tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30610482976240934912023-11-15T05:10:42.748-08:00Funny ResearcherFunny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-59085110869027027722018-08-16T10:43:00.000-07:002018-08-16T10:43:07.204-07:00Lab Timings?I have a question:<br />
<br />
Do you require your students to be in the lab at certain times? If yes, what is your policy?<br />
<br />
For me my advisor was very open to timings. He never required us to be in the lab at any of the hours.<br />
<br />
However, we were always there.<br />
<br />
My students however, decide not to show up. They show up whenever they want. This bother me. I am not sure why. I think I feel they are not working when they are not in the lab.<br />
<br />However, I am in the lab all the time since my office is right in the lab.<br />
<br />
Shouldn't the students putting in more efforts to get ahead in the research game and may be impress their professor?Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-63616069670483660662018-08-16T10:36:00.000-07:002018-08-16T10:36:10.784-07:00Got Grants, Tenure, New departmentYes, I know I have been dearly missed ! but I am back<br />
<br />
<br />
To start:<br />
1) joined a new department which is more prestigious (research wise)<br />
2) got two major grants from two prestigious venues (and hence number 1 was accomplished)<br />
3) have been trying to set up the new lab. Some of my students are here with me. Others decided to remain in the previous department to complete their degrees.<br />
<br />
4) and I got TENURE ! and was transferred to the new department.<br />
<br />
Looks like I am in the ivory tower and am here to stay...hehehe<br />
<br />
More laterFunny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-43842155486830237052017-09-19T08:12:00.002-07:002017-09-19T08:12:48.674-07:00I have a meeting with furniture man !My grad student barges in my office without an appointment.<br />
<br />
Student: "I have some research stuff to discuss with you"<br />
Me: "I have a class in 10 minutes."<br />
Student: "Can I come after that?"<br />
Me: "I am chairing a panel for blah blah at the other side of the campus. I will be done by 230ish"<br />
Student: "But I have a appointment with furniture sales dealer at that time"<br />
<br />
Me: "Cant help you much there. Lets try tomorrow then?"<br />
<br />
Me (in my head): "So you want me to cancel the panel then that I have been preperaring for the past two weeks and meet with you instead? ;~"<br />
<br />
I dont remember being this obnoxious when I was a grad student. Being an undergrad was a different story.<br />
<br />
Life is amusing. I am in a good mood today.Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-15969467337627071872017-08-20T09:45:00.000-07:002017-08-20T09:45:05.047-07:00Conference and TravelsI am travelling right now for a large conferences in my field. This is one of the big ones and we have 2 paper accepted in this conference. Both of them have associated talks with them so I am really excited about this.<br />
<br />
I also get to see the large urban city and I am loving it. Both me and my wife are large urban people and we absolutely love it when we are in big cities.<br />
<br />
Conferences are good. I get to see a lot of science and a lot of people that I may recognize. What I do not like is how I may know some one (and naive enough to tell them that I know them; I am good with faces and can recall people well) but they give me a blank stare. I then have to tell them the context where we have met, interacted with AND worked on. I am not sure if this is normal? or am I just good at faces/names and perhaps not all the people are that good at it.<br />
<br />
I am just loving the energy of this place which is definitely missing from my small city where I am employed. I am grateful and would love to get tenure at that place. But my gut tells me that one day I will make the move from that small city to a larger urban city with millions of people. I just suck energy from large urban centers (both for my personal and professional life) and just love it.<br />
<br />
Gotta go now. My battery is dying.Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-74456032114966950432017-07-31T18:59:00.000-07:002017-07-31T19:01:56.360-07:00Insults to a Young ProfessorOver the past few weeks I have been working vigorously with my students. These are most MS and PhD students and I have guiding them through various levels of academic research and publishing according to their stage of education.<br />
<br />
But for some reason I keep on getting insulted. Few are the experts from some of the "insults" that I have had in the past few weeks.<br />
<br />
I know youngling can be clueless - and they might do it in ignorance - and they might not mean it.<br />
<br />
That does not mean that it is not an insults - or that it is not hurtful - especially since I care about my students a lot.<br />
<br />
<b>Observation 1</b><br />
<br />
PhD student 1 is doing a summer research at a prestigious national lab. The lab does the same kind of work in the same subfield. I know the PI's work and have criticized it in the grant proposals. I have a prestigious career award in that subfield now (aka I am known in the sub field and have recived multiple grants in this sub field).<br />
<br />
-- student: I am sure that the PI in that national lab does not know about you or your work but I think we should collaborate with them (which is fine with me but I am sure you got into the national lab summer program just because of my name. Coz you are a PhD student with 1 year of experience and no one knows you).<br />
<br />
-- The same student now postponed a tele conference meeting two times telling me that he is busy traveling. Today I got his email saying that I can call him today since he has time today (without actually thinking or acknowledging that I might be tensy bit busy?)<br />
<br />
<b>Observation 2</b><br />
<br />
When a new PhD student come in I generally introduce the student to a new subfield; show them the ropes and then give them 1 or 2 problems that they can work on and publish. This helps get the things running for them and keeps them motivated.<br />
<br />
After they have worked on 2 or so sub-problems I ask them to come up with a 3rd problem (on their own) and then come up with a solution to such a problem. Meanwhile, I am their sounding board.<br />
<br />
Today one of them came and told me she wants to work on a 3rd problem and want me to tell it to her. I told her that I gave you 2 problems (that she has not made any progress on and have not published anything) and you need to show progress. After that you will come up with the 3rd problem and I will help you.<br />
<br />
Next thing she tells me is as follows "But I came up with the 2 problems and will come up with their solutions as well that you are referring to...". <br />
<br />
She didn't knew...when she started with me that the particular sub-field existed. And ofcourse I had thought about the 2 problems that I "gave" her for a long time before I decided to put in MY "time", MY "resources", MY "money" and MY "energy" in to this.<br />
<br />
<b>Observation 3</b><br />
<br />
This PhD students is about to graduate. He just told me: "that your name does not carry any weight when it comes to getting a paper published. You are young and not like other senior people ..."<br />
**********************************************************<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Yes, I am young and I know that. But I am well accomplished in my field and have at least 10 years of research experience more than any of these PhD students. I have worked very very hard to reach this place.</u><br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Yes, I am young but I do deserve respect.</u><br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Yes, I am young and I demand respect.</u>Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-58969345701013176642017-03-27T15:15:00.003-07:002017-03-27T15:16:56.342-07:00Making a differenceI have been thinking lately of how to make a difference. You know in terms of research and its applications. I have been thinking how do people make a difference. For example in my field there is a professor who has over 22000 citations (yes you read it right) for a single paper. The tool described in the paper is novel and seems to work fine.<br />
<br />
However,...<br />
<br />
I also know that there are other tools in the same field that were novel (in their own time) and are conceptually sound and seems to work. So what gives?<br />
<br />
I think some people can make such a difference which is also noticeable due to the following combination of circumstances. Some in their control and some not so much<br />
<br />
1) Choice of a problem and how you approach it: Probably one of the most important factors. You can give two different people two different problems and they will come up with two different solutions. One solution could be more elegant than the other giving it an edge. Although the second solution by a second person would probably give a similar result. <br />
<br />
2) Timing: The timing of a particular produce, algorithm or mathematical model is very important. If you are too early; people wont recognize the importance. If you are too late; people will complain that it is not novel anymore.<br />
<br />
3) Marketability. How well you can market the product or your paper or your approach. Traditionally it has been through giving talks. Now it seems to be through (social media?) videos etc. (more on this later)<br />
<br />
4) Venue of your publication: I think this used to be more relevant in the past. Now with access to internet and all the publications having all paper on line it might not matter much. Although I know people who map the credibility of the paper to the venue of the publication (may be partially true but not always).<br />
<br />
5) what else. I am not sure but I am curious.<br />
<br />
###########################################<br />
Social media. I am trying come up with strategies to ramp up my marketing of my approaches. Social media (twitter), videos (you tube) and other? tricks are being thought about. I am not sure which but I am going to do some of them. I think it is a good idea (apart from giving talks that I have not given for quite some time now). All the people that I know in my field are recognizable to me because of their online presence and not because I saw them giving a talk some where. I think this gives a good indication of how to market your "stuff" in the future :PFunny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-49396575037870197092016-12-08T07:22:00.000-08:002016-12-08T07:22:09.968-08:00When you get a grant?What do you do when you get a grant. I know the department and college will probably put your grant news in their news section and probably would also give you some publicity.<br />
<br />
But do you let your group know that you have gotten a grant? If yes, how do you communicate this?<br />
<br />If you do not convey this directly to your group, why not?Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-17612826586772902492016-10-25T13:58:00.003-07:002016-10-25T13:58:56.910-07:00What makes your grant fundable - Part 1I had a grant submission deadline today which I successfully submitted.<br />
<br />
But after the submission my caffeine induced brain kept on working and I have been thinking: What makes a grant successful? I am sure this question has been asked many times and would have been answered many times but I would try to give it a shot from my eyes. To be fair, I am no expert in grantsmanship what so ever. The grant applications that I think would have kicked ass failed miserable at NSF. And the applications that I thought have no chance of getting funding got funded !<br />
<br />
Factors that makes an application from being mediocre to top of the stack.<br />
<br />
1) Innovative: May be who knows. Very innovative gets shot down because the reviewer can say: "We don't know if this will work". Not very innovative and the reviewer might say "Well, we already know that and this is common knowledge/tool and is doable by an undergrad (and hence no funding).<br />
<br />
2) Good Idea: Here by good I mean an idea that the reviewer is interested in and/or is excited about. Provided that there are at least 3 reviewers for the NSF/NIH grants. The probablity of having an idea that is exciting to all 3 at the same degree is rather pretty slim ( there is a sentense I though I will never use)<br />
<br />
3) Good writing: Good writing is good as long as the reviewer is excited about the idea (see part 2 above). Good writing (Shakespeare style) and luke warm reception of the idea is not going to land you on the federal monies.<br />
<br />
4) Connections: Well we all know people and we all know people who know people who are going to be on a panel. But we also know that people are self-serving. I personally know panelist who have shot down the application just because they were in competition with the proposer.<br />
<br />
5) Relationship with the PO: Good relations with the PO is a pre-requistie. But this will NOT land you monies. PO generally dont do anything unless the reviewers dont give a nod. But a good relation with the PO can land your "grey area" grant into the funded one (if the stars and all the gods are on your side and you have a pony that can be classified as a unicorn and a flying saucer).<br />
<br />
So here I have listed all the things that you THINK would land you into the funded pool of applicants. But you would be wrong !<br />
<br />
Next time I will list the things that you have not even thought about these are factors that will get you in the funded list of super stars (may be you did think about those stuff and I didn't and now I am so I am going to assume that you didn't either; who can you go and complain to; It is my blog I can write whatever the hell I want ha ha)Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-40316797566695201162016-10-20T10:06:00.004-07:002016-10-20T10:06:44.813-07:00Competitive and insecureI was very recently told by a colleague that there are some students and even faculty who have talked about me and have told them that I am very competitive and insecure. I am going to eloborate a bit on both of these characteritsitcs. I am not sure how I feel about them and hence the blog post.<br />
<br />
1) Competitive: I am very competitve and strive to the best in what ever circumstance. Be it edcuation, research or sports. I am like this because I came from a third world country and from a middle class family (not US kind of middle class but 3rd world kind of middle class). I learnt early in life that in order to excel I need to be super eaons ahead of my peers (who may have a social and/or resource advantage over me). My rationlae was that if I am the best in what I do then there is little else that would matter.<br />
<br />
Although world is unfair the gamble worked. There wasn't much could be done and I did excel. I did come to US and had the same odds in terms of being an immigrant and a student. The gamble again paid off. Now I am a faculty in a research university in the US. I am in the world of cut throat research, grants, publications and politics. So hell yes ! I am very competitive and I think I would like to remain this way if I am to keep my edge.<br />
<br />
I understand that this may rub off some students as well and they may not take this lightly. But I am not competing against these students. I am competing against the research giants and federal agencies and I cannot switch myself off when talking and/or training these students. I want them to be competitive as well.<br />
<br />
2) Insecure: When you are constantly running to get ahead; and there are always people who are going to be smarter/with more federal monies/more and better publications etc. than I am; you are going to be a bit insecure as well. May be this is where my imposter syndrome comes as well. I am not sure how I feel about this but time will tell.<br />
<br />Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-82008047435941223782016-10-19T09:26:00.001-07:002016-10-19T09:26:06.404-07:00What makes you "known" in your fieldA conversation with a colleague got me thinking. What makes a person "known" in their respective fields?<br />
<br />
1) You have a solid publication record and your people see your work with consistency over the years. This is solid research and you get good results which results in high impact publications. Over the years of hard work this will make you known in the field.<br />
<br />
2) You have just 1 or 2 "awesome/earth-shattering/" results that made you "known" in the field and you are cashing on this ever since. Even though you may not have produced anything worth while in the last 10 years.<br />
<br />
I like to think that I belong to the first kind. I do not have any earth shattering results that will instantly put me in the lime light in my sub-fields. But I have solid research and papers are regular intervals that get published in high impact journals.<br />
<br />
I believe that my consistent work over the years will make me "known" but I wont be a lime light star. But I think it will keep me motivated and hard working for years to come; instead of just cashing in on one result for decades.Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-44830291239953832472016-09-28T13:16:00.001-07:002016-09-28T13:18:50.012-07:00NSF grants over 6 (or 10 or more) months and on FSPEither I write grant application that almost always lie in the middle of the stack (and hence the grey area). or that funding agencies are slacking and does not know how to get their shit together.<br />
<br />
Anyway I have an application that has been submitted 9 months ago and have been peer-reviewed. The peer review happened 6 months ago.<br />
<br />
I emailed the PO some time ago but no response. I am hoping (fingers crossed) that this is a good sign and the PO is trying to find money for this application.<br />
<br />
He better does; or there is nothing much I can do about it (sarcastic grin).<br />
<br />
p.s. In other news the new baby is now 3 months old. And wakes up 4 times at night to get feeding. I have to do all the feeding since the mommy cannot do it. I also have to wake up at 6 in the morning so that I can go and teach. No one said it was going to be easy.<br />
<br />
<br />
p.s.s. Yes I wish that FSP would come back. I used to read
her early in the morning and that had a therapeutic effect on me. I am sure a lot of other people wish that as well.Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-70268890916068787242016-09-27T07:29:00.000-07:002016-09-27T07:29:04.092-07:00On days that are only meetingsSince I am not a newbie any more I have to do service. <br />
There are some days that I only do service meeting all day long. I have a love/hate relationship with these days. Want them to cease but I feel important as well..hehehe.<br />
<br />
Gotta go and do another meeting that I am late for ! Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-83196519442301993212016-08-01T11:36:00.002-07:002016-08-01T11:36:24.150-07:00On code and authorshipI have a grad student who wrote an algorithm, wrote the code and published a paper out of this. As a general policy in the lab, all code must go in public domain i.e. all code must be made open source.<br />
<br />
Now I have another undergrad student who is developing an interface for this code. Provided that the code from the grad student above is available in the public domain. The undergrad can use the code and develop the interface for the said algorithm.<br />
<br />
Now comes the writing paper part. Since the undergrad is developing the interface, the undergrad should be the first authors since the underlying algorithm code is in the public domain.<br />
<br />
However, the grad student came into my office and ate my brain for half an hour for why he should be the first author on the interface paper. I want to pull my hairs out. Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-75361593600619895342016-06-29T10:41:00.000-07:002016-06-29T10:41:00.901-07:00Paper published without my students nameIn general I am very generous with my paper author list i.e. if some one contributed some idea, figure, anything else, I put their name in the authors list of the paper. This is to be fair and also to generate good will. <br />
<br />
I have a student who used to work for another research group. He claims that he did around 50 to 60% of the work described in the paper (I believe him since he has no reason to lie). He also drew some of the figures in the paper.<br />
<br />
However, when the paper got submitted (and published) his name was not in the authors list. He was not even in the acknowledgements.<br />
<br />
He came to me and asked for advice on what he can do. He has already written to the senior author of the paper (who is yet to reply). Frankly, I didn't had any advice for him. I do not know what to do in these cases.<br />
<br />
What would you do or can do? Is writing to the editors of the journal a fair play? How about writing to the funding agency? Has any one of you or student have been in this situation before?<br />
<br />
<br />Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-84334512784294353902016-04-18T07:47:00.000-07:002016-04-18T07:47:29.585-07:00How to deal with the administration (aka HOD)HOD's have power and control over resources. This means that the HOD can determine if you get a support for a TA/RA/GA, you get space, travel money or other resources.<br />
<br />
I have in writing that the HOD has promised a certain type of support. However, now that it is time to give the support all I am getting is stall-game.<br />
<br />
I don't know how to deal with this situation. Note that I am a TT guy who hasn't gotten tenure yet. So what I do has to be in this context.<br />
<br />
How do you approach/deal with situation with the HOD so that you get what you need or want or as in this case promised.<br />
<br />
(I really hope that I had training in this context as well when I was a postdoc. But my postdoc advisor was a very good person and was always there to support and keep his word) Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-54255548394025873232016-04-13T08:01:00.000-07:002016-04-13T08:01:21.067-07:00the semester that does not endThis semester has been a roller coaster for me.<br />
<br />
1) I had to do a new prep for a course which sucked a lot of time. But I did enjoy teaching the course and hopefully would not have to do the new prep again.<br />
2) I had family/personal issues which again sucked a lot of time.<br />
3) Had 2 grants rejected. Wrote 2 new grants and submitted. In preperation of submitting atleast 2 more during the summers<br />
4)The semester does not seem to end. Since it has been a bit tiring for me it seems that the time is moving slower.<br />
<br />
But now that the family issues are a bit mellowed out; hopefully I will get more done and at last the semester will end. And the summers will begin where I will enjoy the heat and work.Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-47953739085932063082016-01-29T13:53:00.002-08:002016-01-29T13:53:05.273-08:00Imposter SyndromeHeight of imposter syndrome is when you win an college-wide new shiny award and think that they gave it to you by mistake.<br />
<br />
and then stand on the stage and think why did they give it to me?<br />
<br />
this is funny and sad at the same time.Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-1538766134823999872016-01-07T11:39:00.002-08:002016-01-07T11:39:08.309-08:00NSF Pending Grants and Grey Area -2So I ended up calling the PO. He told me that I did not get it and it didn't go well in the panel.<br />
<br />
I am so relieved ! like I am feeling light. Yes, I didn't get the grant so will see what is in the reviews and resubmit.<br />
<br />
But rejection is far better than anticipation and anxiety !Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-37675161795299276512016-01-06T08:52:00.004-08:002016-01-06T08:58:27.440-08:00NSF Pending Grants and Grey AreaI have an NSF grant that is pending and it has been (almost) 6 months. This is a source of anxiety as well as some hope for me. From what I have read on other blogs it seems that the particular grant probably would have fallen in the "grey" area.<br />
<br />
I know there is not much I can do except for wait but in a given day I pendulum from joy to anxiety and back like 9 times. Let me try to explain my emotional roller coaster to you.<br />
<br />
1) Most of my peers have received a decline email by now. So this is probably a good news for me since the grant must have fallen in the grey area AND the PO wants to fund it (hopefully).<br />
<br />
2) The particular program that I have submitted my grant has not given away any of the awards yet. At least this is what I have been able to get from google searches. This indicates that may be the particular program is lagging in its review process. This can go either way.<br />
<br />
I am probably some where in the middle and would get/not get a grant based on the monies the particular PO has. This middle is where the hope is and there also hides the anxiety that I do not know what to do about.<br />
<br />
I also feel kind of alone in this as well since I don't know who to talk to. My family is not academic and do not understand the underlying anxieties of being a scholar. I do not have any close academic friends here in this small city. I had very close 2 academic/personal friends but 1 of them has chosen to join industry (couldn't get a TT position) and another has joined a university abroad (so doesn't have similar funding situation as me). So I feel I am alone in this TT position (which I am very grateful for don't get me wrong) but I wish I had some one who I could talk to about my grants and the anxieties without worrying about being judged. We all know if I can talk to my colleagues they are gonna judge me.<br />
<br />
I plan to send PO an email once 6 months are complete but that is still 2 weeks away.Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-32981361277737942772015-10-26T09:56:00.000-07:002015-10-26T09:56:55.540-07:00Student writing woesA student of mine is technically good i.e. he has reasonable results that are publishable.<br />
<br />
But man do he suck at writing !<br />
<br />
I dont mean the usual grad_student_just_starting_to_write_technical_papers suck. I mean gosh_what_in_the_name_of_fuck_are_you_trying_to_say suck.<br />
<br />
I have multiple rounds of revision with him and the colloborator but he doesn't seem to get it. Atleast he acknoweldges that he knows that he write terrible english and paper.<br />
<br />
I am not sure what more can I do to improve his writing skills. After 3 rounds of back and forth I have taken over the writing part now and am going to do a overhaul of the paper.<br />
<br />
I dont know if this is good or bad but deadline needs to be met and I need to get this done.<br />
<br />
Atleast he is producing results; I am not sure how he is going to write his dissertation though.Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-81088065172328040932015-09-15T07:10:00.000-07:002015-09-15T07:10:31.396-07:00Funds and Book keepingThe higher echelons of my university has decided that the person who use to keep our accounting books (for grants) is no longer needed. This means that the faculty has to keep all the book keeping which include how much money is there to spend and what is already spent, where it is spent and who spent it. It also includes keeping track of all the reciepts and other documentation.<br />
<br />
This sounds very weird to me that we as faculty have to do this kind of book keeping. But I am a newbie and I might be wrong.<br />
<br />
Do you have a person who does this kind of book keeping for you and makes sure that all the expenses incurred are backed by documentation? If not, what is your strategy for keeping records and number straight? Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-83300037637141015662015-09-02T08:36:00.002-07:002015-09-02T08:49:34.276-07:00I am officially a Tweep :DI have decided to join twitter verse to have yet another distraction and waste more of my time. But a lot of academics seem to be on the twitter verse so it might be worthwhile. We will see.<br />
You can follow me at <a href="https://twitter.com/funnyresearcher">https://twitter.com/funnyresearcher</a>Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-64880024404056142122015-08-31T07:14:00.004-07:002015-08-31T07:42:56.461-07:00Request for assistance or pretext for applying<span style="font-size: small;">I recently got an email from a colleague (who is the head of the search committee) from my previous institute. The email is as follows:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<u><span style="font-size: small;">The awesome_institute has created a new position viz. Director of XYZ. I am attaching the advertisement. We will start reviewing the applications by xx 20xx, and hope to fill the position by xx, 20xx. Could you forward this to anyone in your institutes who might be interested in applying?</span></u></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I know that in academia if some one (read: search committee member) asks you </span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"Are you happy in your institute/department etc." </span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> that is a pretext for </span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"If you apply we will consider you and hopefully hire you" </span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Do you think the above email has such a pretext? I am just curious because I don't think I would like to go in that institute back. Not that there is something wrong with the science and the people there ( both are awesome) but because I feel that I have more freedom in my research endeavors in my current position.</span></span></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="x_MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">But I am curious; I used to be after this director position before I got my tenure-track :D </span></span></div>
Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-9970830666507120322015-07-27T14:26:00.002-07:002015-07-27T14:26:33.549-07:002-year TT reviewI am up for 2-year TT review in the coming weeks. Technically I have been on this job for only 1 year and 6 months. This is my first such review.<br />
<br />
I am not sure what the committee looks for, but I am going to try to show the following:<br />
<br />
<u><b>Research</b></u> <br />
1) Established an active research program; got a larger space from the department and established a college wide center<br />
<br />
2) Am supervising PhD, MS, undergrad and high-school students. Of course none of them have graduated till now. PhD people cant since it has been only 1.5 years for me to be here. MS will hopefully show more progress in this coming semester<br />
<br />
3) Wrote a ton of grants. And by ton I mean 19 !<br />
<br />
Now that I am writing it this seems to be a larger number. In my defense not all of them were complete grants (Like NSF 15 pages and NIH 12 pages). Some were smaller ( 1 or 2 pages) and some were collaborative (where again I wrote 1 or 2 pages).<br />
<br />
Out of these I was successful in 5. This looks like a small number. In my defense 2 of the successful ones were NSF grants.<br />
<br />
4) I was able to make my last year paper productive by finishing up the papers from my postdoc ( and since I didn't had a lab and/or students there was nothing much I could do). This makes up 4 papers.<br />
<br />
This year my lab (with me being a senior author) have been able to produce papers. This number is 3 but 3 more papers are ready to be submitted (in 4 weeks hopefully).<br />
<br />
<u><b>Teaching </b></u><br />
1) I think I did good in teaching. Got decent reviews from my undergrad class. Taught 2 grad classes and the reviews were mostly positive. I am not sure what else to add here.<br />
<b> </b><br />
A collegue of mine adds up the stats from his reviews. Another adds up comments as well. May be I will do a combination of these two.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Service</b></u><br />
1) Did a ton of service for conferences, journals. Was an editor for 2 special issues and 1 in progress. Also chairing 2 conference workshops.<br />
2) did service for the department as well as the college.<br />
<br />
<br />
What else would they look for? Am I missing something?<br />
<br />
<br />Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061048297624093491.post-74382289743959384672015-07-07T07:58:00.001-07:002015-07-07T08:08:50.623-07:00Students insulting professors The title is not misleading.<br />
<br />
A student comes to my office and is visibly upset since hir paper has been rejected. I take the following steps:<br />
<br />
1) Offer my insight on why the paper was rejected.<br />
2) Pointed out that one of the reviewers had a valid point<br />
3) we should look at the valid point and try to revise the paper accordingly<br />
4) we should do more experiments ( that I have advised you to do in the previous hundred meetings)<br />
<br />
The students looks at me for sometimes and then offers hir insights.<br />
<br />
a) The paper is fine but I am going to revise the grammar n stuff<br />
b) the experiments that you are talking cannot be done (I know for sure that they can be)<br />
c) the reviewers did not understand the paper and one of the reviewers was discriminatory towards me ( though the reviews were mixed and there was no indication atleast on paper that this has happened; plus the reviewer had a valid point)<br />
<b>d) I think that we should involve other researcher/professor who knows about research and can get me to write the paper that can be published (because of course you are no at par to this task).</b><br />
<br />
I have heard points a,b,c before but the last point stuck to me. I have a PhD from a large R1 university, years of postdoc at a national lab and papers that are close to 30 in number in well-respected journals and conference proceedings. <br />
<br />
I am sure that I know how to write up a paper that can get published. But you the student sure do not know how to even write a paragraph without making 10 grammar mistakes. Ofcourse is hir sight it is all my fault that I have not been able to make hir write a paper that is worth publishing despite spending enormous amount of time editing his papers to make it readable.<br />
<br />
I am just wondering though is it only me or does this happen to everyone (atleast the junior faculty?) I have another colleague (female tenure track) who has experienced this sort of thing. So may be it is a junior faculty thing or this 40 something student is that naive (btw I am in my very early 30's)? but this has been weighing on me since yesterday. I know it shouldn't but I cant believe what I am hearing.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Funny Researcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971957974804668620noreply@blogger.com3