tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74526127727196150222011-12-12T00:32:42.335-07:00Musings on life, science, and life as a scientistProfessor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.comBlogger981100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-23758905960334286562010-04-06T08:29:00.002-06:002010-04-06T08:34:37.146-06:00

Except that I don't really work in a lab in the traditional sense and I'm not very domestic. And I spend more time writing papers and analyzing data these days than actually collecting it...Perhaps I'm more like the Goddess of Paper Writing and Not Burning My House Down... Anyway, here are my five pieces of evidence that I am a new domestic and science goddess of some sort: 1) I am now an

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-10778204987168262312010-03-17T09:16:00.001-06:002010-03-17T09:16:44.170-06:00

It took me several days before I realized I had such nice comments on my last post! Why, you might wonder? Afterall, one of my last posts (I won't call it 'recent') extolled the virtues of my iPhone. Why did my iPhone not alert me to the presence of my happy readers stopping by, you might wonder? The story goes like this: It was a dark and stormy morning...ok, it was actually sunlit and

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-79664000579633802372010-03-09T16:04:00.001-07:002010-03-09T16:04:06.557-07:00

dkfj;sdklfjsiodhg (hmmm, how does this thing work?) nfkdfndkhfr (oh, look, when I press on these buttons, letters appear on the screen. /wipes dust off blog). I thought about starting this post off with the obligatory apology for going so absolutely silent. But I do a lot of apologizing these days and felt like my own blog was the one place where perhaps I would skip that step. With the baby

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-78757867567186814932009-11-06T06:41:00.001-07:002009-11-06T06:41:29.717-07:00

Things I've learned while I've been slowly ramping up how much time I spend working versus doing baby-related things: 1) Working at home is still more productive than working at school...if Baby Mayhem agrees to take her naps or her grandmother is visiting. I really thought that going to work would be critical for managing to get work done. But I'm only at school 1-2 days per week and those

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-67125804793340630092009-10-28T18:27:00.001-06:002009-10-28T18:27:52.512-06:00

A while back, FSP and Drugmonkey had posts about "ruining one's career". These really hit home with me in a deep and personal way and I've been trying to figure out how to blog about it ever since. You see, my name is Professor Chaos and I am an inveterate "career ruiner". I have violated almost every 'rule' out there for how to have a successful career. We've all heard these 'rules'. They range

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-9614181927746738132009-10-23T11:23:00.001-06:002009-10-23T11:23:27.953-06:00

I've been getting a great deal of amusement out of the coverage of a Georgetown University student who advertised for a personal assistant. He will pay his assistant an hourly rate and I particularly loved some of his pay restrictions. For example, he would not pay for the full time to do laundry because much of that time was 'dead time' and the assistant could do their own thing while waiting

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-87362613124252427082009-10-01T10:56:00.001-06:002009-10-01T10:56:39.483-06:00

Yesterday, Nat left the following comment: Be sure to keep us updated as Baby Mayhem fully grows into her powers! I present my vision of what Baby Mayhem's full powers may look like: I also think the baby sitter accurately reflects the state of mind of the first time parent of a newborn, where Jack Jack's tricks are actually random spewings from all orifices. Also, the scene where the

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-62057923991549916902009-09-30T09:19:00.001-06:002009-09-30T09:19:47.140-06:00

Well, it's been a long time since I've done this. Let's see if I remember how this goes... As one or two of you may have noticed, I've been off line for the past couple of months. I blame the new addition to the family. So let me do this all formal like (clears throat): General Disarray and Professor Chaos proudly introduce their daughter Baby Mayhem. Of course she's a couple months old so it's

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-37668681226371359092009-07-10T09:37:00.001-06:002009-07-10T09:37:03.588-06:00

Well, I cleaned my office the other day and while I cannot say I'm joyous, I do feel less like a giant rock is sitting on my soul every time I sit at my computer! Thanks to everyone for encouraging to just take the time and do it. Of course, after the cleaning, the grant writing flurry hit high speed and now I need to buy a can of grant-be-gone. Part of my funk this summer is that while I'm not

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-35783066275547157322009-07-08T08:13:00.001-06:002009-07-08T08:13:41.952-06:00

Well, I did it. I submitted my grants yesterday. I cannot tell you what a feeling of freedom and relief I feel! I have now submitted five grants while pregnant - often multiples at a time. For those of you wondering what it feels like to write five grants while teaching large lecture classes, doing research, mentoring students, serving on budget crisis committees, and being pregnant ...well,

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-59687836607340307442009-06-23T11:41:00.001-06:002009-06-23T11:41:14.407-06:00

When I started this summer, I had all sorts of glorious plans. No, I wasn't running away to Cinque Terre (though I wish right now that I had). For the last few years I have been pushing hard - working like a machine to get papers out the door, build my lab, and write grants. The fruits of that labor have been more or less paying off this past year - the papers are coming out and my students are

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-14183214532061251062009-06-08T09:09:00.001-06:002009-06-08T09:09:53.914-06:00

It's that time of year again; that nail biting, anxious, 'why don't they love me', maybe they called while I was in the bathroom, time of year. No, no, no, I don't mean the new National Academy of Science members announcements. That came out end of April, and I noticed I was passed over once again this year in what I can only interpret as blatant ageism. I mean, how is someone as young as me

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-11223344777860189532009-06-03T09:25:00.001-06:002009-06-03T09:25:04.991-06:00

As school came to a close, I - like many of the professoriate - became excited about all the time I would have to work on the things that have languished during the school year. Writing exciting papers, generating interesting grant ideas, reading stacks of cool papers published this past year, these were the things I was salivating to do. After school ended, I sat down at my computer, cracked my

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-16133098298082353372009-04-17T16:42:00.001-06:002009-04-17T16:42:15.219-06:00

There is one class of people on this campus that I fear the most. If I see them in the hallway, I flee quickly to my office and shut the door. If they knock on my door, I pretend I'm not there. I once had one of them wait outside my closed office door for almost a half-hour (I know this because I texted General Disarray to let me know when it was safe to emerge. He offered to come down and scare

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-313060440798291152009-04-12T08:31:00.001-06:002009-04-12T08:31:02.595-06:00

I hadn't realized how irritated I was with my various pregnancy-related interactions until I sat down to write my previous post. The combination of the writing of the post and the awesome feedback acted as a much-needed aggravation purge (thank you everyone!). But I particularly enjoyed the comments by PhysioProf and Toaster Sunshine: Toaster Sunshine "My own mother recently admitted that I was

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-6716410963685408002009-03-24T08:44:00.001-06:002009-03-24T08:44:03.754-06:00

...in an academic setting. 1) Even highly educated normally well-adjusted women seem to go insane. Not me. I'm still highly rational (just don't ask General Disarray, he's biased). No, I'm not talking about random fits of crying. I'm talking about the women who keep stopping by my office to give me mothering advice. Things like: "You're going to take the year off from work, right? You'll need to

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-26832631046331803832009-03-22T09:13:00.001-06:002009-03-22T09:13:12.119-06:00

I've been feeling guilty of late for my complete blog silence, especially since in response to my last post everyone gave me such great feedback about contacting editors about bizarre reviews. I haven't had a chance to test that advice (despite a manuscript currently getting bizarre blow back from some reviewers), but that's really a story for another post. So I came back and visited my orphaned

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-3307049518253782542009-02-10T16:29:00.003-07:002009-02-10T16:32:03.482-07:00

Along with my blogging, I've been way behind on my blog reading and just finished reading a "recent" post by Dr. Jekyll and Mrs Hyde about a paper she just had soft rejected. What caught my attention was the following statement: "I sort of wish that GradAdvisor would call the editor for a chat, just to get more information (did the normal reviewers vote for revise/resubmit? were there other

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-31740848929264140602009-02-07T07:20:00.001-07:002009-02-07T07:20:33.423-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been having some....completion issues. As I sat and thought about this last night, I realized that my completion issues resulted from a lack in my normal zeal for science. I would get part way through the post and realize that I was simply too demoralized to finish. So why am I demoralized? The main part is that science hasn't been a lot of fun recently.

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-5411194427524892372009-02-05T17:53:00.001-07:002009-02-05T17:53:10.280-07:00

You are not aware of this, but I have been a blogging fiend. The problem is I haven't finished any of them. There are six different half-finished posts sitting on my computer. I don't know what's wrong with me, I could blame my class or how busy I am or anxiety over the budget crisis but the fact is I am having focus problems right now. But maybe I can do a meme, so if it works a 'thanks' to

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-11605248107492595492009-01-25T19:22:00.001-07:002009-01-25T19:22:39.108-07:00

So, I took the personality quiz and like PiT, I'm not sure what to make of my results, especially since Comrade Physioprof was deemed a conscientious and agreeable person, but here it goes. Neuroticism Neuroticism (sometimes also called Emotional Instability) is the tendency to experience negative emotions such as sadness or anxiety. People who score high on neuroticism are vulnerable to

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-48786199575892745182009-01-22T15:59:00.001-07:002009-01-22T15:59:48.805-07:00

I once saw an interview with Beyonce where she explained that that she had created a separate name for her stage-self because the person she needed to be on stage was so different from how she saw herself. I totally get this. I too have an alter ego and she is much better at being a professor than I am.  You see, I find talking to people...draining. I can't explain it any better than that.

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-33616886319410325952009-01-20T07:50:00.001-07:002009-01-20T07:50:48.836-07:00

So, my big plans for this year revolve around tenure...but perhaps not in the way you might be thinking. I go up for tenure this fall. My plans for this year are not to make a big push of grants and papers to secure my promotion. The way things work here, as soon as my binder goes in front of my committee early this fall, it is written in stone and nothing else that comes out after that moment

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-66072309074299855622009-01-19T14:29:00.001-07:002009-01-19T14:29:10.905-07:00

Now that my grant and manuscript deadlines are past and my class is under control, I'm finally feeling like I have enough time to reflect on life. Usually every January, either consciously or subconsciously, I reflect on the current status of my life and assess whether or not I'm happy with things. For most of my career, this has been done mainly subconsciously as I had been very pleased with my

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-58060390987259543542009-01-09T15:00:00.001-07:002009-01-09T15:00:33.681-07:00

So, as I mentioned yesterday I've been slightly overwhelmed lately. I had two grants initially due today. I begged shamelessly for an extension on one of them because we received the reviews from the previous submission so late (NSF program calls are target dates and thus program officers can bend them if they wish but its always better to ask ahead of time because they don't have to accept late

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-10949160046294659742009-01-08T17:40:00.001-07:002009-01-08T17:40:09.632-07:00

I've been watching with great envy as Prof-like Substance worked on two grants, had his entire family succumb to stomach virus, took time off for Xmas, and still had the ability to blog about his travails. I too have been writing two grants, battled uncomfortable stomach conditions, took a couple of days off to visit family, and I have not been able to muster the will to blog about any of it. My

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-86384400658837671552008-12-18T09:46:00.002-07:002008-12-18T09:46:51.212-07:00

I thought I would have a good bit of time this week to get into the blogging groove before shutting down for the winter solstice, but the funding gods have laughed at me, so here I am working feverishly on two different proposals for the January NSF deadline. One of the proposals is important for my research future. The other, just rejected, proposal is critical for my research present. All I

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-79044587055646673132008-12-11T18:58:00.003-07:002008-12-11T19:00:44.543-07:00

Once a week or so I check on the search terms people have entered into some search engine that have brought them to my humble blog. Much of it is rather mundane; I sadly get a lot of hits on academic bullies, thanks to the posts Academic Bully: Symptoms and Diagnosis and Academic Bully: Treatment and Side Effects. I also get a shocking number of people looking for: your carrier is not supported

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-72408657681121675532008-12-09T22:20:00.001-07:002008-12-10T20:14:43.745-07:00

"As I seem to do at least once a week, I would like to point my readers over to a great discussion occurring at DrugMonkey." That sentence was actually written for a post in Sept, but I've decided to just start using it as a heading to let people know this will be a DrugMonkey inspired post. So, once again, ladies and gentlemen, a DrugMonkey inspired post. In Problem? What Gender Problem?, 

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-68128222717620518952008-12-08T22:25:00.001-07:002008-12-10T20:14:43.747-07:00

So, ever since I wrote about Being on the Circuit, I've been wondering about the truth behind the General's Disarray new tactic for convincing me to actually get on a plane and give departmental seminar talks. In my experience, invitations to speak at departmental seminars often arise from either a colleague issuing an invite and/or an internal nomination process with a committee (sometimes

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-45252107527296264002008-12-06T21:47:00.001-07:002008-12-10T20:16:42.371-07:00

Well, really it's eight months of blogging, since Professor Chaos didn't open its doors until May. In the spirit of Abel Pharmboy, the bit of introspection I've gleaned from putting this meme together is that a lot of my blogging is inspired by my fellow bloggers discussing things that resonate in my life. The sad thing is that I'm inspired more often than I have time to write. I have reams of

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-53624639116265782482008-12-05T07:54:00.001-07:002008-12-10T20:17:57.696-07:00

I love Fridays. I love Fridays with a passion. Every Friday morning I wake up and say to myself "Thank God it's Friday!" You might wonder if this is a sign that perhaps I should find another job. Obviously River Tam is not really enjoying her academic life if she pines for Fridays so longingly. But you would be W-R-O-N-G. I love Fridays because it is a day I jealously guard from all demands. I

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-56577582201800833652008-12-04T02:36:00.001-07:002008-12-04T02:36:27.433-07:00

I have been traveling an almost obscene amount recently. My travel these days is almost completely driven by a combination of travel for research collaborations and a sudden spike in invitations to talk at various departments and programs. A senior colleague of mine once complained to me about the travel demands of being on the "the circuit" - the series of seminars and other appearances that

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-25972465782666430952008-11-28T20:37:00.001-07:002008-11-28T20:37:41.227-07:00

So, I'm catching up on the blogosphere after my extended absence and realized I had not fulfilled my taggee obligations. Besides, it's a good way to get my blogging muscles warmed up! 5 Things I was Doing 10 years Ago: (1)  Wondering if I was ever going to finish my Ph.D (2) Feeling bad about myself because I had dated the wrong boy and it had gone badly - like keying his car badly (not

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-18940178029396844932008-11-27T11:11:00.001-07:002008-11-27T11:11:42.789-07:00

I thought about just returning to blogging by ignoring that I've been gone for the past few weeks, but today is Thanksgiving and the past couple of weeks have given me much to be thankful for. Two weeks ago I went in for a routine checkup and my doctor found a suspicious lump in a breast. Since, within the past year, two people I knew from my graduate school were diagnosed with breast cancer, I

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-222767958110282642008-11-12T10:38:00.000-07:002008-12-10T20:14:43.748-07:00

Before I get started, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who commented on yesterday's post. I think it is safe to say that it is the most interesting discussion I have ever had here at Professor Chaos. Thank you all so much for thinking about what I said and sharing your thoughts and opinions on it. For those of you who did not comment, even if you did not like my post, please go read

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-56238225803484475412008-11-11T13:33:00.001-07:002008-12-10T20:14:43.750-07:00

I am a slow thinker, so sometimes it takes me a few days (and an insightful conversation with General Disarray) to figure out exactly what I think about something. I've been watching and mulling over the extended conversation about Isis that has been occurring around the blogosphere. This conversation has inspired me to talk about an issue that I have been pondering for a while: feminine

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-11677522438151159532008-11-07T07:40:00.001-07:002008-11-07T07:40:56.770-07:00

One of my Friday morning rituals is to sip my coffee and look up my h index on Web of Science (for my biomedical peeps, that's our equivalent of PubMed).  For those of you who may not know what I am talking about, your h-index is the number of papers (N) cited at least N times and it is supposed to provide a metric for comparing the productivity and impact of researchers within a field. It is

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-62652294102969822802008-11-03T08:36:00.001-07:002008-11-03T08:36:35.344-07:00

One of the things I both love and loathe about being an ecologist is the travel: travel to conferences, travel for research, travel to give seminars. I love experiencing new locations, being outdoors, meeting new people, eating new foods. But I hate being away from General Disarray, meeting new people, and gaining 10 pounds from all the eating out at restaurants. Oh, and coming home is also a

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-84236405757615188902008-10-27T17:53:00.001-06:002008-12-10T20:16:42.372-07:00

Well, i'm on the road again (the life of a vagrant ecologist) and like clockwork one of the meme things is passing around. I've been watching it pass through the circle of blogs I read like a nasty cold and I thought perhaps I had escaped this one since I've been out of contact, but no.....thank you, Dr Dr A, for making sure I "didn't feel left out". Very....kind. Oh well, I was going to write

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-64322902724664702252008-10-16T11:02:00.001-06:002008-10-16T11:02:09.246-06:00

I have recently gotten into a bit of trouble for my use of Isis-esque pictorial references in my recent blog posts: PS: Let's try to keep this obvious imitation to a minimum, though. You can't be stealing Dr. Isis's schtick or you may make it on to the list of people I call "bullshit" on. I understand the Goddess' ire. And I am willing to be tried by a court of my blogging peers. So let me take

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-34663298891568379722008-10-15T08:09:00.001-06:002008-10-15T08:09:50.943-06:00

I was going to write "a NIH* funded biomedical researcher", but it turns out that it would need to be more like "If I had $2.69-3.38 million..." Figure 1. How I imagine biomedical researchers like Dr. Isis examine their grant monies. I need not remind everyone that Dr. Isis, of course, is way hotter*. Before my ecology compatriots have brain hemorrhages and have to explain to their

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-54387845386584972312008-10-07T21:26:00.001-06:002008-12-10T20:14:43.752-07:00

Ever since my conversation about the case of the disappearing women, I have had one thought going through my head: I am a very lucky woman. To General Disarray's amusement, this thought is often followed with me telling him how lucky I am to have married him. (Right after the fateful conversation, I think I was telling him this every hour on the hour. I've pared that back a little since then - it

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-1847350553228113102008-10-06T20:32:00.001-06:002008-10-06T20:32:48.308-06:00

I realized the other day that I have started cringing whenever one of my colleagues here at Confused U asks me a particular question. In fact, I have started reacting rather bizarrely in response to this question. It doesn't always play out badly, but it has happened enough lately, that it is causing me some mental angst. To avoid this question, I now deploy my extrasensory conversational

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-76215165023450539252008-10-03T10:42:00.001-06:002008-10-03T10:42:14.578-06:00

...you end up with a slightly crazed week. Turns out when you have 4 papers and 1 job application trying to go out the door at once, you end up with a jammed door.  I did get the first application in - thanks to those who gave feedback to my earlier post (Especially DrDrA, I have to admit I checked out your advice and packets links quite a bit). We did in the end decide not to mention our status

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-1807069168953609742008-09-30T13:06:00.001-06:002008-09-30T13:06:08.294-06:00

When exactly the concept of leadership died in our country, I do not know. But the events of the past 24 hours focused a pretty strong spotlight on Congress and the White House. Of all the muddled, confusing, and frightening things that came out of the bail out debacle, one message was shockingly clear: there are no leaders in Washington. It seems clear to me that we are experiencing severe

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-11060794067906851242008-09-30T08:46:00.001-06:002008-09-30T08:51:28.946-06:00

It's been a few years since I last constructed a job packet. In my memory, it was such a simple thing to put together. A short letter detailing why I was interested in/fit their job and selling the highlights of my credentials. A page on my teaching philosophy - which, for the jobs I was applying to, I figured would probably not even be read. A research statement, lovingly crafted with my current

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-82919730904967987262008-09-28T17:12:00.001-06:002008-09-30T08:51:02.826-06:00

Challenged by the fact that PhysioProf could mobile blog and I couldn't, I perservered in my quest for remote blogging. My efforts have been rewarded. Yeah! -- Post From My iPhone

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-77545291985911184572008-09-27T12:01:00.001-06:002008-09-30T08:50:55.389-06:00

For those of you following my little blog, you know that General Disarray and I have been contemplating hitting the market this fall. We're pretty picky about where we would go (afterall, no point jumping to an equivalent or worse situation) and finally a couple of jobs have opened up which have caught our attention. Two of these are of the generic "looking for anyone in the fields of ecology and

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-15223222816637749922008-09-27T08:51:00.001-06:002008-09-30T08:50:40.536-06:00

This week I was away from my desk (yeah!) for an extended period of time (yeah!) in a scenario where I did not have computer access to the internet, but I did have phone access. I had some time on my hands, and missed my blogosphere peeps, so I thought I would figure out how to do some mobile blogging. Afterall, having advanced internet capabilities was one of the reasons I got that fancyass

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-74586816865802996882008-09-19T16:29:00.001-06:002008-09-30T08:50:29.857-06:00

This morning was one of those mornings when it seems almost impossible to make yourself do things you desperately need to do. When the brain is just not inspired and stabbing yourself in the eye (repeatedly) seems like more fun than typing one more word. The bummer is I'm not talking trivial mole whacking things being due. I talking revisions due to journals and reviews due to NSF. General

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-40950886932356669132008-09-15T08:56:00.001-06:002008-09-30T08:50:17.734-06:00

(I tried initially to do this is a comment, but as you will see, my commenters gave me so much to think about that it quickly ballooned - I strongly recommend that anyone reading this entry, read the comments to "The Case of the Disappearing Women" first.) First, I want to say thank you to all of you for your comments. I've been disturbed by the conversation I had last week about the

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-12599739248841823242008-09-13T08:55:00.001-06:002008-09-30T08:50:17.736-06:00

Despite the discussion this week about ogling and more posts on breasts than I can fathom (in fairness, we really should have penis week to bring cosmic balance back to the blogosphere! And it looks like Isis has gotten Penis Week off to a rousing start), I've been feeling really good about the outlook for female scientists in my field.   Graduate programs in ecology are now pretty much 50-50

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-30687190290140414292008-09-11T16:30:00.001-06:002008-09-30T08:50:03.619-06:00

I have remained silent as I have watched the culinary battle between PhysioProf and Isis unfold. It is all very entertaining and I will admit that I have been voting. But at the risk of some serious swearwords and smiting (I honestly prefer Drugmonkey to be the next person blown out of the sky by the goddess as opposed to my humble self), I must finally say my peace: this competition is crap.

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-80703353710517221282008-09-11T08:58:00.001-06:002008-09-11T08:58:44.401-06:00

When I opened my word processor this morning to work on reformatting a manuscript to submit to a new journal, I realized that I am a very blessed individual. What made me appreciate my blessed-ness? Well, MS Word has starting displaying some...interesting features. First, it...scrolls. Don't know how to explain it any better, but the MSWord window no longer fits on my screen, but if I move my

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-71319716439799950022008-09-09T09:24:00.001-06:002008-09-30T08:49:39.942-06:00

Candid Engineer asked me a while back to expand on how a nice R1 girl like myself ended up at a confused R2 like this. I've been struggling with exactly how to answer that question for a couple of weeks now. Like most things in life, it is rarely simple how one got to where one is - but I will do my best to sidestep the philosophical issues on this one and stick to the facts. The ultimate

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-65837375622293741892008-09-08T13:26:00.001-06:002008-09-30T08:48:44.511-06:00

When Isis wrote her post using the Despair.com de-inspirational posters, I was totally excited. Back in my more dark-humor post-doc days, when the randomness of the job market obsessed me, I adored the Despair.com posters. So, I followed her link and perused my favorites once again. Figure 1. Example from the River Tam list of favorites: "Mediocrity: It takes a lot less time and most people

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-37442854927689358822008-09-04T08:49:00.001-06:002008-09-04T11:53:32.437-06:00

I block out time every week that is dedicated to research. During that time, I do not answer the phone, I do not answer my door, I do not respond to emails. I work on whatever research project needs my attention. This is my survival strategy which insures that I actually have something to show my tenure committee every year when I am evaluated (especially important since my university refuses to

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-73172564491110241032008-09-02T09:53:00.001-06:002008-09-04T11:52:57.365-06:00

As I seem to do at least once a week, I would like to point my readers over to a great discussion occurring at DrugMonkey. This time the topic is on paper authorship in the Biological/Biomedical Sciences. The main points of discussion circulate around PhysioProf's 5 authorship scenarios/issues: 1) collaboration between labs, 2) authorship for trainees, 3) to credit or not credit people who ran

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-6575710710164037952008-08-28T13:33:00.001-06:002008-09-04T11:52:44.619-06:00

After spending the morning dealing with Dr. Crapweasel, I decided that I needed a little break before being let loose in the lab this afternoon. While responding to some comments on my blog, I realized that I had not "opened" a missive from DrDrA. Imagine my surprise when I found that I had won this: I am not sure what...this...is, but allow me now to express my...gratitude. I would like to

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-88691025254014446802008-08-28T09:28:00.002-06:002008-08-28T10:35:35.890-06:00

Holy crap, batman, academic bullies are just flying out of the woodwork. Makes me wonder if I've been mistakenly putting on my academic bully attractant instead of my deodorant in the mornings! First there was the student trying to bully me into scheduling his comps for a time I repeatedly told him I couldn't do. Now, this morning I awoke to a series of emails that made me both laugh and cry at

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-84797695493829227522008-08-27T09:06:00.001-06:002008-08-28T10:36:10.615-06:00

Last year, General Disarray read "Getting things done", subscribed to 43 folders and decided he would organize his professional life. He bought a label maker, in-and-out boxes, file holders, and lots of paraphernalia I did not understand but he swore the book told him to buy. He created elaborate to-do lists with color coding and converted emails to tasks so that his inbox was no longer his to-do

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-60604390445018611862008-08-26T08:18:00.001-06:002008-08-28T10:34:38.343-06:00

I understand that scheduling one's comprehensive exam is a stressful and important matter, which is why I was happy to discuss with you several months ago any constraints on when I could be present for the oral exam in the fall. In this meeting, I was crystal clear that the only month that would cause me problems was November as I will be gone for a large chunk of that month. This was no problem,

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-8567559221489246502008-08-25T08:43:00.001-06:002008-08-28T10:36:10.616-06:00

One of the things my post-doc and graduate student training did not prepare me for is the sheer amount of stuff that a professor needs to do on a daily basis. For example, on my board today (which is mostly left over from last week plus things I really should do today): inquire about a university vehicle, email someone I met at ESA, talk to one of my students about a specific project, email a

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-3665748305958460962008-08-22T09:02:00.001-06:002008-08-28T10:36:51.803-06:00

An anonymous commenter yesterday brought up an incredibly important point to remember when we discuss what kinds of publication records make our institutions (and tenure committees) happy. "My point is that impact factors and so-called "top tier" journals are supposed to give some indication of quality and "toughness" in publishing. But there will always be someone who looks at numbers of

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-8857802895829874912008-08-21T08:12:00.002-06:002008-08-28T10:36:51.804-06:00

There is an intensely fascinating discussion occurring over at DrugMonkey right now on the importance of journal choice strategy for manuscript submission. Instead of polluting their nice discussion, I thought I would use my own blog to provide an ecologist's commentary. Let me start this discussion with a quote from PhysioProf's original entry: "If your papers are being routinely accepted with

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-10766788036743193972008-08-20T10:01:00.001-06:002008-08-28T10:37:08.781-06:00

I found the discussion to yesterday's entry so interesting that I decided that instead of leaving my own comment I would just write a whole 'nother entry! A majority of my commenters seem to believe that there exists a class of people who believe (consciously or not) that bad things that happen to others will not happen to them. (I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a maladaptive trait that

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-63553660548912869042008-08-19T09:13:00.002-06:002008-08-19T09:25:24.941-06:00

When I was at the Ecology Meeting a couple of weeks ago, I actually spent great deal of time talking to graduate students and post-docs. One interaction in particular really hit home for me. A graduate student was seriously depressed about their advisor. Not necessarily shocking in and of itself, but the stories that began emanating from this student were eye-popping. I mean stories that would

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-366785140847566422008-08-18T09:18:00.002-06:002008-08-19T09:23:35.110-06:00

Coming to work this morning, there was an energy in the air that has been missing for months. The groundskeepers were busy mowing, pruning, and primping plants. The parking lot was filled by 8am. The vending machine which had sat empty since May was suddenly full. With all these omens of doom and gloom in the air, I finally had to confront reality....school is about to start. After hiding

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-5383142594558963892008-08-16T13:11:00.001-06:002008-08-19T09:23:51.473-06:00

BikeMonkey thinks I'm worrying too much. Looking back at my past week of posts, perhaps I can concede that I have been a bit....somber and irascible. However, his prescription for me is another meme. I suspect that being tagged has nothing to do with improving my mental health and everything to do with trying to find someone who will play, but I'm willing to give anything a try at this point.

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-38631665082314876402008-08-15T11:20:00.001-06:002008-08-19T09:24:14.231-06:00

You know the school year is about to start when all the retreats begin. There are the college retreats, the departmental retreats, the retreats for those apparently too criminally insane (or masochistic) to not have made up a reason to be out of the state.... I have spent the most craptastic week going to retreats. I don't have balls, but I feel right now like I've always imagined it feels like

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-32631009763321301212008-08-12T19:45:00.002-06:002008-08-15T09:51:55.271-06:00

Update: I've been away for the past couple of days, but I have recompiled the list with the fantastic comments that have been shared (I have given credit to the appropriate person as being the source but have interpreted their comments through my own crankiness!)I've been cranky and unhappy this week and felt like I needed a little cathartic humor (apparently delving into what is wrong with math

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-18426415496932614582008-08-12T09:57:00.001-06:002008-08-19T09:24:40.400-06:00

FSP's post this morning on an article last week in the Chronicle of Higher Education ("How our culture keeps students out of science" by Peter Wood) gave General Disarray and me a great deal to talk about this morning on our way to work. If you have not read either her post or the original article, I suggest you check them out. In short, there are a couple of paragraphs that re-raise the specter

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-3371172338796148772008-08-11T09:06:00.001-06:002008-08-19T09:24:32.586-06:00

Well, I did it. I survived my week of forced socialization with my peers (it was even kinda fun). Those of you who have read previous posts, you'll be glad to know that I did not (only) hide in my hotel room, but did some good networking. I have a tentative invite to give a talk at a major university, students are already contacting me to join my lab, and I feel like I have a solid feel on the

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-37698422149845247342008-08-02T19:42:00.001-06:002008-08-19T09:26:02.537-06:00

I'm off to the big ecology meeting in Milwaukee so things should be quiet here at Professor Chaos for the next week. I may try to blog from the meeting, but I'm not making any promises. Afterall, writing blogs ain't meeting people...well, actually I seem to meet a lot of people writing blogs, so that's not technically true...anyway, you know what I mean. See you all on the flip side!

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-66015464924505750352008-08-01T11:01:00.002-06:002008-08-01T11:13:08.658-06:00

A few days ago Isis mentioned that like many young, female academics, she worshiped at the alter of FemaleScienceProfessor. Something about her statement brought to mind a phenomenon I often experience when at scientific meetings, which General Disarray swears happens at every time. One minute he will see me walking across a room towards him and the next I'll have disappeared behind a wall of

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-61011708184932840322008-07-30T18:01:00.002-06:002008-08-01T11:12:23.999-06:00

So, you have identified someone with the Academic Bully syndrome and are wondering how to help this unfortunate soul....or at least help yourself by helping them control their symptoms. What do you do? Honestly, it is easiest is to walk away and never look back, but sometimes this isn't possible. In this case, I have found a treatment that, so far, has been 100% effective. Before I explain the

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-41301020294684259892008-07-30T10:16:00.002-06:002008-08-01T11:13:56.904-06:00

So, I promised today part II of academic bullies, but it will have to wait. Normally I come into work, drink a cup of coffee, write a piece for the blog while my brain boots up, and then roll into my day. I wrote the academic bullies pieces this weekend at home and my brain was not capable this morning of doing anything outside the coming to work routine, so academic bullies is at home and I'm

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-64313928394976153052008-07-29T08:56:00.002-06:002008-08-01T11:14:18.494-06:00

In academia, we have a variety of adept psychological bullies. In this two-part series, I will focus on the "academic bully". The best way to describe this syndrome is through example, so I am using an interaction described by FSP on her blog: When first introduced to a grad student whose research was in a field closely related to mine, the student said "I've never heard of you." Then, in case

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-66897486082523482352008-07-28T09:47:00.002-06:002008-07-28T09:51:24.898-06:00

In less than a week, Milwaukee will be over-run by a few thousand people. These people will undoubtedly stand out from the local populace; they will be wearing Tevas or Chacos (I've supplied a link for those who have no idea what I' m talking about) and often shorts, t-shirts, fleece (in our defense it is often really cold in those convention centers), and pieces of clothing by Columbia, Mountain

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-74533039946682313682008-07-25T06:15:00.002-06:002008-07-27T21:14:42.063-06:00

I'll start today's blog with PhysioProf's comment to my blog yesterday: There's nothing wrong with ignoring this "meme tag" shit. BTW: TAG! HAHAHAHAHAH!! With two meme tags going around yesterday (the 100 books tag I blogged on yesterday and the iPod tag I'm going to do today, I've had plenty of opportunities to observe the sociology of meme tag. As any good scientist should do, I have

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-75701052972777739162008-07-24T11:01:00.002-06:002008-07-27T21:15:31.665-06:00

I don't get many comments on my site (honestly, I'm not complaining as I'm pretty antisocial anyway and don't really know how to respond to people commenting on what I say) but I was caught by surprise this morning by a comment that said only: TAG! After cautiously exploring the link attached to the word, I found I had been tagged in a game called 'meme tag' by BikeMonkey....well, that actually

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-56842292389292212752008-07-23T14:28:00.002-06:002008-07-27T21:18:25.943-06:00

The focus of my blog is not on the gender aspects of being a scientist, but as noted by other bloggers the fact of being a female scientist sometimes makes this inevitable. There have been some interesting discussions at various blogs regarding issues facing female scientists (see: Female Science Professor, PhysioProf at Feministe, and DrDrA at Blue Lab Coats). I think the recent airing of

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-31721290717011379862008-07-18T10:55:00.002-06:002008-07-27T21:26:45.853-06:00

In doing my research for my scientific blog yesterday, I ran across the following quote on the Paleobiology Database (PBDB): "The Paleobiology Database's core facility is funded by charitable contributions" I'm not sure what the story is with that. They also mention that they were originally funded by NSF, but since the "core facilities" apparently include the database coordinator, software

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-18896684738176444122008-07-17T09:20:00.003-06:002008-07-27T22:04:05.970-06:00

I'm taking a break from commenting on the perceived absurdities in the world around me to focus on a cool paper I read recently - after all science is what keeps me in academia despite the absurdities. The cool paper I'm going to focus on is: Alroy, et al (2008) Phanerozoic trends in the global diversity of marine invertebrates. Science vol 321, pages 97-100. To understand why this paper is so

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-7678221092810181072008-07-15T09:12:00.001-06:002008-07-27T22:04:46.373-06:00

Last week, the Junction Potential asked what the "bibles" of people's scientific fields were. That question got me thinking about the books I regularly pull off my shelf. Many of them are reference tomes on statistics or my favorite organism. Others are conceptual foundations for major areas of research by a single author. Others are edited volumes, where people in an area of research contribute

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-9348614615194070922008-07-12T08:02:00.001-06:002008-07-12T08:02:43.972-06:00

I thought I would post a brief message explaining my blogging absence. For the past couple of weeks I've been rushing to finish grants and manuscripts while dealing with family issues. Either blogging or my sanity had to give. After long thought, I decided that insane blogging might be amusing to some, but was probably not a long-term sustainable strategy. So, I will spend the weekend drooling on

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-240035218469764332008-07-01T12:34:00.002-06:002008-08-19T09:26:02.538-06:00

Reading Female Science Professor's post this morning about inappropriate reviewing behavior, I was inspired to muse about a common type of review I receive on my submitted manuscripts: the rabid review. If you are lucky enough to not know what I am talking about (and yes, I mean rabid and not rapid), I envy you a great deal. The past couple of papers I've submitted have attracted the rabid

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-80878762532077486712008-06-26T11:16:00.002-06:002008-07-27T22:18:00.103-06:00

I am endlessly fascinated by the discussions over at DrugMonkey. The DrugMonkey world to an ecologist is kinda like being an American in England....things are so similar yet so startlingly different. Some of the content over there is very foreign to me - R01s, and other NIH jargon (though the glossary at the site is very helpful, kinda like having a travel phrase book). Other content, while

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-2104923596755774882008-06-23T09:10:00.002-06:002008-07-27T22:06:34.905-06:00

After a more light-hearted post about ISI rankings, it's time to return to more serious topics: NSF. The deadlines for many...if not all...of the ecology and evolution-related panels at NSF are looming and we have hit that time when those of us preparing to storm the castle are getting feedback from those that the castle repulsed. The funding "no"s are trickling out now from the last round at

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-15497103314769260132008-06-20T09:09:00.002-06:002008-07-27T22:07:39.876-06:00

What?! This week the new ISI impact factors came out and I eagerly perused the new standings among my favorite academic journals. I don't know why I am so interested, but the journal scene has become something of a soap opera to me. Will Ecology Letters continue its meteoric rise or will it pay for its disturbing corporate control of author's intellectual materials? Will Nature continue it's

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-39818639687375466582008-06-18T08:30:00.003-06:002008-07-27T22:11:53.176-06:00

I read with interest a posting by DrugMonkey on the "undoubling" of the NIH budget. I poked around for similar information on the National Science Foundation, but did not find anyone who put the NSF budget in the context of inflation. NSF's funding rates have been at ~8% for my field for the past few years. There were rumors that NSF was to undergo a doubling like NIH, but it really never

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-2235999104360932552008-06-17T08:00:00.004-06:002008-07-27T22:11:04.251-06:00

As an older graduate student/young postdoc, I often noted that the people who received lots of job interviews tended to have stellar academic lineages (i.e., either their Ph.D. supervisor or post-doc advisor, or both, were scientific rockstars). The cynic in me assumed that this reflected more about the psychology of academia than anything else. However, I am beginning to wonder if there really

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-69347424784443675892008-06-13T08:25:00.003-06:002008-07-27T22:12:54.013-06:00

Being a new Ph.D. advisor, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about what makes a good adviser. I was very fortunate to have a great advisor as a student (after I switched out of the lab of the crappy one I started with). My advisor (Prof. Mentor) always took time to help me when I was intellectually stuck. His enthusiasm about science was infectious and no matter how demoralized I was when I

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-70809583469567265782008-05-30T09:52:00.002-06:002008-07-27T22:14:16.523-06:00

As part of an academic couple, I have invested a lot of time gathering stories and advice on how to solve the "two-body" problem (i.e. how to get two tenure-track jobs at the same institution - or at least the same metropolitan area). The stories are almost always the same: if one spouse has a job and the other does not, the university will not come up with a second job unless an offer from

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-11949336154501728982008-05-28T13:58:00.002-06:002008-07-27T22:15:06.532-06:00

My first exposure to a blog was El Gentraso, by John Whitfield, which I found after reading his excellent book In the Beat of a Heart. I love this blog. It's smart, witty, and often deals with ecological issues. Unfortunately, El Gentraso has been completely silent since February. My withdrawls from El Gentraso prompted me to find a replacement. So for the past few days I have been poking around

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-65482480591344083352008-05-27T09:18:00.002-06:002008-07-27T22:15:47.582-06:00

Every summer I attend two conferences. One of them is almost always the big Ecological Society of America (ESA) annual meeting. The other depends on my whims. I have a love/hate relationship with conferences that revolves around my love of seeing people I know and hearing about their research and my hate of meeting new people and being forced to figure out what I should be saying to someone I

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452612772719615022.post-10328452238724366472008-05-16T08:29:00.001-06:002008-07-27T22:17:05.563-06:00

I just finished a semester of editing more Ph.D. dissertations than I ever care to do again in a two week period. In thinking about this experience, I found that there was a common theme to my comments to these students: the context in which they put their results was incredibly important. The context can completely change how a reader thinks about what they are reading. Since one of my biggest

Professor Chaoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218728439335729853noreply@blogger.com1