On Being a Scientist

Recent Articles

• Good Advice

  July 23, 2010 in Education

  For all those incoming freshman.

• 2010 Book Club: Remarkable Creatures

  June 30, 2010 in Books, Evolution

  I started this book in March, the second selection for the 2010 Freethinker’s Science Book Club.  It was just before the semester became a long series of deadlines and the book was recalled by another patron of my local library.  Once the semester ended, I checked it out again and finished it in a little [...]

• Inside the NIH: Peer Review and Tips for Applicants

  June 17, 2010 in Science, postdoc, research

  Last week, I attended the Midwest Consortium’s annual conference.  The goal was to network with other scholars in the region to facilitate collaboration and development of potential grant proposals.  I got to meet Dr. Joyce Hunter, Deputy Director of the NIH National Center (soon to be Institute) on Minority Health and Health Disparities.  She gave [...]

• Bird by Bird

  June 7, 2010 in postdoc

  One of the tasks most postdocs end up doing a lot of is writing.  Articles from the dissertation, posters for conferences, the backlog of articles from your new PI, blog posts.  I went down an Internet rabbit hole a couple of months ago , as the semester was winding down and I had several writing [...]

• Kanzi News

  June 5, 2010 in Anthropology

  My physical anthropology buddies will recognize the name.  Kanzi is a bonobo who learned to communicate with researchers using lexical symbols while growing up at the Yerkes Primate Center. News today from the Great Ape Trust is that Kanzi is now the father of an infant male named Teco. After many years of showing my [...]

• Postdoc Productivity

  May 31, 2010 in Education, postdoc

  Summer’s here.  I capped off my semester with graduation. Even though I defended my dissertation last June, I was just over the deadline to graduate last Spring, so I got to graduate with two of my lab buddies, instead. Totally worth the wait. *** The last few weeks of the Spring semester leading up to [...]

• Conferencing with Kids

  April 22, 2010 in postdoc

  I, along with several of my postdoc friends, spent last week in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the national AAPA and HBA conferences.  As a grad student, I attended these conferences several times, a couple of times with my oldest daughter in tow.  She was 6 when our department hosted the national meetings, and 12 when [...]

• Genomics Online

  March 27, 2010 in Education, Genetics

  Several of the items I’ve run across while surfing this week involve genomics (not surprising, given my job). First, from the National Human Genome Research Institute GenomicsCareers: Find Your Future, a website detailing the myriad career choices in the emerging field of genomics. With interactive videos and career profiles, a nice resource for the budding [...]

• Freethinker’s Book Club: Darwin’s Sacred Cause

  March 9, 2010 in Anthropology, Books, Evolution, Science

  [T]wo subjects which moved my Father perhaps more deeply than any others were cruelty to animals & slavery – his detestation of both was intense, and his indignation was overwhelming in case of any levity or want of feeling on these matters.  – William Darwin The trick to finishing books this year is getting up [...]

• (Re)producing in Grad School

  March 3, 2010 in Grad School

  While attending my first professional conference post-PhD, I met a potential incoming graduate student who was curious about our opinions on having kids while earning an advanced degree.  She’s coming into the lab that had 14 children during my time there, but the immediate response from one of my colleagues, who is in the PhD [...]