My lab’s productivity has gone into the shitter since the pandemic started compared to previous years. I was wanting to slow down the pace of my research to focus on some areas that I find more interesting but I didn’t want it to come to a crawl. Then when the move was announced research with critical collaborators here were prioritized, while research that would continue self-sufficient in the new lab was deprioritized. It just so happens that the research with local collaborators were the ones I wanted to taper off of. But better to leave on better grounds. That being said I’m already hearing grumbling about how pissed off the locals here are. And they’re even starting to shun me a little. Screw ‘em. Some of the toxic behaviors are the reason I was looking for a new school.
Finals are this week which means I can focus 100% on the move. I’ve been connecting with new collaborators there over Teams in addition to scheduling equipment setups and lab changes. Luckily, I have a great lab tech here who’s able to arrange a lot of this. She’s not making the move but she’s in it until the end since she already has a job lined up in industry starting a couple months from now that I connected her with. She will be greatly missed.
One thing I can’t quite get a good handle on is how to get the ramp up going as quickly as possible. I didn’t submit anything this last grant cycle but want to have some really strong material for the next. And given the slowing because of the pandemic and the move my concern is jump starting the vehicle will take more than just getting equipment set up. I don’t want to rush students that just made a cross-country move to get moving quickly, but the vehicle is idling and I want to slam on that accelerator. My plan is to get animal tests scheduled to force them to get going quickly since they have a deadline. My two very motivated students won’t need this push and they’re already coordinating with facilities in the new school, but my less motivated ones (including a sluggish postdoc) will need the push.
We’re also going to an area with fewer covid restrictions so I’m looking forward to strapping the young one to my back and getting outside!
academic infiltration 