Sites I love

Hi there,

I would like to take this space as a collection of all the sites I found useful and would love to visit again and again. Some are found on the internet, and some are recommended by professors/researchers on their websites. I hope you find things benefit you. 

--------- On Astronomy -----------

📜 Daily pre-print papers on astronomy (necessary for grad students to check every day to keep themselves up-to-date with research on the fields).

    I formed a habit of checking ArXiv every day (of course new papers only appear on weekdays) since 2019, when I started working with one of my former supervisors. I believe it is a necessary thing to do: to keep myself up-to-date with research findings in my research area. I have done different research projects since my undergraduate study till now, and reading ArXiv preprints helped me a lot in forming the direction and improvements of my research projects. 

📜 Guidelines, tips & tricks for astronomers from AstroBetter

A photo of me sitting in the grass yard of the Hamasen Museum of Taiwan Railway
 in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan in May 2023, during my trip to Kaohsiung to attend the Astronomical Society of the Republic of China.

📜 To generate color palettes, and color gradients for your plots: https://colordesigner.io/gradient-generator 

I found that the skill of generating beautiful plots to show your research outcome is an important communication skill in research. And to have beautiful, eye-catching plots, colors play an essential role. The tool above can help you generate sets of color palettes that give a consistent, eye-pleasing look so that your plots can be more interesting to readers. 

📜 I found the website https://www.data-to-viz.com/ when I was looking for a way to better visualize my data. The site is run by a group of data analysts and designers. They provide tools, ways, and suggestions for visualizing your data on plots.

--------- On general graduate study, tips and tricks ------------

📃 About How to survive in grad programs by Ronald T. Azuma

📃 Like many grad students, I sometimes find myself procrastinating, which costs me time and energy, as well as affects the performance of my research. I found the TED talk by Tim Urban and his blog very useful in helping me understand why I procrastinate and how to deal with it whenever I find myself with the 'Instant Gratification Monkey.'

(this page will be kept updated frequently)

Be brave!