was here at Bristol, and got firmly rejected for it. Let’s see if I go for any in 2026.
The spin-out is a lot of work but I feel fortunate to be in the position to explore the commercialisation of potentially life-saving technology.
The Savvy Scientist website
New posts
Only two new posts went live since the last Beyond the PhD post:
- PhD Profiles: Romana, PhD Graduate in Digital Health, University of Bristol
- Research Paper Author Order Explained
Both went live in October, just before I went on a three week holiday to Japan – more on that in the next section. Then in December I was unwell for a few weeks before Christmas. Am I making excuses? Yes! In 2025 as a whole 14 posts went live, which isn’t too bad, but I’m keen to increase the number going forward.
Website traffic
In 2025 there were 200k views by 154k active users. Here is the plot of weekly users over the year, compared to 2024 in the dotted line:
Overall the stats are a few percent lower than for 2024, I suspect ChatGPT and other AI tools may be having some impact on this, alongside of course me not posting too consistently.
2025 The Savvy Scientist reflections
I didn’t put as much time into the website as I’d have liked this past year. At times my interest has waned and at other times I’ve been busy with other things. I don’t feel bad about having a break every so often, but I know that there is a lot of untapped potential with the website.
Over Christmas I’ve been putting together a plan to try and ensure more consistent progress and exploration of some new ideas to grow the website.
I’ve recently been invited to give some paid talks for PhD students at various universities and institutions in the UK and US. This has been a nice experience, not least actually making a bit of money from something I’ve not really monetised since starting it around eight years ago. I’d like to do more of this type of thing in 2026.
Time Off
Japan: Exploring and reading
One of the standout parts of this quarter was a three-week trip to Japan, which was every bit as fun and interesting as I’d hoped.
We did quite a whistle stop tour of areas near the typical ‘golden route’ but tried to focus more on nature than the key tourist hot-spots.
Some of the many highlights included cycling the Shimanami Kaido and spotting all of the lemon themed products in the region, exploring Kamikochi and volcanically heated onsens, walking a portion of the Nakasendo trail, and discovering the delicious gohei mochi (rice balls on a stick with walnut sauce).
It was a brilliant trip and I’m keen to explore more of Japan in future.
While there, I had the lovely experience of meeting a Savvy Scientist subscriber in person. It’s always a bit surreal (and very nice) to meet readers of the website out in the wild, especially so far from home – thank you again for the delicious mochi Afia.
Japan also turned into an unexpectedly good reading opportunity:
- I read Three Tigers, One Mountain: A Journey Through the Bitter History and Current Conflicts of China, Korea, and Japan by Michael Booth, which felt like a helpful overview of East Asian history – though I’ll admit it didn’t exactly leave Japan looking great, historically.
- I also read Japanese Annual Celebrations and the Art of Shitsurai by Noriko Matsuda and Natalia Morrison in just a few hours while staying in a ryokan in rural Japan. A really interesting, atmospheric read that paired beautifully with the setting.
Apps and habits
On the smaller, day-to-day side of life, I’ve continued using a couple of apps that help keep things ticking along:
- Duolingo, where over this past year I’ve been learning Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and recently chess. I’m pleased to say that I’ve kept my streak going which was at 1894 days by the end of the year.
If you’d like to connect here is my account – feel free to message me to let me know you’re a reader of this website.
- Finch, a free app which I’ve found surprisingly effective for building and maintaining daily habits, especially during busy or low-energy periods. I have recurring goals on there for things I want to work on daily including exercise, reading and work on this website. I hit a 350 day streak at end of the year.
If you’d like to connect on there you can use this link (not an affiliate link) or find me with this code: AT2WAMKJ6Z. Again, feel free to message me here so that I know the request is coming from a reader.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed over the last few months is getting back into playing the piano. I started learning during COVID and I’m certainly still not a good player but I’m enjoying learning.
A slower end to the year
December was a bit of a write-off health-wise. I was ill for much of the month and over part of Christmas, which forced an unplanned slowdown.
Not how I’d choose to end the year, but probably a reminder I needed a break! Thankfully I’m feeling much better now.
Personal Finances
Income
Day jobs
No changes from what I outlined last update. I’m still part time at the university (70%) and not taking a salary from the spin-out.
The nice thing about working at a university (in the UK at least) is that annually in August your salary goes up a spine point by default. This meant that my full time equivilant salary went up around £1600 per year without applying for a pay rise. If you’re nosey here are University of Bristol’s pay scales. As a research fellow I’m at spine point 41 with a full time salary of £53,301.
Invited talks
Recently, I’ve been invited to give a few paid talks at different universities who found me through Google which has provided a bit of supplementary income.
Savings
Over this past quarter I saved £2617, and across 2025 as a whole I saved £12,586. This sounds great, and is a good achievement, until you compare it to previous years. Across 2024 I saved £20,594, and £20,418 in 2023. Why the drop?
Well, my three week trip to Japan was certainly an extravagant holiday but it thankfully didn’t cost anywhere close to £8000! The major reason that I saved far less this past year was that I earned far less.
In all previous years, I was employed full time (or more, at times), and was getting paid as such. Generally in 2025 I was employed at 70% for my university work (ie for 3.5 days per week) and was unpaid at the spin-out company. The unpaid spin-out work was so that we could concentrate on funding staff salaries.
This meant that I was taking home around £1000 less per month than 2024. This situation will all hopefully change in 2026.
I could certainly cut some of my outgoings, such as some significant charity donations, but can afford to still make them so choose to carry on doing so.
Summary & plans
Annual recap
A year ago I set these goals for 2025:
| GOAL | AIM | RESULT |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Better work-life balance. “There were times in 2024 where I was working long hours, got pretty stressed, and my life outside of work suffered. In 2025 I want to aim for more balance, whilst also getting better at delegating and coming to terms with leaving things unfinished.“ | 7/10 As 2025 went on I definitely got better at balancing work and life. Less working evenings and weekends – almost all of which, I should add, related to the spin-out rather than academic work. Although evening work ahead of a paper submission wasn’t uncommon, I generally never work at the weekends for academic tasks. I also tried to make more of an effort to carve out quality time, and to go along to more social events. There is still more to be done, so I’ll chalk this goal up as partially completed and a work in progress. |
| 2 | More deep work. “Weirdly, despite being endlessly busy, I don’t feel like I have that many outputs to show for it. Papers aren’t everything, but in 2024 I published less than half the amount published in 2023. Yes, I was working fewer hours in a research role but it didn’t feel like the admin overhead reduced proportionally. On the back of reading Deep Work, I want to ensure I’m carving out sufficient time in 2025 to work on the things which matter to me.“ | 6/10 There were certainly times where I was overwhelmed with meetings and couldn’t dive deep into difficult tasks. However, overall I think this year went better than previously as far as this goal is concerned. Some mentoring I received through support for the spin-out company helped. Fortuitously with a change in meeting slots I also ended up with a full uninterrupted day per week with no meetings which was bliss. I’m not sharing which day of the week this is for fear of it getting jeopardised! |
| 3 | Go somewhere exciting for a holiday. “I was fortunate to go abroad several times in 2024 but largely the exciting destinations were for conferences. I always ensure I take some leave on these trips to have an opportunity to actually see the place, but they’re still not typically ‘proper’ holidays. Outside of these trips I was pretty drained (see the first bullet point) so went on holiday to somewhere I know well – which makes for an easy holiday. In 2025 I’d like to explore some new places.“ | 10/10 I went to Japan for three weeks and had a great time. Enough said, that firmly ticks this box. In addition to Japan I went on several other trips, including to Porto in Portugal for a conference (ECML) which also turned into a lovely break since I did my standard thing of booking a few days of annual leave as part of the trip. |
| 4 | Do more with this website. “I would like to continue building up the website with regular content and more ways to engage. If there’s anything you’d love to see on the website let me know!“ | 3/10 Well it wouldn’t have been very relatable if all of my goals had been achieved! In 2025 I posted less articles than in previous years, despite getting off to a good start with a regular posting schedule. I’m working on mitigating the risks of this happening again. I was however happy in 2025 to get some unsolicited invites to speak at various events, which all came through this website. We’ll put dedicating consistent time to this website as a goal for 2026. |
| 5 | Spend more time outdoors. “I don’t enjoy spending any more time than necessary at a computer – hence why I sometimes struggle with writing content for this site after a day of work! Fortunately, I’m lucky to have a garden at home and in 2025 I want to spend more time enjoying the garden plus going on some hikes.“ | 5/10 I did spend a good amount of time in the garden, almost exclusively commuted by cycling (post here about when I started this during my PhD), and sometimes went jogging. I did not however do much hiking. There was one day hike I can think of which I went on in September with friends, and a short through-hike in Japan but that’s it. Let’s add more hiking to my 2026 goals. |
Looking ahead and my goals for 2026
All in all I’d say it was a successful year. I’ve [generally] enjoyed my work, managed to find a better work-life balance than in 2024, developed personally, and made some nice memories.
Plus, I’ve at least partially achieved most of the goals I set out for 2025, despite forgetting to check back at them at all throughout the year until starting to write this post – oops!
Here are some goals for 2026, which I’ll make sure to look back at regularly. In fact, I’ll bring them up at every quarterly update to see how I’m progressing towards them.
- Do more social stuff: both with work colleagues and beyond. When I was at ECML in September I met some great people and it made me realise that I do actually, at least sometimes, enjoy socialising more than I typically do at home.
- Dedicate serious time to The Savvy Scientist. I’m often feeling behind on posting regularly, let alone not exploring more ambitious plans. I’d like to create a step-change in efforts and outputs for 2026.
- Progress some long term plans: there has been some uncertainty about how I’ll be spending the next few years with lectureships, travel plans, and progression of spin-out all factoring in. 2026 should be the year to get some proper clarity. I’ll be surprised and disappointed if I’m in exactly the same job/work/life situation this time next year.
- Go hiking. Simple, right?
As always, thanks for reading and for supporting The Savvy Scientist and I wish you all the best for 2026.
If you enjoyed this post be sure to take a look at previous updates in the Beyond the PhD Series.
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It was nice to meet you too, Jeff! From this article, I can see you thoroughly enjoyed your Japan trip. Cheers to more future trips like that.
Happy New Year! Wishing you good health and strength!
Article idea: your research vault eg. What are the things/apps/programmes you use in your research and spin off company world? Python? R? Physical notebook? Obsidian? Scrivener?
Thanks Afia! Yes, I really enjoyed Japan and already have lots of ideas for another visit.
Great suggestions for an article, I’ve noted this down and will work it in to the upcoming schedule.
Thanks and best wishes for the coming year to you too.