Logistics
"What can brown do for you?"
- slogan of the United Parcel Service in the early 2000s
I usually like to post on this blog when I have interesting things to tell you about, but I'm struggling to find blog-worthy topics recently. In my role as a tenure-track scientist, I'm spending a lot more of my time managing projects and less time doing actual science. Sure, I still process my own samples, analyze data, and spend plenty of time in the field, but these tasks are proportionally less of my time. The remainder is filled with logistics - staying on top of budgets, ordering supplies, leading meetings, and figuring out how to ship the things I need to remote corners of the world.
Grad school doesn't include any management training. I spent 4 years of my life learning how to select important scientific questions, design experiments to answer them, and interpret the results, but PhD programs don't include coursework in project management. If I had it to do over again, I would enroll in Academia 601: How to Manage a Research Program with Multiple Simultaneous Projects in Faraway Places Without Losing Your Mind.
Here are some of the logistics that have kept me busy lately:
1) Applying for a research permit in a Pacific island nation with limited phone and internet and a 13-hour time change. After multiple attempts at contact went unanswered, I called the government office directly to pay the application fee. I had to be in my lab at 10 pm to place the call, but hey, the permit was approved!
2) Setting up my lab so I can culture live larvae and conduct molecular analysis of samples I collect. Next time you're in a research lab, take a moment to notice all the various supplies and equipment in there - someone had to buy all of those!
3) Figuring out how to take advantage of free-to-me ship time on an upcoming cruise with short notice. It's a rare opportunity, so I contacted everyone within 3 states who might have a multibeam or side-scan sonar system I could borrow. The cruise is happening in a couple of weeks, so we'll see how it works out!
4) Drafting a proposal for Arctic research, which, if funded, will involve taking a robotic vehicle from WHOI on a German ship. There are a lot of components to the project!
5) Filling out stupid amounts of paperwork for my institution
6) Tracking the location of the samples I shipped back from Svalbard
7) Planning, setting agendas, and leading conference calls in preparation for research on shipwrecks this summer. We'll be back out in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in July and again in August, when we'll conduct telepresence broadcasts from the ship. This project is exciting but requires a lot of preparations!
8) Trying to recruit students to my lab
9) Revising a scientific paper about an experiment I did last summer (finally, actual science!).
Previously on this blog, I've compared graduate school to an apprenticeship and postdocs to free-lancers. I'm beginning to think that being a scientific faculty member is like running a small business. I have more responsibility and less oversight than at other point in my career thus far, so I'm slowly learning how to handle all the logistics. One way or another, science moves forward.
- slogan of the United Parcel Service in the early 2000s
I usually like to post on this blog when I have interesting things to tell you about, but I'm struggling to find blog-worthy topics recently. In my role as a tenure-track scientist, I'm spending a lot more of my time managing projects and less time doing actual science. Sure, I still process my own samples, analyze data, and spend plenty of time in the field, but these tasks are proportionally less of my time. The remainder is filled with logistics - staying on top of budgets, ordering supplies, leading meetings, and figuring out how to ship the things I need to remote corners of the world.
Grad school doesn't include any management training. I spent 4 years of my life learning how to select important scientific questions, design experiments to answer them, and interpret the results, but PhD programs don't include coursework in project management. If I had it to do over again, I would enroll in Academia 601: How to Manage a Research Program with Multiple Simultaneous Projects in Faraway Places Without Losing Your Mind.
Here are some of the logistics that have kept me busy lately:
1) Applying for a research permit in a Pacific island nation with limited phone and internet and a 13-hour time change. After multiple attempts at contact went unanswered, I called the government office directly to pay the application fee. I had to be in my lab at 10 pm to place the call, but hey, the permit was approved!
2) Setting up my lab so I can culture live larvae and conduct molecular analysis of samples I collect. Next time you're in a research lab, take a moment to notice all the various supplies and equipment in there - someone had to buy all of those!
3) Figuring out how to take advantage of free-to-me ship time on an upcoming cruise with short notice. It's a rare opportunity, so I contacted everyone within 3 states who might have a multibeam or side-scan sonar system I could borrow. The cruise is happening in a couple of weeks, so we'll see how it works out!
4) Drafting a proposal for Arctic research, which, if funded, will involve taking a robotic vehicle from WHOI on a German ship. There are a lot of components to the project!
5) Filling out stupid amounts of paperwork for my institution
6) Tracking the location of the samples I shipped back from Svalbard
7) Planning, setting agendas, and leading conference calls in preparation for research on shipwrecks this summer. We'll be back out in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in July and again in August, when we'll conduct telepresence broadcasts from the ship. This project is exciting but requires a lot of preparations!
8) Trying to recruit students to my lab
9) Revising a scientific paper about an experiment I did last summer (finally, actual science!).
Previously on this blog, I've compared graduate school to an apprenticeship and postdocs to free-lancers. I'm beginning to think that being a scientific faculty member is like running a small business. I have more responsibility and less oversight than at other point in my career thus far, so I'm slowly learning how to handle all the logistics. One way or another, science moves forward.
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