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....