Tuesday, February 26, 2008

A really good day at work

Overall, I like being a scientist. But some of the days can be quite dreary. As a grad. student you slog through days that resemble the reliving of events in Groundhog Day. Except that they are actually different days - they just seem the same. As a post doc you struggle to get work done to then get a job (OK, I skipped a post doc, but I heard about what it is like from others). And as a faculty member you spend an absurd amount of time wasted on useless administrative activities. And I sometimes seem to be stuck in these days a lot.

But today was a really good day. It was my first day after it was announced that I was the new Academic Editor in Chief of PLoS Biology. And I got lots of positive feedback from friends, colleagues and even strangers. And then we had "lab meeting" which I decided to turn into a picnic/hike. We went to a little spot only 2 miles from the UC Davis Genome Center, that was as close to wilderness as you can find in Davis. And I think everyone had fun, getting away from the grind AND I brought my 3 year old daughter too.

And this reminds me to say - in the past I have avoided talking about people in my lab in my blog because it seemed like it would be nice to give them some space from my blabbing. But today I was reminded of just how much I owe them. They of course do all the work that I end up getting credit for. So today I thank the current lab members specifically (Jenna Morgan, Amber Hartman, Marcel Huntemann, Dongying Wu, Martin Wu, and Sourav Chatterji) and with their permission you will probably be hearing more about them later.

4 comments:

  1. Your description of graduate school is just what I feel like for the last few months. Actually, I can't tell how long I've felt like that as the days do run into each other! I guess I feel that way because of thesis writing . However, overall- I've enjoyed graduate school and am looking forward to the future.

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  2. I really wanted to make a movie in grad. school that would be a spoof of Groundhog Day where a PhD student thinks he is living the same day over and over but in reality it would just be normal grad. student life

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  3. It was indeed a really nice day!
    Thanks again for all the food, boss. :)

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  4. Thanks, Jonathan! That was a nice surprise! As much as I enjoy our typical lab meetings, it was nice to have one at which the biggest debates were portobello vs. turkey, Braunschweig vs. Berlin, and what is the politically-correct term for the denizens of the shores of Lake Berryessa. It's nice to be working in a lab full of people I genuinely like. :-)

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