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I haven’t been blogging much as I am a) recovering from the semester and b) writing technical stuff 24/7. So I am a little tapped out. As I am thinking about writing, it’s fitting that I write about writing. Perhaps I should go full-meta and write about writing about writing… For now, I give you a few technical writing…
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Over the decade that I have spent in my home department, I have witnessed several faculty colleagues retire. A number retired in their 60’s or 70’s; they had been active in research and faculty governance till the very last day, but were forgotten soon thereafter and are hardly ever mentioned today. Their labs were given to…
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A day in the life: 6:30-8:30 Morning routine (lunches, drive Eldest to school, wake/feed the Littles, make self presentable) 8:30-9:00 Morning commute (w/ possible drop-off of 1-2 of the Littles) 9:00-5:30 Work 5:30-6:00 Evening commute (w/ possible pickup of 1-2 of the Littles) 6:00-7:00 Dinner prep, dinner 7:00-8:30 Playtime with kids (DH is the bomb!) 8:30-9:30 Bedtime…
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I am bracing for a summer of proposal writing, paper writing, and conference travel. Proposals that are going out in the fall are important, as are the papers that will enable me to write a competitive renewal for another agency about a year from now. I am very excited, but also twice as anxious. I…
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Over the past few weeks I have been working on papers with several students in parallel, and I am again pulling my hair out and wondering if there is a way to get the writing done and the students trained without me going bald. Reporting findings in written form is an inherent part of doing science.…
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A Chemical Imbalance — a film, a book and a call for action The movie (below) and project are about women in STEM and their continued under-representation. The movie illustrates the issue through historical data and interviews with several faculty from the University of Edinburgh School of Chemistry (recipient of the Athena Swan Gold Award).
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A few weeks ago I chatted with a colleague. One issue that came up was this colleague’s frustration with a student whom the colleague recognized as very talented, someone with great potential in the colleague’s area of study, but also someone who had no interest in applying themselves towards achieving excellence. I understand where the…
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For faculty on the semester system, there are only a couple of weeks of teaching left. This is probably the busiest time of the year, due to the sinister convergence of the semester ending and the conference season approaching. Program committees of many conferences are working hard these days to evaluate the abstracts; I am…
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Some time ago DH and I went to see ZZ Ward live. It was the best concert I have been to in a long time. She and the musicians who work with her are absolutely SENSATIONAL live. The live performance is even better than the already excellent studio album (“Til the Casket Drops“). ZZ Ward is still touring and,…
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I have been a professor for nearly 10 years. I am good at what I do and respected within my community, as small as it is. I am well-funded, although that’s always a temporarily accurate statement. As I do theory and computation, I don’t bring in oodles of money, but I have always been able to support…