The occasion for this and other recent FSP-centric metablogging solipsistic me me me posts is the 5th anniversary of this blog. At such temporal milestones, it seems to be typical to note the event, ponder the past, and evaluate the possible future of...
Well Behaved Women
What do the following two situations involving different women in different jobs in different countries have in common?:1. A quotation by Christine Lagarde, French minister of finance and a contender to be the next head of the IMF, in Maureen Dowd's...
My summer is off to an amazing start! Happy Memorial Day
Memorial Day weekend is the official start of summer and I plan on having a grand time. I'm doing what I love to do each summer - working the summer day camps. I have a seasonal position as the Supervisor of Summer Programs with the Missouri...
Phantom of the Office
Today I listened to a podcast about "phantom vibrations" -- sensory hallucinations that people experience when they think their cell phone is vibrating, but it is not. If the limited data are to be believed, 70% of cell phone users experience these (but...
Responsible Conduct of Reality
Today in Scientopia, I discuss views of research time and money in the context of grants:Do you stick to your plan as closely as possible, or do you take a more flexible approach depending on how the research evolves? I tend toward the latter, but am...
The Answer Is 45
During a recent conversation that involved some review and contemplation of the various twists and turns and trajectories of my career, I came up with a number to answer the question:When did most people start taking you seriously? (as a science professor)That...
When playing outside isn't safe: Gun fire on the playground in St. Louis
It was the middle of the day. A little more than a dozen children from the Peabody Apartments (near downtown St. Louis) were outside playing on the playground and jungle gym. Then shots rang out. Apparently a disagreement between two men who were nearby...
The Data They Are a'Changin'
It recently dawned on me that a lot of time had passed since I had surveyed the general categories of my blog posts. I last did this in January 2010, using data from all 2009 blog posts. So, even though 2011 is well underway, last weekend I decided to...
Would You Hire Her?
Below is a slightly edited excerpt from a recent e-mail from a reader. Some details have been generalized to make the scenario a bit more.. general.I'm a 30-something Physical Science PhD. I finished my PhD a few years ago, just before my middle child...
Summer of Science Book Reading Club kicks off May 23, 2011
Hey parents/grandparents/summer camp mentors!Looking for fun yet academically engaging things to do with your young ones and teens this summer? Want to make sure they don't lose step and let all of that great knowledge slip out of their heads. ...
Be Quiet
The other day, I heard a professor say about a student:"She is so quiet, I didn't think she was smart until she aced the first test in my class."Here is what I would like people to say instead in these situations:"She is so quiet, I didn't know she was...
Citation Surge
At some point, in one of my old blog-posts, I asked how often authors check their citation data: every week? every month? every once in a while when the mood strikes? never? I was in the 'every once in a while' category.. until recently.In a flash of...
Wordless Wednesday: Horizons of Barbados
I had a chance to visit the very beautiful island nation of Barbados on behalf of Outdoor Afro. While I partook in Barbados food, hosptitality, culture and scenery for my friend and kindred outdoor spirit Rue of Outdoor Afro (and blogged all about...
Waiting for the Final Word
At many universities, the tenure evaluation year may actually take most of a year, starting with the soliciting of external evaluation letters (perhaps in the summer, with due dates in the fall), and then proceeding through all the various stages of...
The Normal Advisor
Are you a normal advisor? See today's post over in Scientopia to read about one aspect of the profile of A Normal Advis...
ProfSpace: The Poll
There were some interesting comments on a recent post about professorial office space, and it seems that professors who commented are pretty evenly divided between like/love and dislike/hate of their offices. That conclusion is based on the small dataset...
My Good Fortune
From time to time, when a "fortune" in a fortune cookie entertains me, I keep the little slip of paper, although I don't always keep track of it after that. Years ago, I was in the habit of taping strange or funny fortunes to postcards and mailing them...
Building Committees
Sorry.. Blogger ate this post, along with all of your comments.. but here is the restored post (without the comments).There have been many interesting comments on yesterday's FSP post and Tuesday's Scientopia/SP post that touched on the topic of how...
Nothing to Prove: The Poll
Yesterday's post in Scientopia resulted in a wide range of responses in answer to the question of whether a female professor should agree to be on the committee of a doctoral student who had openly stated that women should not be scientists (or that...
Nothing to Prove
Today in Scientopia, I discuss a question from a reader -- a female science professor -- who wonders whether to serve on the PhD committee of a grad student who has openly expressed skepticism that women can/should be scientis...
21st Century Non-Sexist
As I was reading various essays and editorials about Motherhood and Moms last weekend, I was reminded of a conversation I had earlier this year at a meeting.At a meeting, as happens from time to time, I met someone I had not previously met before. In...
ProfSpace
Whenever I visit another university or another department at my university and spend some time in faculty offices, I always look around at the physical space of the office. Ignoring ancillary features such as neatness and the presence of disturbing pictures...
Possibly Well Written
How important is writing quality for the success of a grant proposal? I don't think you can get a grant proposal funded just because it is well written, but of course it helps if you can explain clearly what you want to do, why you want to do it, and...
Abstract Rules
Today in Scientopia I discuss how to deal with students who break some of the "unwritten rules" of academic cultu...
He Said/She Crowed
Earlier this year, I went to a talk that mostly consisted of text slides. When I realized that the verbal parts of the talk didn't add any more information than what was shown on the text slides, I fell into the habit of quickly reading the slides and...
Evaluation Apathy
Perhaps the most dramatic result of the switch from teaching evaluations done on paper forms distributed in class to online forms accessible during a particular period of time at the end of an academic term has been the significant decline in student...
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