Another week has flown by in my quest for the diploma. It would be nice to get this week back, as it wasn't as productive as I would have liked. The primary reason was that I was scheduled to give two talks this week - on Wednesday and Friday. There is some cross-over in the audiences, but as the two were at very different locations (hospital 10 miles from campus and in department building on campus), I planned on just giving the same talk twice. As I am still working on being a confident public speaker, I spend a lot of time putting my slides together, and rehearsing them. By the time my presentation comes around, I can go through the talk slide by slide in my head. That helps when I want to practice in the shower. :) But, that means I'm working less on other things. I looked at these talks as defense-practice talks, which means I'll save time later in a lot of the prep...but that'll be saving time after dissertation completion which I won't need as much as I do now. So, Wednesday comes along and I know my stuff like the back of my hand. And, a blizzard of snow also blows into town. From talking to people on Tuesday, I knew that attendance would be down on Wed, as some would just go to the easier-to-attend Friday talk. I left twice as early Wednesday morning, but still was stuck in barely moving traffic for the first 25 minutes of drive time. With my arrival on time being questionable, I gave the center a call to make sure the talk wasn't getting canceled (or to know before I got too far). It sounded like the roads around the hospital were terrible, and I was going to ring back with my progress in 10 minutes as my route was clearing up as traffic spread out. Before I could call back, the organizer called me and said that they were canceling the talk. Apparently there was very little attendance at the investigator meeting prior to my talk, and the roads were still terrible. Luckily, I got the call before making it to the interstate, and didn't have too much trouble turning around and just going home to work for the day. But, it stuck turning around after already spending about an hour driving that morning, and having prepared early for the talk that day. Oh well.
The talk yesterday went smoothly. I think I rocked my stuff pretty well. The audience was mainly students with only a couple of professors and several post-docs. I only got one softball question. I was told that I explained everything well by several, but I still would have liked more questions. The two professors that usually grill students weren't there - one is on my committee and just saw most of my material two weeks prior.
Time to return to full-time number crunching and text writing. In my last experiment, last week, the results were less than stellar. I showed a clear difference between methods A and B, but method A results were no where near the phenomenal results from the first 3 experiments. With 5 total experiments in the bag and deadlines fast approaching, I really want to be done with experiments. My advisor, though is hedging on the need for another experiment, which is annoying. "Let's see if we have significance on the results" and "work on this figure and the paper" then we'll talk next week. Gah! I can put the results together in different ways to either show significance or not. And, another experiment has a risk of not working which just makes things more complicated. I know that my method works, but there are sometimes complications in the model that can't be prevented - in the two less-than-stellar experiments, the results can be explained. But, it just gets more difficult and obscures the good results by adding more experiments. And, working on that specific figure is difficult as some of the data inputs weren't collected in initial experiments when the objectives weren't aligned as they are now. Nothing like shifting over time - let's try this, this time - then pooling results from across experiments together.
Guess I need to stop complaining and buckle down for several hours of work on this cold Saturday. It is times like this that I wish I didn't have to drive an hour to see my girlfriend later today - seeing her is good, but I'd like to get that hour to do more productive things than sit in my car.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Thinking towards tenure
I like these two recent posts at Pondering blather on working towards tenure. While the content of a tenure packet seems straight-forward, I like this listing of good things to keep in mind. And, it isn't a surprise that the number of publications is important...but the target itself is unclear and probably moving, even within a single department.
In the coming year my current advisor will be submitting his tenure packet. I see him as a shoe-in for tenure, given his solid research and funding record, as well as involvement in many teaching and service opportunities. Having students move towards graduation at a faster rate than peer faculty can't help. It'll be interesting to observe the process and learn as much as I can.
In the coming year my current advisor will be submitting his tenure packet. I see him as a shoe-in for tenure, given his solid research and funding record, as well as involvement in many teaching and service opportunities. Having students move towards graduation at a faster rate than peer faculty can't help. It'll be interesting to observe the process and learn as much as I can.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
States I've been to...
30 out of 50 isn't a bad percentage. All but WV and NV I've at least stayed overnight in - those two had plane lay-overs and drive-through breaks:
visited 30 states (60%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or try another Douwe Osinga project
visited 30 states (60%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or try another Douwe Osinga project
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Advisor Calendar!
I thought of another thing I'd like to do when I'm a professor. As a grad student, there are plenty of times where I just need a small thing or a signature from my advisor but I don't know when he'll be around. Or, there are other times when he's locked away for days (or weeks) on end working on a grant before the deadline. I can appreciate that he's very busy most of the time and it isn't his responsibility to be at my beck and call. But, it would be nice to have an idea of when he might be around or be available. Occasionally we'll get this info, during a lab meeting when we ask about an upcoming week or he gives us a heads-up about a deadline. I like what a professor that I TA'ed for does. He syncs his calendar schedule with the campus online calendar (I think some other labs here may make use of Google calendars). So, any Case person can look him up and see when he is booked or even double booked. It made it easy for him to agree on a meeting - just tell me to find an open time in his schedule. The contents of each slot were, of course, not available to me. But, I really liked having an easy access to this information. I think most students would appreciate having this extra bit of knowledge, and if I'm using the right software it shouldn't require any extra work on my part. As a fan of Office, I use Outlook and keep the calendar updated (which synchronizes nicely with my smartphone). I'll just continue doing this in the future, integrating something like Google calendar or the school calendar - whatever syncs up with the minimal involvement from me.
Thinking about a post-doc
I just had a good conversation with a NIH program officer. She liked my proposed research, saying it was clearly within their mission as opposed to several other centers. And, as expected from correspondence with other program officers, she was pushing me towards doing a F32 than a K01. Too bad that K's are dominated by applicants with several years of experience....and that I'm pretty swamped now working on dissertation materials that finishing a solid K app by 2/12 would be near impossible. Hopefully I can fit in the F32 deadline of early April with everything else I'll be finishing then. In a perfect world, I'll get the F and submit a K01 ~1.5 years later which will carry me into a tenure track position.
This has given me a chance to think more about post-doc-ing. I know, it should be a higher priority. But, graduation in May is paramount in my mind. Having an open opportunity to remain in the lab after graduation makes it easier to put off the post-grad plans. I finally had a brief talk with my advisor about it the other day - discussing some specifics instead of the vague comments that have been made. Short of me really changing my mind, I plan to remain in the lab for at least 9-12 months, continuing aspects of my PhD work - hopefully getting some clinical subjects. During that time I'll submit one or two post-doc grant applications and investigate post-doc labs elsewhere. By 2010 I should know whether I have funding to remain where I am or if another location has enticed me away. Aside from tying up loose ends of my grad studies, my focus while here will be to do experiments that aren't directly tied to my PhD studies. This should help minimize the "too similar to PhD work" risk that comes with staying at the same place, and working with the same mentor.
Speaking of post-doc thoughts, this was an excellent discussion on choosing a post-doc. And, here's a document that might provide a few pointers on obtaining a post-doc. Sometime I need to come back and review these TED blog posts about the funding of science, which will also affect my post-grad career.
In a few hours I'll have my (hopefully) penultimate PhD guidance committee meeting, in which I'll wow them with my progress, impress them with the new Aim 3 that I've done to replace a stagnant clinical study, and show them that I'm on track to defend in March. Fingers crossed....
This has given me a chance to think more about post-doc-ing. I know, it should be a higher priority. But, graduation in May is paramount in my mind. Having an open opportunity to remain in the lab after graduation makes it easier to put off the post-grad plans. I finally had a brief talk with my advisor about it the other day - discussing some specifics instead of the vague comments that have been made. Short of me really changing my mind, I plan to remain in the lab for at least 9-12 months, continuing aspects of my PhD work - hopefully getting some clinical subjects. During that time I'll submit one or two post-doc grant applications and investigate post-doc labs elsewhere. By 2010 I should know whether I have funding to remain where I am or if another location has enticed me away. Aside from tying up loose ends of my grad studies, my focus while here will be to do experiments that aren't directly tied to my PhD studies. This should help minimize the "too similar to PhD work" risk that comes with staying at the same place, and working with the same mentor.
Speaking of post-doc thoughts, this was an excellent discussion on choosing a post-doc. And, here's a document that might provide a few pointers on obtaining a post-doc. Sometime I need to come back and review these TED blog posts about the funding of science, which will also affect my post-grad career.
In a few hours I'll have my (hopefully) penultimate PhD guidance committee meeting, in which I'll wow them with my progress, impress them with the new Aim 3 that I've done to replace a stagnant clinical study, and show them that I'm on track to defend in March. Fingers crossed....
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Still writing
I'm making good progress on my dissertation. This past week had a lot of data analysis cranking as well as some writing. I need to get a first draft of my dissertation discussion to my advisor by Tuesday....just so we can say that we've reviewed it at my committee meeting on Thursday. The meeting is an important one in which I need to convince the committee of the importance of my new specific aim 3, that my progress is strong enough to only need one more experiment (regardless of its outcome) and that I'm on track to finish things in time to graduate in May. My advisor is on board with everything, so I'm confident. I also need to get back to updates to the dissertation Introduction and Chapter 4 - which will be my third paper. Write, write, rrrrite. :-P
Speaking of writing, I like this witty synopsis of the different stages of grant writing. I can feel the similarities to the writing I'm doing too. I also like this recent post and commentary on generating ideas...some good thoughts to keep in mind in the future.
Speaking of writing, I like this witty synopsis of the different stages of grant writing. I can feel the similarities to the writing I'm doing too. I also like this recent post and commentary on generating ideas...some good thoughts to keep in mind in the future.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Researching Defense?
I can't remember where I saw a link to this, but it has been sitting on my firefox tab list for a while waiting for me to link to it. This is hilarious: in the early 90s, someone did a study comparing "undergraduates" opinion of the better defense (hand-waving/stationary) against actual shooting accuracy for those defenses (and control of none). This is only an abstract, so I can't pull apart the methods like I would like to. Undergrads? Come on...everyone should know it is harder to see through a stationary object (wall) than a moving one (like looking through a fan)....except for whatever 140 people they polled. When playing, there's plenty of other moving distractions, aside from whatever your defender is doing, that good shooters don't notice the distraction. But, if you can't see the hoop, things get a little harder (duh):
I'm curious what is meant by the authors that opinions were independant of exposure to basketball. Watching or also playing?
Then, the shooting competition? Again, I wish I could see the full methods. For starters, though, what kind of shots are these (and who is shooting them) where the average FG% without any hand in the face was under 40%? Maybe they were recording shots during "game-action" but regular players should be able to hit free throw range and in well over 50% of the time, and I wouldn't expect them to test beyond the arc. But, if they had random people doing the shooting, I'd expect the variances to be much higher, showing a spread of abilities (the near similar values are fishy to me). Showing that it is "linear" for those "x-inputs" is pretty funny. ...at least the results meet what I'd expect as far as what has the higher percentage:
I've gotta look around the internets to see if I can find other work by these authors...
Well, at the lead-author's 2001 Arizona State research page, it says the (1993) abstract is in preparation. hmmm...
Looks like the lead author is still looking at interfering with shooting.
Given that this author is a researcher AND into sports, he's OK in my book. I'm sure that abstract has all kinds of details behind the scenes or it was an undergrad project...makes for good fodder for reading as-is. Plus, he's at the granter of my Master's degree, so that gives him another bonus. Go Devils!
I'm curious what is meant by the authors that opinions were independant of exposure to basketball. Watching or also playing?
Then, the shooting competition? Again, I wish I could see the full methods. For starters, though, what kind of shots are these (and who is shooting them) where the average FG% without any hand in the face was under 40%? Maybe they were recording shots during "game-action" but regular players should be able to hit free throw range and in well over 50% of the time, and I wouldn't expect them to test beyond the arc. But, if they had random people doing the shooting, I'd expect the variances to be much higher, showing a spread of abilities (the near similar values are fishy to me). Showing that it is "linear" for those "x-inputs" is pretty funny. ...at least the results meet what I'd expect as far as what has the higher percentage:
I've gotta look around the internets to see if I can find other work by these authors...
Well, at the lead-author's 2001 Arizona State research page, it says the (1993) abstract is in preparation. hmmm...
Looks like the lead author is still looking at interfering with shooting.
Given that this author is a researcher AND into sports, he's OK in my book. I'm sure that abstract has all kinds of details behind the scenes or it was an undergrad project...makes for good fodder for reading as-is. Plus, he's at the granter of my Master's degree, so that gives him another bonus. Go Devils!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Publishing Gauntlet
Found this hilarious comic over at Lab initio. Pretty funny, even for my limited publishing experience...
Saturday, January 3, 2009
When I'm a PI....
...as in principle investigator, and thus (hopefully) in a tenure-track academic/professor position, there are a variety of things that I'd like to do. From time to time I notice things that PIs are doing, or are not doing but could, that I'd like to try and remember to do when I've got the opportunity.
-Have weekly lab meetings with all personnel, where key lab-related items are discussed, students can touch on points where they'd like others input, and general research-type advise can be dispensed. My lab has this now, though it didn't start until well into my 2nd (or was it 3rd?) year. It is good to have when experiments involve multiple lab personnel and for the many weeks when it is the only hour that we'll see our advisor.
-Once a month, have a lab member give a ~15 minute presentation on current research progress. IMO, students need as many opportunities as possible to talk about their research in front of an audience. It is one thing to have a discussion with one or two advisors, but putting together a planned talk in front of even a small group is a good practice. We don't do this in a group setting, in my lab, although the research centers that I'm affiliated with give one opportunity per year for each student to give a talk. That is great, for a larger audience filled mainly with student peers and several PIs. But, a greater number of opportunites would be an even better thing, I think, especially in the controlled environment of fellow lab-mates who are more likely to ask questions and know the subject better.
-I've thought of a few things that'd be cool to give as PhD-completing gifts, but only one is coming to mind right now. As a kid, I was an AVID baseball (and to a lesser extent basketball) card collector, amassing a collection of well over 20,000 cards. So, things along those lines catch my eye. I like the current NCAA marketing push to show NCAA athletes as going pro in some 'non-sport', especially the sports-card commercial (yes, I know it is very hypocritical, given the major $$$ that are made by the "not for profit" NCAA during the big money sports) that is playing now. That led me to the thought that it'd be cool to give a set of 10 or so "player cards" for a person. The front could be an "in-action" research picture. On the back would be a head shot from their early days in the program. Vital stats could include publications, conference presentations, any awards, and special work in the lab. I think this would be a nice little "souvenir" of grad school that would be easy to pull out down the road and look at.
-Another good potential PhD-completing gift would be a book for the next career stage. There are many potential good ones. My parents are (supposedly) ordering for me The Academic Portfolio as a late birthday gift. Other books on my wish list that may be appropriate include The Graphic Syllabus and Outcomes Map, At the Helm: A Laboratory Navigator, or a science-ethics book like Cantor's Dilemma or Biomedical Ethics for Engineers.
-And, on the lighter side, PhD completing gifts or prizes for completing research projects or grants could be science-related t-shirts. Examples include: Recycle Ideas t-shirt from PhD Comics, the "Research" shirt from PhD Comics, or "Research Tool" also from PhD Comics, I'm going to try Science t-shirt from XKCD, and the "Doctor...of philosophy" shirt from PhD Comics - I received one of these for my birthday, and can't wait to wear it for the first time after I get my degree.
I guess my mind is busy with getting gifts (it is the season) and finishing my degree. ha. There are a bunch of other "as-PI" things I've thought of, but they are all currently hiding in the recesses of my mind. I'll throw them on the blog as I think of them...
-Have weekly lab meetings with all personnel, where key lab-related items are discussed, students can touch on points where they'd like others input, and general research-type advise can be dispensed. My lab has this now, though it didn't start until well into my 2nd (or was it 3rd?) year. It is good to have when experiments involve multiple lab personnel and for the many weeks when it is the only hour that we'll see our advisor.
-Once a month, have a lab member give a ~15 minute presentation on current research progress. IMO, students need as many opportunities as possible to talk about their research in front of an audience. It is one thing to have a discussion with one or two advisors, but putting together a planned talk in front of even a small group is a good practice. We don't do this in a group setting, in my lab, although the research centers that I'm affiliated with give one opportunity per year for each student to give a talk. That is great, for a larger audience filled mainly with student peers and several PIs. But, a greater number of opportunites would be an even better thing, I think, especially in the controlled environment of fellow lab-mates who are more likely to ask questions and know the subject better.
-I've thought of a few things that'd be cool to give as PhD-completing gifts, but only one is coming to mind right now. As a kid, I was an AVID baseball (and to a lesser extent basketball) card collector, amassing a collection of well over 20,000 cards. So, things along those lines catch my eye. I like the current NCAA marketing push to show NCAA athletes as going pro in some 'non-sport', especially the sports-card commercial (yes, I know it is very hypocritical, given the major $$$ that are made by the "not for profit" NCAA during the big money sports) that is playing now. That led me to the thought that it'd be cool to give a set of 10 or so "player cards" for a person. The front could be an "in-action" research picture. On the back would be a head shot from their early days in the program. Vital stats could include publications, conference presentations, any awards, and special work in the lab. I think this would be a nice little "souvenir" of grad school that would be easy to pull out down the road and look at.
-Another good potential PhD-completing gift would be a book for the next career stage. There are many potential good ones. My parents are (supposedly) ordering for me The Academic Portfolio as a late birthday gift. Other books on my wish list that may be appropriate include The Graphic Syllabus and Outcomes Map, At the Helm: A Laboratory Navigator, or a science-ethics book like Cantor's Dilemma or Biomedical Ethics for Engineers.
-And, on the lighter side, PhD completing gifts or prizes for completing research projects or grants could be science-related t-shirts. Examples include: Recycle Ideas t-shirt from PhD Comics, the "Research" shirt from PhD Comics, or "Research Tool" also from PhD Comics, I'm going to try Science t-shirt from XKCD, and the "Doctor...of philosophy" shirt from PhD Comics - I received one of these for my birthday, and can't wait to wear it for the first time after I get my degree.
I guess my mind is busy with getting gifts (it is the season) and finishing my degree. ha. There are a bunch of other "as-PI" things I've thought of, but they are all currently hiding in the recesses of my mind. I'll throw them on the blog as I think of them...
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Recent good reads
Finally getting to some of the interesting reads that I've kept open on my Firefox tabs...
I need to schedule weekend time (ha) to review the career advice published by Science. Looks like some good stuff in the homestretch of my grad "career." [hat tip]
Good things to keep in mind for post-doc training and keeping myself on task.
It is nice seeing what challenges lie ahead for first-year professors.
Reading through the comments on this post, it is interesting seeing the variety of publications that make up a dissertation across different disciplines. For me, in biomedical engineering, we're required to have one publication accepted and another publication submitted. When writing the dissertation, students write Introduction and Discussion chapters (and usually have several appendices) with middle chapters filled by the relevant publications verbatim. This is usually 3 chapters, with the final chapter in-prep for publication during the dissertation-submission stages. I'm in good shape, with two chapters done and a third one in second review with my advisor (but pending 2 experiments). I've got the Intro at about 80% ready for a first advisor-review and a solid outline of the 5 potential appendices that will probably be culled to 3. That reminds me...I should be writing!
I need to schedule weekend time (ha) to review the career advice published by Science. Looks like some good stuff in the homestretch of my grad "career." [hat tip]
Good things to keep in mind for post-doc training and keeping myself on task.
It is nice seeing what challenges lie ahead for first-year professors.
Reading through the comments on this post, it is interesting seeing the variety of publications that make up a dissertation across different disciplines. For me, in biomedical engineering, we're required to have one publication accepted and another publication submitted. When writing the dissertation, students write Introduction and Discussion chapters (and usually have several appendices) with middle chapters filled by the relevant publications verbatim. This is usually 3 chapters, with the final chapter in-prep for publication during the dissertation-submission stages. I'm in good shape, with two chapters done and a third one in second review with my advisor (but pending 2 experiments). I've got the Intro at about 80% ready for a first advisor-review and a solid outline of the 5 potential appendices that will probably be culled to 3. That reminds me...I should be writing!
2009 already?!?
Time has been flying recently. A run of experiments in November and December, holidays and traveling tends to run the days together. I went back to my parent's place for 10 days (including travel days). It was a good trip, of course. But, we were plenty busy, going to several family things...and doing last minute shopping (not me) and cooking. Now it is back to the grindstone. Day 1 of being back in town (Tuesday) was another experiment, which wasn't as successful as desired.
I'm not a resolution person - why should some single day push you to change your ways when you could have been doing something different long before? But, I do like to have goals.
This year, I will:
-get my PhD
-get published for a third time
-submit a NIH grant
-get a post-doc job
-take a trip post-graduation
-run a 10k and at least 3 5k races
I hope to:
-submit a 4th manuscript later in the year
-travel off the continent...for the first time.
-complete a 5k in under 22 min
-run at least a 10 mile stretch on my own
We'll see what the year brings. The past month has kept me busy enough that putting my thoughts on here hasn't happened too often. I'll try to do it more often, but it may be sporadic until after I (hopefullly/better) submit my completed dissertation in April.
I'm not a resolution person - why should some single day push you to change your ways when you could have been doing something different long before? But, I do like to have goals.
This year, I will:
-get my PhD
-get published for a third time
-submit a NIH grant
-get a post-doc job
-take a trip post-graduation
-run a 10k and at least 3 5k races
I hope to:
-submit a 4th manuscript later in the year
-travel off the continent...for the first time.
-complete a 5k in under 22 min
-run at least a 10 mile stretch on my own
We'll see what the year brings. The past month has kept me busy enough that putting my thoughts on here hasn't happened too often. I'll try to do it more often, but it may be sporadic until after I (hopefullly/better) submit my completed dissertation in April.
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