A few weeks back, I was talking to my parents on the phone, and my mother asked "What do you want for Christmas?"
"Tenure," I said. Because, well, that's what's been on my mind.
This is going to be the Best Christmas Ever...
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« Bose, Fermi, Hanbury Brown, and Twiss | Main | Modified Gravity Eliminates Dark Matter? »
All That I Want
Category: Tenure Chase
Posted on: December 19, 2006 5:37 PM, by Chad Orzel
TrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/28633
Comments
(OK, technically, I'm not officially an Associate Professor until the Trustees approve it in February, but the Dean said that worrying about that is sort of like worrying that an asteroid will destroy the Earth before then...)
Posted by: Chad Orzel | December 19, 2006 5:39 PM
Then read this comment in February:
Congrats!
Posted by: Stephen | December 19, 2006 6:01 PM
Congratulations! That's most excellent news. You can now sleep at night (modulo asteroids).
All I want for Christmas is my NSF grant... but that would be more of a, I dunno, Spring Equinox present, or perhaps a Memorial Day present. Until then it's just stress.
-Rob
Posted by: Rob Knop | December 19, 2006 6:15 PM
Woo-hoo!
Congratulations!
Posted by: Pam | December 19, 2006 6:17 PM
Sort of a nice Christmas present-- congratulations.
I think I may bring this up to my boss and ask him what I need to do to get tenure here. (Because, you know, I don't get enough mockery in the workplace....)
Posted by: John Novak | December 19, 2006 6:22 PM
Oh, awesome! Now (February's version of now) is the time to smoke whatever you've got! Because they can't get rid of you! You've got TENURE!!
Please get wasted on the drug of your choice (sugar is acceptable), come the actual occasion, and then spend 45 minutes posting and attempting badly to spell the word "tenure".
Posted by: veejane | December 19, 2006 6:25 PM
Congratulations! Good job! Many happy returns!
Posted by: jrolsma | December 19, 2006 6:36 PM
Sweet! Now we can get the loony, controversial posts that you've been saving up.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski | December 19, 2006 6:38 PM
Please get wasted on the drug of your choice (sugar is acceptable)
Wait... we're not supposed to get wasted on sugar until we have tenure?
Oops.
Anyway, I suspect few people are surprised that Chad got tenure. What this does also mean is that he can read all those tenure-track assistant professor applications without needing to feel threatened... :)
-Rob
Posted by: Rob Konp | December 19, 2006 6:39 PM
Congrats!
Posted by: Hawk | December 19, 2006 6:44 PM
Congratulations on having achieved the Quest of the Holy Grail!
Posted by: Debra Doyle | December 19, 2006 6:50 PM
Congratulations, best wishes, and godspeed. Today a place to stand, tomorrow a faster vacuum pump, and by next Thursday your own one-cup coffee brewer with Kopi Luwak and junior faculty in the grinder. "8^>)
Posted by: Uncle Al | December 19, 2006 6:52 PM
Congratulations! However, now that you're a member of "The Man," the real question is:
Do you have any connections in the English department?
Posted by: Scott Eric Kaufman | December 19, 2006 6:58 PM
w00t! Congratulations on your next 40 or so years.
Posted by: John Scalzi | December 19, 2006 6:59 PM
Congrats Chad, and well deserved!
Posted by: Jeff F | December 19, 2006 7:05 PM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Will | December 19, 2006 7:06 PM
Most excellent woo and also hoo!
Posted by: Patrick Nielsen Hayden | December 19, 2006 7:13 PM
Congratulations! Not surprising, but great news. Union did good.
Posted by: cisko | December 19, 2006 7:15 PM
As I told your wife: happyhappy joyjoy!
Congratulations.
Posted by: fidelio | December 19, 2006 7:18 PM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Yoon Ha Lee | December 19, 2006 7:21 PM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Rajesh | December 19, 2006 7:21 PM
Waiting until February is nothing. In my tenure decision, I was told the news in early November, and then informed that it wouldn't really be official until July. That's many more chances of a major meteor strike, you know, and by the time the letter from the Big Guys came, I'd pretty much forgotten to care.
So, yeah, celebrate on your time, and bugger whatever schedule the bureaucrats are on.
Posted by: PZ Myers | December 19, 2006 7:23 PM
That's terrific! I'm sure you more than deserve it! Congrats!
Posted by: Jennifer Ouellette | December 19, 2006 7:26 PM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Michael I | December 19, 2006 7:31 PM
Dude, that rocks! Hearty congratulations!
Posted by: Trent | December 19, 2006 7:34 PM
Awesome! Congrats!
Posted by: Dave Bacon | December 19, 2006 7:36 PM
Yay, Chad! That is most excellent news.
Posted by: Devin L. Ganger | December 19, 2006 7:38 PM
Dancing Rodents! (AKA Conga Rats)
Posted by: Scott Raun | December 19, 2006 7:46 PM
Many happy congratulations!!!!
Posted by: Texas_Tiger | December 19, 2006 8:02 PM
Nicely done, Chad, congrats!
Posted by: Tom Renbarger | December 19, 2006 8:07 PM
Happy Holidays indeed!
Posted by: Ron Avitzur | December 19, 2006 8:10 PM
Congrats!!!
Posted by: Tom | December 19, 2006 8:24 PM
Congratulations! Thanks for proving that bloggers can get tenure. And now I start my pre-tenure leave, to prepare for the wringer next fall.
Posted by: Scott Spiegelberg | December 19, 2006 8:26 PM
Congrats. Now if you can avoid attractive female undergrads, you are SET! Job well done mate!
Posted by: Perry | December 19, 2006 8:29 PM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Bill | December 19, 2006 8:31 PM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Dan Goodman | December 19, 2006 8:39 PM
Congratulations! Well-deserved!
Posted by: Tony Zbaraschuk | December 19, 2006 8:45 PM
Congratulations!!! I guess you are no longer on the tenure track.
(Like PZ above, I will also have to wait till July for my official confirmation...)
Posted by: Moshe | December 19, 2006 9:05 PM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Aaron Bergman | December 19, 2006 9:27 PM
Congratulations!
(professional lurker)
Posted by: Richard Suitor | December 19, 2006 9:33 PM
Followed the link from Scalzi to say Congratulations.
K
Posted by: KevinQ | December 19, 2006 9:45 PM
Congratulations!
You were amongst the first of us on rasfwr-j to earn your Doctorate (and coin the now-immmortal phrase, "That's *Dr* ____, to you, punk!"; among the first to earn a faculty position, and now among the first to earn tenure. Congrats again on yet another trailblazing moment. :-)
Posted by: Jeff Huo | December 19, 2006 9:47 PM
Congrats! Pretty sweet timing.
Posted by: greythistle | December 19, 2006 9:48 PM
Congratulations. I'm so happy for you and Kate both. We're going to be at Boskone, let us take you out to dinner to celebrate. It may even be official by then....
MKK
Posted by: Mary Kay | December 19, 2006 9:56 PM
Congratulations on your well-deserved tenure. I'll echo Mary Kay in hoping that it's official in time for Boskone celebrating.
Posted by: Christopher Davis | December 19, 2006 10:12 PM
Blogfather Scalzi said to come over here and whup a "Congrats" upside your head. I hear and obey.
Congratulations! Time to put that alarm clock where it really goes - the circular file.
Posted by: Soni | December 19, 2006 10:14 PM
Mazel Tov! It is weird how diffuse the process is. With your doctorate, you defend, people clap, and that's that. With tenure, you're told that later the board will do something so that at the start of the next fiscal year.... Anyway, congratulations again!
Posted by: Doug Natelson | December 19, 2006 10:16 PM
Most excellent well done !
Posted by: Emmet | December 19, 2006 10:20 PM
Congrats Chad! That is awesome.
Posted by: Brad Holden | December 19, 2006 10:22 PM
Congrats Chad! Kate too! Now go for that Nobel Prize...
Posted by: paoconnell | December 19, 2006 10:29 PM
Congratulations! What a great Christmas present.
Posted by: Melissa Devnich | December 19, 2006 10:36 PM
Congrats!
Posted by: James | December 19, 2006 10:42 PM
Congratulations . . . PROFESSOR.
Posted by: Bob Oldendorf | December 19, 2006 10:59 PM
oh congratulations! well done!
Posted by: Maura | December 19, 2006 11:06 PM
Congratulations!
Wait, did someone say rasfwr-j?!
r-j!?!
Man, we better hope the trustees don't hear about this...
Enjoy the moment.
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | December 19, 2006 11:13 PM
Wow.
That's awesome -- sometimes, the good guys do win....
Posted by: Mike Steeves | December 19, 2006 11:30 PM
Congratulations Chad!
Posted by: Lou | December 19, 2006 11:52 PM
Woooo!
Go, you!
Posted by: James Macdonald | December 20, 2006 12:12 AM
Congrats!
Many happy returns!
Posted by: cheem | December 20, 2006 12:24 AM
Yahoo!! Next stop, sabbatical!!
Posted by: Tania | December 20, 2006 12:49 AM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | December 20, 2006 2:50 AM
Congratulations!
I tried to tell KJ about it this morning, and had to resort to saying tenure untranslated. There's no such thing here, and no appropriate translation.
Posted by: Therese Norén | December 20, 2006 2:51 AM
Hurrah! Congratulations! May you never have to do anything harder (except for stuff you enjoy).
Posted by: Teresa Nielsen Hayden | December 20, 2006 8:45 AM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Dennis | December 20, 2006 8:46 AM
Yes! And, like everyone else, congratulations.
Posted by: jim | December 20, 2006 8:56 AM
Woo!
Congratulations, Chad. Annette and I are thrilled for you.
Posted by: John Dilick | December 20, 2006 9:10 AM
Wahoo! Congratulations, Chad. Never had any doubts you'd get it, but what a terrific Christmas surprise!
Posted by: Skwid | December 20, 2006 9:25 AM
Fuckin' aye!
Posted by: Jamie Bowden | December 20, 2006 9:43 AM
Congrats, congrats, and more congrats after that.
Posted by: Adrienne | December 20, 2006 10:05 AM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Captain Button | December 20, 2006 10:17 AM
Let me be among the last to confer congratulations...:)
Posted by: Dr Chuck Pearson | December 20, 2006 10:17 AM
Mazel tov!
Posted by: theophylact | December 20, 2006 10:23 AM
That's great news, Chad. Congrats!
Posted by: Andrew Orzel | December 20, 2006 10:24 AM
He shoots! He scores! The crowd, it goes wild!
Posted by: David Owen-Cruise | December 20, 2006 10:31 AM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Zeynep Dilli | December 20, 2006 10:49 AM
Hmm, how long to one congratulations? Who knows, but here's one more.
Posted by: agm | December 20, 2006 11:35 AM
Cool! Congrats, Chad.
Posted by: Jeff M | December 20, 2006 11:55 AM
Awesome! I expect to see some hard relaxation over the next few weeks in honor of your achievement.
Posted by: Dave Munger | December 20, 2006 12:34 PM
Belated congrats to you, Chad.
Now you can begin seriously cultivating your eccentricities with little fear of reprisal!
Posted by: Leigh Butler | December 20, 2006 12:42 PM
So, you now change the blog name to Certain Principals?
Congratulations!
So, next step = Curmudgeon?
Posted by: J-Dog | December 20, 2006 12:53 PM
Great news! Congratulations!!!!!
Posted by: coturnix | December 20, 2006 12:53 PM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Dan Blum | December 20, 2006 1:19 PM
Congratulations! To pass along what a sweet old lady said at the conclusion of an acquaintance's defense, "Congratulations, Doctor. No sonofabitch can ever do that to you again."
Posted by: Stephen G | December 20, 2006 1:50 PM
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Tenure on the Facultyyyyyyyy
Congratulations!
Posted by: Liz | December 20, 2006 2:06 PM
All the best! Celebrate now - they can't take it away from you.
Posted by: Larry Moran | December 20, 2006 2:40 PM
Sweet! Congratulations!
Posted by: Josh | December 20, 2006 3:00 PM
Many congrats, Chad!
The day after one of my committee members got tenure, I answered the phone in his lab, thus becoming the one who took the phone call that informed him that a university vehicle had just accidentally crushed his car in the faculty parking lot. Now, this fellow could get more than a little stressed out, so I waited for him to finish giving some instructions to a new student at the bench, and then broke the news to him. Instead of blowing up, though, he just smiled and said that he knew the university was well-enough insured to handle the problem.
That's when I knew what a big milestone tenure was! :-)
Posted by: Julie Stahlhut | December 20, 2006 3:06 PM
Congratulations!!! WOOHOO!!! I'll down a Kiltlifter for you when I'm in Arizona in a couple weeks.
Posted by: Captain C | December 20, 2006 3:18 PM
So you get tenure and promoted to Associate at the same time? (I got promoted the next year.)
Posted by: BR | December 20, 2006 3:33 PM
Congratulations.
Brings back the memories of my horrid experience on the subject at an Ivy League university. At the beginning of the winter semester which was supposed to be my first sabbatical after six years there, I got the horrible news in the mail, even though I had two and a half years left in the contract and I did not even know that they were voting on my case.
Posted by: gregor | December 20, 2006 3:48 PM
Hurray!
Posted by: Jim Toth | December 20, 2006 3:52 PM
Hey, congrats!
Posted by: Emily | December 20, 2006 3:52 PM
Congratulations. And may The Cabal be with you.
Posted by: CapitalistImperialistPig | December 20, 2006 5:28 PM
Congratulations, Chad!
But just for safety's sake, wait until February to start coming into work in your pyjamas and telling people you would like to be known from now on as Madame Pompadour.
Posted by: Del Cotter | December 20, 2006 5:30 PM
Congrats!
Posted by: Marilee | December 20, 2006 5:49 PM
Woohoo!
Tonight's party has officially switched from a "Day That Ends in 'Y'" party to a "Chad has tenure" party.
Note: While the Party Purpose variable is quantized, our hypothesis is that discrete variations in P.P. will not lead to discernable variation in empirical results (i.e. degree of hangover on the OMFG scale).
Posted by: Chas | December 20, 2006 6:40 PM
Heh! Was there any doubt?
[ducks]
Posted by: Thumb | December 20, 2006 6:43 PM
Congratulations! Party time now.
Posted by: Sean Carroll | December 20, 2006 8:05 PM
Is it horrible that the title of this post keeps on bringing to mind a horrrible Ace of Base song?
Posted by: Aaron Bergman | December 20, 2006 8:43 PM
Four paws up!
Posted by: lunkhead | December 20, 2006 9:04 PM
Wow! Congrats, Chad!
Posted by: Abi | December 20, 2006 9:07 PM
So, now you're in on the seekrit konsp1raC to reestablish the Soviet Union in America that David Horowitz keeps talking about. Excellent news! Please send reports!
Posted by: "Charles Dodgson" | December 20, 2006 10:53 PM
"Is it horrible that the title of this post keeps on bringing to mind a horrrible Ace of Base song?"
No. Being reminded of a Spice Girls song, OTOH...
Posted by: Captain Button | December 21, 2006 8:42 AM
Is it horrible that the title of this post keeps on bringing to mind a horrrible Ace of Base song?
For you, probably. Since I somehow managed to miss the whole Ace of Base thing, I have no problem with it.
I had in mind the recently acquired "All I Want" by the Weepies, part of the Christmas Tunes Experiment. While the actual title lack a "that," there's one in the chorus.
Many thanks to everyone who has commented. It's a kick to have so many people chiming in. And, hey, the first triple-digit comment thread on Uncertain Principles...
Posted by: Chad Orzel | December 21, 2006 2:21 PM
Congrats to you. It is quite an accomplishment. I just found out the good news about my own tenure and promotion. It will be a very nice Christmas for me too.
Posted by: Redleg | December 21, 2006 2:30 PM
Congratulations.
Posted by: Mike Bruce | December 21, 2006 4:57 PM
That's wonderful! Congratulations, and may more success come you way.
Posted by: Babbler | December 21, 2006 5:03 PM
Congratulations!
Now you can blog all that nasty stuff and finally start working on the alien-warp-drive you always wanted to build ...
Posted by: wolfgang | December 22, 2006 11:49 AM
A Big Old British Congratulations and Merry Christmas! (I was tipped off by Kevin Drum of all people).
Posted by: Dave Hemming | December 23, 2006 5:44 AM
Hello. Your friend John Scalzi said to congratulate you on your tenure. So congratulations on getting your tenure!!
I'm not particularly sure what tenure is. I know it's pretty prestigious, I learned that from ER.
Anyway, that just proves I watch too much TV.
Congrats again on tenure!
Posted by: Hannah | December 27, 2006 1:26 AM