skookumchick | May 23, 2008I'm taking a vacation next week. For real. Miles from anywhere. We're headed to the isolated Isle Royale National Park, which is the island in Lake Superior that is the eye of the wolf, as it were. We take a boat there Monday, and come back on the next boat, which runs on Friday.
Guess what else?
There will be no Internets.
I wanted to write a similar post to ScienceWoman on my reflections on my first year, but I feel I need a little space to be able to do this first. My head is so full of static - what to read next, should I really read that next, shouldn't I work on the revisions for…
sciencewoman | May 23, 2008On a day when I am feeling increasingly dismal about the publication prospects of my current project, my mood was not lightened with the arrival of the table of contents for the current issue of a very high impact journal (say, cell/nature/science). One of the papers was right up my research alley and the lead author is someone junior to me. Why is it that the other guy is getting a very high profile paper and I'm struggling to get results that will merit publication at all? I've got some suspicions, and I'm going to attempt to rank them from most charitable to least charitable.
He's…
skookumchick | May 21, 2008
My small friend Anni, on the left wearing the crown in this Christmas photo (with her sister Frankie) is 7. She is waiting for her third liver transplant. Last week, she was taken from our town to Chicago in an ambulance because of a particularly heavy bleed, and although the bleeding has now slowed, her hepatic artery is narrowed, and her doctors think she might have Graft Versus Host Disease.
I don't know what all this means except it's bad. Her mom Moreena blogs about Anni and Frankie here and sounds petrified.
Moreena's previous post was about the neighbor girl down the block who…
sciencewoman | May 21, 2008I've just come out of a general positive annual review meeting with my departmental chair and it seems like an appropriate time to take stock of the year and think about where I am heading. At the end of my first academic year as a faculty member, I'm way ahead of where I was nine months ago, but I still have a lot to learn.
This year has seemed like a whirlwind, at times over-whelming, at times exhilarating. Everything has been new: new teaching duties, new colleagues and university structure, new research requirements and direction, new geographic location, new toddlerhood. I often felt…
sciencewoman | May 19, 2008With all the hullabaloo over the Intel ISEF, I haven't managed to tell you about my homecoming from my trip without Minnow. When I left the subject last, I was about to go to bed on my night alone in a hotel room. I hadn't freaked out since the airport. In the morning, I gave Fish a quick call after he'd dropped Minnow off at daycare. He said that they'd done pretty well, Minnow had slept solidly from 1-5 am (and some before that), but hadn't slept much because he was so worried about sleeping through her cries. I felt relieved that at least someone had gotten some sleep, and I headed off to…
skookumchick | May 18, 2008Hahahah, I foolishly thought that, when summer officially started, my life would settle down. Hohoho, so why don't I try to complicate things by, oh, I don't know, how about moving, and putting our house on the market?
So here are some updates that give a somewhat authentic snapshot of what I'm doing right now, a perfect example of how work and "the rest of life" cannot be separated.
As I glibly mentioned a few weeks ago, my husband has decided to go on academic leave. I wasn't sure how to blog about this as he had not yet made his decision public to the world (he had told his department…
sciencewoman | May 17, 2008
Sana Raoof, left, 17, of Muttontown, N.Y., Yi-Han Su, 17, center, of Chinese Taipei and Natalie Saranga Omattage, right, 17, of Cleveland, Miss., pose after receiving top honors at the 2008 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta, Friday, May 16, 2008.
Yesterday, Yi-Han Su was named one of three winners of the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award at ISEF 2008, for her project on "Efficient Hydrogen Production Using Cu-Zn-Al Catalysts Prepared by Homogeneous Precipitation Method." Below the fold I'll show you what a winning display looks like and I'll share her…
sciencewoman | May 16, 2008Breaking news....they've just announced the grand award winners at the Intel International
Science and Engineering Fair. And I'm absolutely thrilled to tears to announce that the top three prize winners are all girls! One more nail in the coffin for those who say that girls can't do science, math, and engineering.
Go below the fold for full details...
Three talented, hard working, and lucky students are the recipients of the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award, which includes a $50,000 college scholarship. This year's winners are:
Efficient Hydrogen Production Using Cu-Zn-Al Catalysts…
sciencewoman | May 15, 2008 As I write this, the special awards ceremony for ISEF 2008 is wrapping up. Tonight, awards are being given by professional organizations, corporations, colleges and universities, and branches of government. Almost all of the major professional societies are represented, from the American Meteorological Society to the Vacuum Technology Division of the American Vacuum Society. (Each professional society, as well as the other special awards organizations, contribute their own judges to the fair, so that's another way you could get involved. Requirements for being a special awards judge may vary…
sciencewoman | May 15, 2008 What would possess someone to take two days off of work, drive or fly to the competition city, read thirty or more posters, interview fourteen science students, and then lock themselves in a room until the winners are determined, all for no pay other than food? As the judging day winds down (I'm writing this on the plane on the way home), I find myself recollecting some of the answers I heard from other judges.
Some of the judges are former ISEF finalists, like myself, while others have children or grandchildren who are current or former science fair competitors*. Some judges are mentors of…
sciencewoman | May 14, 2008More selections from projects I'm seeing at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
"Evergreen Fire Alarm Suppression System" by Matthew Stegall of Charlotte, North Carolina. Stegall designed a system to detect, alarm, and extinguish Christmas tree fires, over 400 of which occur each year in the United States.
"Reducing Lawnmower emissions using E-85 Phase 3: A catalyst for change" by Kate Weegman of Winona, Minnesota. Weegman used E-85 and an ignition advancement system to reduce carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides from 6.5 hp engines.
"Dog gone…
sciencewoman | May 14, 2008I'm going to be busy judging all day long, so I've scheduled some posts to show you the sort of projects I'll be looking at today. Actually, I'll only be judging -ology projects, but I'll leave you to decide which ones those are.
"Weak Lensing Mass Estimates of Low Redshift Clusters of Galaxies" by Anthony Yunker, Kelsey Lawhorn, and Frances Mei Hardin. The team consists of two juniors and a senior.
"Microfluidic image cytometry to detect PI3K pathway markers in brain cancer" by Jane Suh, a sophmore.
"The effect of visually enhanced medicine labels on recall ability" by Bradley Shields,…
sciencewoman | May 14, 2008I didn't sleep very well last night, and I'm going to pretend that was solely because I was bothered by not being 100% honest with my readers...so here goes. Why am I judging at ISEF? And why am I giving it so much coverage on blog?
Second things first, Intel is picking up the tab for a trip that I would very much have liked to take even on my own dime. They wanted blog coverage and contacted one of the big-name Sbers who passed the word along. Much as I am sure Intel would have liked PZs blog statistics, they got me. And I am thrilled to help increase visibility for a really worthwhile…
sciencewoman | May 13, 2008
Miles walked: At least 5. The Georgia World Congress Center is huge!
Random "it's a small world" connections made: 2
Not-entirely-unexpected reunions encountered: 3
Ounces pumped and dumped: 7 (so far)
Freakouts had: None since the airport.
Times I've called home: None.(I don't want to risk waking a sleeping baby. I'll call tomorrow morning.)
Time I'll be home tomorrow night: 11ish.
Abstracts read: at least 40.
Hours of judging I'll have tomorrow: 3 without a break, 8 total
Projects I've been impressed by: All of them. It's hard to believe some of the science these high school studentss are…
sciencewoman | May 13, 2008A cool feature of ISEF is the science star power. This afternoon the judges were treated to a panel full of science luminaries: Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Robert Curl, Rich Roberts, Dudley Herschbach, H. Robert Horvitz, and Leon Lederman. I walked in a few minutes late, so I didn't catch the introductions, but the moderators voice sounded so familiar. At the end of the session, I discovered the reason...our panel was moderated by Joe Palca, from Science Friday. The session had an open microphone on the floor for questions from the audience. Both the questions and answers were incredibly thought-…
sciencewoman | May 13, 2008So I've arrived at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Atlanta and I'm starting to get my bearings. I've been oriented to judging and have been previewing the projects. There are more than 1500 projects from students in grades 9-12 from 51 countries and the students are competing for almost $4 million in prizes and scholarships. Almost half of the contestants are girls. There will be an estimated 550 judges tomorrow, making sure that each student gets seen by 6 "Grand Awards" judges plus special awards judges representing universities and professional societies. My…
sciencewoman | May 13, 2008I'm in the airport about to board my plane. I'd forgotten how wonderful it can be to fly without a child. I'm looking forward to actually getting some work done on the flight rather than just trying to appease and entertain a squirming baby in a cramped middle seat. I think I may even have an aisle seat. Heaven!
But of course, I am tugged by a nagging feeling about leaving my baby behind. What if something happens to her while I'm away? What if her babysitter forgets to pick her up at daycare today? What if she won't take a bottle? (a likely scenario). What if she doesn't sleep at all?
My…
skookumchick | May 12, 2008Okay, so I've been keeping this under my hat for the last six-eight months, scared of jinxing things, but it's becoming arduous to keep hiding, so I'm sharing.
Purdue submitted a proposal in December for an NSF-ADVANCE institutional transformation grant - the purpose of these grants are to improve the lot for and of women in science and engineering academia, particularly faculty positions. I'm listed as a co-PI on Purdue's grant.
NSF hasn't awarded anything yet, so we are in official limbo, waiting for word. However, the waiting game has now bumped into the annual ADVANCE PI meeting,…
sciencewoman | May 12, 2008I have to remember to lower my expectations for holidays. When my expectations are low and things go wrong, the expectations are met, and I am satisfied. When things go right, I am surprised and happy. High expectations of things beyond my control breed dissatisfaction.
Part of the problem with Mother's Day this year was that I couldn't really decide what I wanted from the day. For the weeks leading up to the day, I dreamed of several hours to myself - to go out hiking with the dog or at least to the fabric store to get fabric for a new quilt. I wanted recognition for my hard work and long…
sciencewoman | May 9, 2008I'll be in Atlanta next Tuesday and Wednesday to help judge the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a collection of the brightest and most dedicated high school science students from around the world. I'll also be blogging about my experiences there (h/t PZ), so look for an uptick in posting next week.
There's still the opportunity to help judge the fair. Judges are still needed in lots of areas, because they try for a ~1:1 ratio of competitors to judges and there are >1500 finalists. It is a substantial committment: you need to register on Tuesday afternoon and then work all…