academic adventures
sciencewoman | November 3, 2007
Way back in the pre-PhD, pre-baby days I was in the habit of setting goals for myself at the beginning of each month and then assessing my progress at the end of the month. It worked fairly well for me in terms of focusing my efforts on a relatively short list of tasks, and sometimes even managing to cross them off. Over the last year or so, the goal setting as suffered, as my goals seemed fairly self-evident: survive, keep everyone healthy, and get the needed things done. But now I find that I'm missing my monthly goal-setting session and record of progress. So I've decided to revitalize…
sciencewoman | November 1, 2007I'm back...and semi-dug out. Minnow and I survived the conference, though not unscathed. There was an unfortunate incident in which Minnow tumbled off the hotel bed and ended up with a carpet imprint on her forehead. But otherwise, it was a successful conference. That said, I don't recommend bringing a nine-month old to a conference alone. Here's how it went and what I learned:
On our flight to Conference City, Minnow and I were jammed into a middle seat. She wiggled, she made faces at the other passengers, she spilled my water, she banged on the tray table, and mercifully, she slept for 1/3…
sciencewoman | October 30, 2007Note: This piece was originally posted December 14, 2005, while I was a young grad student myself.
Some modest advice for graduate students just got passed around our department (by a professor no less). I think Stearns has done an admirable job in being truthful about the realities of graduate school in the sciences. Much of what he states I've had to learn from experience. But I'd like to add a few points:
Good science takes time.
Either spend 60+ hour weeks for a few years or 40 hour weeks for a lot of years (or unfortunately, 60+ hour weeks for a lot of years). Plan on experiments, field…
sciencewoman | October 27, 2007Note: This was written January 30th, 2006.
I went on a class field trip on Saturday - we left town at 7 am and didn't get back until almost 8:30 pm. Generally it was a good trip. It met one of my basic requirements in that it wasn't just pile out of the vans, stand around and listen to the prof, then climb back in and head for the next stop. Instead, we actually made some measurements - looking at differences between canopied and open areas. I think it's really important to get students engaging with the field trip topic/site rather than just feeling like they are stuck in one long lecture.…
sciencewoman | October 24, 2007At some point. I AM working on my Scientiae submission (they're due Monday, and the theme is awesome.) I'll also try to schedule some re-posts for while I am gone.
But at the moment, I am a bit busy getting ready for the trip, writing exams, etc. Plus, the media have discovered that there is a local -ology crisis going on and the PR people on campus have discovered that there's a new assistant professor who's supposedly an expert on the subject.
sciencewoman | October 18, 2007Wow everyone! Thanks for all your suggestions on my last post. I thought I'd respond here, since my comments are plenty long enough.... I'll probably still miss some things though.
Re: pumping and breastfeeding. I am planning to nurse on the plane and during the conference proper. Unfortunately the first day I have an off-site field course for 10(!) hours. Hence the need to bring the frozen milk and pump that day. I'll probably end up tossing what I pump, but if I don't pump at least somewhat I'll be in serious pain. I've got a manual Avent pump for that purpose. Apparently, in addition to a…
sciencewoman | October 17, 2007In a moment of pure foolishness, I decided it would be a good idea to submit an abstract. This was way back in June and the conference was months away. Surely, things would be calm and under control by the time the conference came. Minnow would be sleeping through the night and I'd just pay a student to come along and babysit (turns out they have daycare on-site). It'd be fun. I missed the conference season last year, and this would be a great way to network and let people know my new affiliation. Besides there was a perfect session...
I don't know what I was thinking. But at the end of next…
sciencewoman | October 16, 2007Where we left our story, Minnow and I had arrived on campus for my 8 am lecture.
First, just a reminder that my child really is the most easy-going 8 month old in history.
I brought along her stroller, a sling, a few toys, and her diaper bag (all already in the car). I figured I'd put her in the sling during class, or if she wanted to get down and crawl around, that would be OK too. Secretly, I kind of hoped some student would volunteer to watch her and I'd gallantly refuse saying that her education was more important than my inconvenience. None did.
We arrive about 3 minutes before class,…
sciencewoman | October 5, 2007After my hard week, I am taking the weekend off, and I'll have limited time to work Monday and Tuesday. However, I'll have some work time to "spare" for a few days after that. Would my time be better spent:
a)Writing a third grant proposal for ~$10,000 to fund one student for one semester and give me another opportunity to get some local research going
b)Working on the revisions to a paper for which I've had reviews since May and which I need to have a poster ready to present in two and a half weeks.
I'll accept the wisdom of the internets this time...you all have been so helpful in the past.
sciencewoman | October 4, 2007This week has been the hardest week so far in my first 8 weeks of professorship. I had a grant proposal due today, and two lectures to write on topics I've never formally studied. Monday was chewed up by a doctor's appointment, meetings, and errands, and there were the normal distractions of grad students, office hours, and pumping. But mostly I frantically worked on the grant proposal. In -ology, we can ask questions that are general, but the experiments get done at a specific place. In this case, the place was specified by the granting agency. So I had to learn a fair amount about a place…
sciencewoman | September 28, 2007I'm working on another grant proposal, this one about an order of magnitude larger than the last. But still I am running into the same problem: the cost of doing the science I want to do pushes right up against the limit of the funding.
In the case of this particular grant, I have three main objectives: (1) Answer a cool science question that has intrigued me for a while; (2) fund a grad student; and (3) purchase some equipment that my inadequate startup money couldn't cover.
Objectives 2 and 3 obviously have some significant (and fixed) costs associated with them. The cost associated with…
sciencewoman | September 26, 2007Back when I started my Ph.D., I thought I really needed a good mentor that would help me get solidly grounded in my field, get started on a good research project, and get funded. As I got farther along, I didn't want a mentor - I just wanted to do my work and be left alone. Then when I was ready to write my first paper, I really needed that mentor again to look over my early, painful drafts and help me mold the paper into something ready for submission. When I became a post-doc, I felt like I had out-grown a lot of the need for a mentor - I could get funded, do the work, and write papers - I…
sciencewoman | September 25, 2007I've frantically been writing a grant proposal for a small internal grant competition, due later this week. Basically, I am proposing to update some work I was involved with ~10 years ago. This work was presented at a few meetings, but never published.*
When we were doing the work 10 years ago, it was really innovative. Other people working int he field area were surprised by our results and our literature review didn't reveal a lot of similar work in other places.
But now there is a reasonably well-established worldwide literature. And, more disturbingly, bits and pieces of our work (in our…