How to setup a similar page

September 03, 2025 • Paul Gondolf (with the help of Claude)

This guide explains how to set up and customize this Jekyll-based website template.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Ruby (2.7+)
Bundler gem
Git

Installation

Fork or clone this repository
Navigate to the project directory
Update the relevant files with your personal information (see below)
Install dependencies:
```
bundle install
```
Start the development server:
```
bundle exec jekyll serve
```
Visit http://localhost:4000/baseurl/ to see your site

Configuration

Site Settings (_config.yml)

Update the main configuration file with your information:

# Site settings
title: "Your Name"
description: >-
  "Your professional description here."
baseurl: "/websitereponame" # the subpath of your site (the repo name)
url: "https://yourusername.github.io" # the base hostname & protocol for your site

# Social media usernames (without @ symbol)
email: "your.email@example.com"
github_username: "your-github-username"
orcid_id: "0000-0000-0000-0000"
email_user: "youremailusername"
email_domain: "example.com"

# Credit :) 
credit-title: "Paul Gondolf"
credit-url: "https://paul-the-wizord.github.io"

Of course you should also update the cv.md, index.md, lecture_notes.md, research.md and talks.md with your own information.

Additional Customizations

Don’t forget to personalize these visual elements:

Profile Image: Replace the default profile image in /assets/images/profile.jpg with your own professional photo
Favicon: Create and add a favicon (the small icon in browser tabs) - you can use your initials, a professional headshot, or a symbol related to your field. Place favicon files in /assets/images/ and add the appropriate <link> tags to your layout’s <head> section

In the robots.txt you should change the link to the Sitemap and also set your privacy settings.

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://yourusername.github.io/websitereponame/sitemap.xml

Page Templates & Usage

CV Page (cv.md)

The CV template supports structured data for education, teaching, and work experience:

---
layout: cv
title: "Curriculum Vitae"
permalink: /cv/
last_updated: "August 2025"

education:
  - date: "Present"
    degree: "PhD in Mathematics"
    institution: "University Name"
    institution_url: "https://university.edu/"
    location: "City, Country"
    details:
      - label: "Expected Graduation"
        text: "Month Year"
      - label: "Thesis"
        text: "Your thesis title"
        file: "/path/to/thesis.pdf" # or 
        url: "https://url-to-your-thesis.com"
      - label: "Research Focus"
        text: "Your research area"

teaching:
  - title: "Course Title"
    period: "2022 - 2024"
    institution: "University Name"
    institution_url: "https://university.edu/"
    responsibilities:
      - "Responsibility 1"
      - "Responsibility 2"

work:
  - date: "2021-2022"
    position: "Job Title"
    company: "Company Name"
    company_url: "https://company.com/"
    location: "City, Country"
    description: "Brief job description"
    achievements:
      - "Achievement 1"
      - "Achievement 2"
---

Research Page (research.md)

The research template organizes publications and preprints:

---
layout: research
title: "Research"
permalink: /research/
description: "Brief description of your research"

published_papers:
  - title: "Paper Title"
    journal: "Journal Name"
    year: 2024
    authors:
      - name: "Coauthor Name"
      - name: "Your Name"
        highlight: true  # Highlights your name
    abstract: "Paper abstract here..."
    award:  # Optional
      title: "Award Name"
      url: "https://award-url.com"
      description: "Award description"
    links:
      - text: "arXiv:1234.5678"
        url: "https://arxiv.org/abs/1234.5678"
      - text: "DOI"
        url: "https://doi.org/..."

preprints:
  - title: "Preprint Title"
    status: "Submitted to Journal Name"
    year: 2024
    authors: # [same format as above]
    abstract: "Abstract..."
    links: # [same format as above]

research_interests:
  - area: "Research Area 1"
    description: "Description of this research area"
  - area: "Research Area 2"
    description: "Description of this research area"
---

Talks Page (talks.md)

Create a talks page following this structure:

---
layout: talks
title: "Talks"
permalink: /talks/
description: "Conference presentations and seminars"

talks:
  - title: "Talk Title"
    meta: # all optional 
      - "Conference/Seminar Name" 
      - "Month Year"
      - "City, Country"
      - "Conference Talk" # or "Seminar", "Poster", etc.
    description: "Talk abstract..." # or summary, etc.
    links:
      - text: "Slides"
        file: "/path/to/slides.pdf" # or 
        url: "https://url-to-slides.com"
      - text: "Video"
        url: "https://youtube.com/..."
---

Lecture Notes Page (_pages/lecture_notes.md)

Structure for course materials:

---
layout: lecture_notes
title: "Lecture Notes"
permalink: /lecture-notes/
description: "Course materials and educational resources"

courses:
  - title: "Course Name"
    institution: "University Name"
    year: "2024"
    description: "Course description"
    topics:
      - "Topic 1"
      - "Topic 2"
    materials:
      - text: "Notes PDF"
        url: "/path/to/notes.pdf"
      - text: "Problem Sets"
        url: "/path/to/problems.pdf"
---

Creating Blog Posts

Blog posts go in the _posts/ directory with the naming convention: YYYY-MM-DD-title.md

---
layout: post
title: "Your Post Title"
date: 2025-08-30
author: "Your Name"
excerpt: "Brief description for previews"
reading_time: 5  # Optional: estimated reading time in minutes
---

Your post content here using Markdown syntax.

## Math Support
The template includes MathJax for mathematical expressions:

Inline math: $E = mc^2$

Display math:
$$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{-x^2} dx = \sqrt{\pi}$$

Customization Tips

Colors & Styling

Modify CSS variables in assets/css/style.css:

:root {
    --color-primary: #B8724D;        /* Your brand color */
    --color-primary-dark: #9A5F42;   /* Darker variant */
    --content-max-width: 700px;      /* Content width */
    --sidebar-width: 320px;          /* Sidebar width */
}

Adding New Sections

Create a new layout in _layouts/
Add corresponding styles to style.css
Create the markdown file with appropriate front matter

File Organization

Your Jekyll site should be organized as follows:

your-academic-website/
├── _config.yml              # Site configuration
├── _layouts/                # HTML templates for different page types
│   ├── default.html
│   ├── cv.html
│   ├── research.html
│   ├── talks.html
│   ├── lecture_notes.html
│   └── post.html
├── _posts/                  # Blog posts and articles
│   └── 2025-09-03-how-to-setup.md
├── _pages/                  # Pages (.md files)
│   ├── index.md             # Homepage
│   ├── cv.md                # CV page
│   ├── research.md          # Research page
│   ├── talks.md             # Talks page
│   └── lecture_notes.md     # Lecture notes page
├── assets/                  # Static files
│   ├── css/
│   │   └── style.css
│   ├── images/
│   │   └── profile.jpg
│   └── files/               # PDFs, slides, etc.
│       ├── cv.pdf
│       ├── thesis.pdf
│       └── slides/
├── robots.txt              # Search engine instructions
├── Gemfile                 # Ruby dependencies
└── README.md               # Repository documentation

Key Directories:

_layouts/: HTML templates for different page types
_posts/: Blog posts and articles (named YYYY-MM-DD-title.md)
_pages/: Md files for front matter
assets/: Static files (CSS, images, PDFs)

Deployment

GitHub Pages

Push your repository to GitHub
Go to Settings > Pages
Select “Deploy from a branch”
Choose “main” branch and “/ (root)” folder
Your site will be available at https://username.github.io/repository-name

Serving at Root Domain (Optional)

To serve your site at yourusername.github.io instead of yourusername.github.io/repository-name:

Rename your repository to yourusername.github.io (must match your GitHub username exactly)

Update your _config.yml:

baseurl: ""  # Leave empty for root domain
url: "https://yourusername.github.io"

Update your robots.txt:

Sitemap: https://yourusername.github.io/sitemap.xml

Note: You can only have one username.github.io repository per GitHub account.

Troubleshooting

Build errors: Check _config.yml syntax and front matter formatting
Styling issues: Verify CSS file paths and variable names
Math not rendering: Ensure MathJax configuration is correct in default.html
Images not loading: Check file paths and case sensitivity

For more help, refer to the Jekyll documentation.