1. Introduction

NEW BOOK! Pre-order now!: I'm SUPER excited to announce my new book Oliver's Great Big Universe is now available to order! It's funny, heart-warming and full of awesome science. Please check it out! NEW TV SHOW!: Check out ELINOR WONDERS WHY the new animated TV show for young kids I co-created! It's about Nature and encouraging kids to follow their curiosity. 20 YEARS!: PHD Comics turns 20! We are celebrating by Kickstarting a new book, having a huge sale and offering custom comics and cartoons! Join the fun by clicking here! The PHD Store: is back online! Need a gift for the holidays? Why not a book, mug or shirt that matches their level of procrastination sophistication? WE HAVE NO IDEA Release!: My new book is now on sale! Order it now! And check out the book tour map and come see us at one of many fun events! Free excerpt from The PHD Movie 2!: Watch this free clip from the movie that Nature called "Astute, funny"!

"Piled Higher and Deeper" (PhD) is the comic strip about life (or the lack thereof) in academia. "Piled Higher and Deeper" the comic strip has appeared in The Stanford Daily for the past nine years, and in the MIT, Carnegie Mellon University and Caltech newspapers among others. The strip has appeared or been featured in the journal Nature, the Chronicle of Higher Education, IEEE Potentials magazine, Math Horizons magazine, Stanford Magazine and Canada's The Peer Review magazine among others, and has been linked to by USA Today's and The Washington Posts websites. Three collections of the strips have been published: "Piled Higher and Deeper: A Graduate Student Comic Strip Collection" (ISBN 0-9721695-0-4) was first published in June 2002, and collects the first five years of the strip; "Life is tough and then you graduate: The second collection of Piled Higher an