Hi! I'm in my first year of my PhD and I've been reading posts here for quite awhile, but I'm now delurking to ask some advice.

I was wondering if anyone here had experienced a negative attitude from other researchers at their uni, due to clashes between your supervisor and these other researchers? If so, how did you deal with this?

Hi somethingborrowed! Welcome to the forum- that sounds like quite a specific problem, is it something you've experienced and are trying to resolve? I think it would be easier for people to offer advice if they knew a little bit more about it....hope its not something that is ruining your PhD experience..

Sorry, I should have explained a bit more.

I recently had my first year assessment, and one of the members of the panel really ripped into my work and was very negative about the whole thing. He doesn't get on with my supervisor, and I've since talked to the postdoc in my lab group who said it sounds like he was taking out his frustration at my supervisor on me. I'm spoken to my supervisor about it, and he was very helpful about it, but I can't help but worry about having to go through this next year with the same panel. Everyone says just to shrug it off and ignore it if it happens again next year, but I guess I'm quite a thin-skinned person and take (unfair) criticism quite to heart.

I guess I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced this sort of thing, and how they reacted and dealt with it.

Hello again- that sounds pretty nasty. I havent had something the same as that happen, but seeing the internal world of academic politics (which I was not even aware existed) has opened my eyes since beginning a PhD. A lot of people seem to be particularly harsh with some research students/topics- and this is fair enough if the criticism is fair, but sometimes its because of personal reasons and/or internal politics. Like you say, the criticisms the researcher gave you were unfair and part of a personal vendetta or something with your supervisor, not you. I know its easier said than done, but try to ignore it- it sounds like your supervisor understands and is supportive, which is good, so might be worth speaking with them again if it keeps getting you down. Hope it gets better...

My supervisor has a few enemies and when I recently presented to a few of these at a progress meeting he warned me that if they were mean to me it might be a way of getting to him. In the end nothing was said but I have seen it happen to other students and maybe next time I won't be so lucky. I think it is one of those things which happens but shouldn't and will cause us to develop thicker skins whether we like it or not.