Always a change of pace being home for the holidays. Hard to get productive to do any work, but at the same time I often feel like I'd want to do some work. I'll get a little done today.
A few interesting reads I've come across lately I'd like to save for the future:
-Good things to keep in mind while reviewing/refereeing a paper.
-From the same person, a companion list of things to keep in mind when getting a manuscript back that was reviewed. I think my PhD advisor did a good job of emphasizing these points.
-An interesting chain-of-thoughts on introducing yourself to your first (of some sort) class, with good points also made in the comments.
-Some entertaining 'modified famous quotes' for long review processes.f
Something else to add, after the face: an excellent read on looking at research from new angles, especially unexpected/undesired results.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
End of the semester
I have sure been remiss in using this in the last few months. It gets easy to get into a (non-)routine. I have survived my first four months as a post-doc at a new institution. Overall, I'd give it a nice, solid 'B'. It has definitely been the best choice for my career, and overall has been good...although not as good as I would have liked (granted, nothing can be perfect so my standards may be too high).
Plusses:
-Interesting, new work where I am learning about a new subfield
-The research team and PI are great individuals - good people without any attitudes or annoying people
-First chance to attend GIANT national meeting, supported by new PI, while not presenting anything
-co-I on two small grants - would have been PI on one if school allowed that for postdocs. This was a positive of the PI trusting me (and the other postdoc was co-I also) with assembling this important materials.
-Good postdoc training classes offered by School
-Drove IRB submission of human experiments that I will (hopefully/expecting) be lead author on the research - IRB review is this Tuesday
-Getting reaquainted with Matlab while working on data analysis project that is 'mine'
-Involved with experiments - doing surgeries
-Cool new city that I like, with interesting places to explore
-Free access to the bus routes, which stop very close to my house and campus building
-Helping grad student with his manuscript - 'teaching' opportunity
Minusus:
-Not always clear on what is going to happen in experiments as I'm not intimately involved with planning them. This tied to coming in to an established lab and the fact that most experiment prep has been coding in Labview and Matlab. Those involved are already heavily working on it, better at it than me, and that's not a key focus of mine. I feel like I should help more with this, but I don't see a clear entry point. Other setup stuff invovles hardware and electrode work that I don't have a background in - those who do take care of things. I should ask to be involved more, but don't push it.
-Focus of lab seems at times to be setting up perfect experiments rather than having enough done to be productive. There is a sort of culture of 'gosh, if we add this, things will be even better'...when it may not be needed. Since I'm not familiar with all the nuts and bolts, I don't feel qualified to push things one way or the other...and these aren't 'my' experiments. But, that leads to...
-Only two experiments - both in September - in a four month span. Granted this lab only averaged 1 experiment every 2 months in the past, but a 3rd experiment was originally scheduled in October then rescheduled multiple times from November to December and now into next year. I get wanting to 'do science right' and a main reason for the rescheduling is so that past experiments can be analyzed so that this 'final one in the series' can hit what is needed. But, the bad planning - or inability to estimate (by grad students) when they'll be ready is annoying. I am surprised at how the PI seems less concerned with regular experiments than what I've experienced in the past. Granted, there are selfish interests in that: I want further exposure to experiments so that I understand things better and I can feel my surgical 'skills' degrading without regular use. What also bugs me a little is that there are two alternating series of experiments - this multi-delayed one was 'next' in turn. We should have had the other series ready to jump in, if an opportunity arose. Instead, that wasn't a priority until we realized it now...and will hopefully be ready to do that in January. Of course, if all this prepping (of experiment setup and past/current data analysis) gets smoothed out and leads to a regular series of experiments in 2010 then I will be happy.
-Part of 'my' data analysis project involved sorting a TON of old data. I did it for a little while to get a feel for how things worked. But, it is such a tedious process - not what I signed up for as a postdoc. Hire an undergrad (or several). So, I did enough to allow me to continue on later analysis steps. It is becoming more clear that maybe the PI didn't necessarily expect me to sort all of the old data by hand (though it wasn't always clear), he has been wondering about automated methods (which no one in the field has mastered) - it just wasn't clear to me from the start, and I didn't have the awareness to ask about it.
-Only 2 experiments (again, a major annoyance)
-So, some of that goes to my role not always being clear. The only thing I got - from before my arrival - was the PI saying he'd like for me to be a leutanent between him and the grad students, like the other postdoc is. Well, it isn't always clear what that means (though I did interject myself more into a grad student's manuscript writing than the student planned for) and the existing postdoc pretty much fulfills that rol on a lot of things. Many times the PI clearly goes to the other postdoc on things or talks directly to him when he is thinking of things. This isn't to say the other postdoc isn't on top of things - no, he's very capable. And, they have a history together - the postdoc got his PhD where the PI did his postdoc, overlapping maybe a year...or if not, seeing each other often as the PI returns there often. And, they've already worked together for a year.
So, at times I feel marginalized or like I don't have a clear-cut role. I push for some things (human stuff, etc) and will continue to work on exerting myself more in the new year. It isn't like things are all bad...or even close. I have read that many postdocs struggle with similar issues. I am sure that I have it better than most, and many of my issues aren't really problems or they will 'be solved' in time.
Overall, I am very glad that I am here; I can see that this position will help put me in a good position to get a tenure-track position down the road. I am still struggling with coming up with 'new' ideas. I suppose it will come with time, if at all, and I need to continue with my occasional brainstorming sessions.
One major negative: the hoops scene here really sucks (for me). The gym facilities suck, with only two courts that are usable. The few times I've gone, there are a bunch of players on one court - so the wait is long for an actual game. The overall talent is higher than my previous, smaller location...so it is harder to get established, which doesn't help me. Also, it is a bit of a pain to get to the gym. So, my motivation for hitting the courts has been very low. At least I've been running regularly. I do know of a regular good game nearby - on a separate, adjacent instition. However, the games are in the middle of the day, which is pretty inconvenient for me, especially with the ~10+ minute 'commute' to get there. Oh well...at least college hoops are entertaining.
Plusses:
-Interesting, new work where I am learning about a new subfield
-The research team and PI are great individuals - good people without any attitudes or annoying people
-First chance to attend GIANT national meeting, supported by new PI, while not presenting anything
-co-I on two small grants - would have been PI on one if school allowed that for postdocs. This was a positive of the PI trusting me (and the other postdoc was co-I also) with assembling this important materials.
-Good postdoc training classes offered by School
-Drove IRB submission of human experiments that I will (hopefully/expecting) be lead author on the research - IRB review is this Tuesday
-Getting reaquainted with Matlab while working on data analysis project that is 'mine'
-Involved with experiments - doing surgeries
-Cool new city that I like, with interesting places to explore
-Free access to the bus routes, which stop very close to my house and campus building
-Helping grad student with his manuscript - 'teaching' opportunity
Minusus:
-Not always clear on what is going to happen in experiments as I'm not intimately involved with planning them. This tied to coming in to an established lab and the fact that most experiment prep has been coding in Labview and Matlab. Those involved are already heavily working on it, better at it than me, and that's not a key focus of mine. I feel like I should help more with this, but I don't see a clear entry point. Other setup stuff invovles hardware and electrode work that I don't have a background in - those who do take care of things. I should ask to be involved more, but don't push it.
-Focus of lab seems at times to be setting up perfect experiments rather than having enough done to be productive. There is a sort of culture of 'gosh, if we add this, things will be even better'...when it may not be needed. Since I'm not familiar with all the nuts and bolts, I don't feel qualified to push things one way or the other...and these aren't 'my' experiments. But, that leads to...
-Only two experiments - both in September - in a four month span. Granted this lab only averaged 1 experiment every 2 months in the past, but a 3rd experiment was originally scheduled in October then rescheduled multiple times from November to December and now into next year. I get wanting to 'do science right' and a main reason for the rescheduling is so that past experiments can be analyzed so that this 'final one in the series' can hit what is needed. But, the bad planning - or inability to estimate (by grad students) when they'll be ready is annoying. I am surprised at how the PI seems less concerned with regular experiments than what I've experienced in the past. Granted, there are selfish interests in that: I want further exposure to experiments so that I understand things better and I can feel my surgical 'skills' degrading without regular use. What also bugs me a little is that there are two alternating series of experiments - this multi-delayed one was 'next' in turn. We should have had the other series ready to jump in, if an opportunity arose. Instead, that wasn't a priority until we realized it now...and will hopefully be ready to do that in January. Of course, if all this prepping (of experiment setup and past/current data analysis) gets smoothed out and leads to a regular series of experiments in 2010 then I will be happy.
-Part of 'my' data analysis project involved sorting a TON of old data. I did it for a little while to get a feel for how things worked. But, it is such a tedious process - not what I signed up for as a postdoc. Hire an undergrad (or several). So, I did enough to allow me to continue on later analysis steps. It is becoming more clear that maybe the PI didn't necessarily expect me to sort all of the old data by hand (though it wasn't always clear), he has been wondering about automated methods (which no one in the field has mastered) - it just wasn't clear to me from the start, and I didn't have the awareness to ask about it.
-Only 2 experiments (again, a major annoyance)
-So, some of that goes to my role not always being clear. The only thing I got - from before my arrival - was the PI saying he'd like for me to be a leutanent between him and the grad students, like the other postdoc is. Well, it isn't always clear what that means (though I did interject myself more into a grad student's manuscript writing than the student planned for) and the existing postdoc pretty much fulfills that rol on a lot of things. Many times the PI clearly goes to the other postdoc on things or talks directly to him when he is thinking of things. This isn't to say the other postdoc isn't on top of things - no, he's very capable. And, they have a history together - the postdoc got his PhD where the PI did his postdoc, overlapping maybe a year...or if not, seeing each other often as the PI returns there often. And, they've already worked together for a year.
So, at times I feel marginalized or like I don't have a clear-cut role. I push for some things (human stuff, etc) and will continue to work on exerting myself more in the new year. It isn't like things are all bad...or even close. I have read that many postdocs struggle with similar issues. I am sure that I have it better than most, and many of my issues aren't really problems or they will 'be solved' in time.
Overall, I am very glad that I am here; I can see that this position will help put me in a good position to get a tenure-track position down the road. I am still struggling with coming up with 'new' ideas. I suppose it will come with time, if at all, and I need to continue with my occasional brainstorming sessions.
One major negative: the hoops scene here really sucks (for me). The gym facilities suck, with only two courts that are usable. The few times I've gone, there are a bunch of players on one court - so the wait is long for an actual game. The overall talent is higher than my previous, smaller location...so it is harder to get established, which doesn't help me. Also, it is a bit of a pain to get to the gym. So, my motivation for hitting the courts has been very low. At least I've been running regularly. I do know of a regular good game nearby - on a separate, adjacent instition. However, the games are in the middle of the day, which is pretty inconvenient for me, especially with the ~10+ minute 'commute' to get there. Oh well...at least college hoops are entertaining.
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