The holiday was interesting. Did some travel both inside and outside the US, encouraged my students to take time off (unless they had tests on living specimens), spent the minimal amount of time on family, got a bunch of reading and drawing done, and really recharged the batteries. I should have taken a little more time, but research needs to continue. Some students have taken work home with them, which I am very glad to hear status reports of, but I have no ill-will for taking a couple weeks off during the holiday. We’ll have some one-on-one kick-off meetings this week to get goals set up along with some general housekeeping stuff. I have a new project I got a seed grant for that I need to start on. I will have a post about the starting-up of a new project I’ve been wanting to write.
This upcoming semester I have a new class that I never taught. It will be a challenge because this will be the largest class I’ve ever taught (~60 students). And because I rely heavily on whiteboard lectures with very few Powerpoint slides I have to become an expert on a topic I’m not exactly an expert on. Instead of submitting in the January cycle of applications I will be focusing on becoming not the expert my students need, but the one they deserve.
Side note: I fucking love this cold weather. Getting all bundled up to walk around, doing a little snow shoveling, and snuggling at home are awesome.
Few topics I’m going to address this year:
- Undergraduate researchers
- Shifting funding sources
- Connecting collaborators with industry
- Starting up a brand new project
- I’m getting recruited
- Discrimination at conferences
academic infiltration 