The life of the pre-tenured faculty: part 2

This electrophoresis gel shows are samples are good to go!
Photo by Alexa Huzar. 

An email showed up in my inbox with a photo attached. I could recognize immediately what it was - an electrophoresis gel. There were some bright bands on it, some smears, and a DNA ladder. All very standard stuff. Whoever had made the gel obviously knew what they were doing, and those bright bands indicated they had high-quality samples. 

The email that accompanied the image told a similarly optimistic story. The samples were ready to go and should be delivered to the sequencing facility within a few days. 

I leaned back from my computer and shrugged. My research project just took a large step forward, and I didn't have to do anything for it. One of the other team members was on the job, and all I had to do was wait. Sweet!

One of the hardest adjustments for me as faculty is realizing that I don't have to do everything myself. I can organize; I can lead; I can still be hands-on, but I don't have to be. I can also delegate. I'll be honest: it feels weird. I'm in my fourth year as a lab head, and I'm still not used to it. 

My Palau project involves a team spread between my lab and Sarah Davies' lab at Boston University. It's actually pretty fun for me to watch the samples I collected in November to be passed around the team. My grad student traveled with me to help collect the samples; I extracted DNA; Sarah's grad student did histology; her technician prepared the DNA for sequencing; and when the sequencing results come back, Sarah will do the analysis. It's truly a team effort.

I'm really glad to see our Palau samples moving forward. It's nice to be part of a team!