The P word.

P for Productivity.

I’m thinking a lot about this right now… and I want to put this in the context of tenure clocks. Many places allow their women faculty to ‘stop’ the tenure clock when they have a child (or adopt one, I presume). Ok, we don’t have very modern maternity leave policies in this country- you can take 3 UNPAID months by law without losing your job- outside of this things vary from institution to institution, but that’s a whole different soapbox. But it’s the tenure clock stoppage and whether or not

New Blogs: Alternative scientific careers..

I’m busy right now… I’m sorry… but… for your enjoyment Mad Hatter has started a lovely new blog on the subject of alternative career options for scientists… which can be found here. I’m looking forward to reading… go over and take a look!

Love of science minus the misery…

…of the more unpleasant aspects of the job.

Did I mention that I am going to another meeting next month? In my current state of paper and grant rejection, going to a meeting doesn’t sound very appealing to me at exactly this moment. Plus, it just sounds like kind of a detour from all the paper-writing I could be hiding in my office doing during this time. This I-wanna-stay-home attitude is very unlike me- I usually really enjoy meetings, they

It’s not personal… it’s just a job

So, I’m buried under grants right now- but I’ll write a quick post just to keep you updated on some loose ends. Let’s start with the paper rejection that was so hotly discussed. I sent a politely worded appeal to the editor, and waited. And waited, and waited, and waited. After 18 days of waiting, I sent a second polite inquiry

Fun with CRISP

Every now and then I get a bug up my butt about something and spend some time poking around on CRISP. Thanks to the readership of this blog, I know that I’m not the only demented wackaloon that does this. Anyway, the convergence of grant rejection, paper rejection, general lack of motivation to pick up those two grants that I am turning over in July, and all those fabulous soccer graphs that keep appearing over at Mad Hatter’s site… I did some poking around on CRISP and graph making of my own.

A laugh…

I returned to my office from jury duty in municipal court this morning to find this… the kind gift of a laugh from one of my cherished collaborators…I don’t usually post about politics, but this was just too good ….

Unsolicited Advice: Job Search (Pt. 14)updated..

It feels a little odd to be writing about negotiating for a faculty position while I’m right in the midst of some hair raising posts about near academic faculty position disasters. But well, I was never one for perfect timing. I just write it as it comes to me.

If you should be so fortunate as to have a department chair call you and offer you an

Dissolving the Lab

No, not mine. HA- fooled you. I’m down at the moment, but not out- at least not yet. On my last post… Enrique left a comment about PIs having to dissolve their labs…

Topic: what happens when your PI’s gov. grant is not renewed (resubmission # > 1) and the concomitant dissolvation of the lab. Anyone want to hunker a guess on the time said dissolvation will take?

Well, I’ve had a front row seat to this for the last couple of years. DrMrA was struggling with his renewal for more than two years. I don’t usually share too much about DrMrA- he’s not into publicity- so I’ll just share how this went from where I was sitting. First,

Rejection… of the grant variety.

Ok, I need to let off some steam once again. Last night I returned from a meeting- exhausting affairs, these are. I returned to my office this morning to find a second rejection- this time of the grant variety. Just to keep you updated, the rejection (of the paper, covered in an earlier post) is still sitting with the editor…

A little background. This grant is to a federal agency to which I can only apply once per year. In the last submission I did very well- I was just off the funding line, by 2

Don’t just cry about it, DO SOMETHING!(updated)

I’ve had several of conversations lately with faculty senior to me about their young female graduate students. The conversations go something like this. They begin with the advisor raving about a particular female graduate student, usually including how bright said student is, what a hard worker, and how much they have or had accomplished in the lab. Then, bright female graduate student drops out of graduate school to get married (in one case she had a first author C/N/S paper) OR she graduates but leaves science to follow her spouse where ever he goes. The conversation ends with A LOT of hand wringing on the part of the advisor about how