In a recent Ms. Mentor column in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Ms. Mentor fielded a question from a "Katie Anne", a "new, young assistant professor in a department of older, mostly male, tenured faculty members". Katie Anne feels invisible in her...
Wordless Wednesday: First signs of spring
Crocus, the first flower of springBi-color Daffodilstiny white lawn flowers, now identified as Star of Bethlehem flowers. (thank you, readers)Yellow pansiesWith the exception of the tiny white flowers (whose name I do not know), all of these are...
Not For Your Information
A reader writes with this cautionary tale:I don't know if you've heard about NSF FOIA requests, but you can makean FOIA request to get copies of funded proposals from NSF. Acolleague of mine told me about this; that all NSF proposals arepublic and that's...
Where You Sit
Once upon a time, when I was about to give an invited lecture at another university, my faculty host warned me ahead of time that the talk was in a very large lecture hall that was much too large for their department. Even if everyone remotely interested...
The Cat Scream
The following image has been provided to me through various indirect, circuitous, and secret Cat Channels, so I apologize that I cannot identify the original photographer, but I could not pass up the opportunity to show this amazing illustration:If I...
Academic Novels - latest
Two books that I read recently are not academic novels sensu stricto, but contain academic characters: one whose academic career is central to the novel (Pym, by Mat Johnson) and one whose academic career is peripheral (The Beautiful Things That Heaven...
Location Location Location
In conversations with colleagues during some recent travels by me and visits to my department by others, the seasonal topic of Grad Recruitment was much discussed.One issue that some colleagues clearly spend a lot of time thinking about is the relative...
Rat Race
Every once in a while, I feel like writing a post that is somewhat-to-much-more obnoxious than others. Today is one of those days, but the post is over in Scientop...
Can't, Don't, or Won't?
Not long ago, I heard a presentation by a Writing Expert -- someone (not a professor) who had expertise with teaching writing in academic contexts.She said that she understands that many professors get frustrated when their students keep making the same...
On Spring Break
A perusal of my posts on the topic of Spring Break reveals that I have discussed this excellent concept in a few contexts:March 2009: my thoughts on the correspondence or lack thereof between my school-aged daughter's spring break vs. my university's...
Impromptu Invited Talk
Imagine this general scenario:You are at (or about to go to) a conference or workshop or similar, and one of the organizers tells you that a slot has unexpectedly opened up for someone to give a talk. S/he invites you to give this talk, and you do.The...
Grant Expiration
Today in Scientopia, I discuss the mismatch between the time frame of a grant and the time frame of graduate studen...
What Did You Get?
A question for department chairs, past and present:If you are or have ever been a department chair, what did you get from the Dean or other relevant administrator to compensate for your chairly time and efforts? Or, even if you are not and have never...
On Reluctance
An oft-repeated opinion in academic departments is that the person you don't want as department chair is the one who wants to be department chair. According to this philosophy, it is the deeply reluctant who are the more desirable candidates.But is that...
Measuring Your Nerd Quotient
How many of you have given a pet a nerdy name connected somehow to an academic passion of yours? For example, if you are a scientist, do you now -- or have you ever -- own(ed) a pet named for a famous scientist, a planet, a subatomic particle, a piece...
Tiger Chair
As a typical professor of Science, I know little about effective management skills, except what I have been able to pick up along the way by experimenting on students and postdocs. Most of my faculty colleagues have had similar experiences (i.e., a lack...
Left Behind
Today in Scientopia, I discuss some angsty, anxious, anguished e-mails I get from readers who are thinking of "leaving" Science and/or Academia and are worried about what others may think of them as a resu...
Why You Shouldn't Cheat: Reason #57
If you cheat in a professor's class and get caught, and then later, perhaps even much later, after the term in which you cheated is over, you might be out with friends on a Saturday night, having dinner at a restaurant near campus, and then in walks...
The Odd Women
A scientist put together a research team to do some Awesome Science, and they wrote a grant proposal together. The team involved three PIs at different universities, their graduate students, postdocs, undergrad research students, and so on: the usual...
Urban Wildlife Watch: How to Find Signs of Animals in City Parks (Guest Post)
Today's post was contributed by an Urban Science Adventures! © reader, Ashley Warner. Ashley is an astute animal observer and has always been interested in the ways that animals get around human habitation. Ashley asked to write a guest post...
Out With The Old?
A question arose recently about an early career scientist* who has been slow to publish results from their PhD research. Now that this person is on the tenure track (TT), they have to make decisions about how best to spend their limited time: pursuing...
Talking About Your Research.. in class
Today in Scientopia, I discuss the phenomenon in which some professors are praised by their undergraduate students for talking about their (the professor's) research in class, whereas others are criticized for the same thing. In the latter case, mention...
Routine Good
In the past week, I have received six (6!) academic thank-you notes of various sorts: some by e-mail and some by regular mail*. I am fortunate to know a lot of nice people, and it made me feel very good to be thanked.I started thinking about all the...
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