Saturday, February 23, 2008

Work

I had the following exchange with my boss yesterday:

"Doctor X wants to nominate you for postdoc of the year", he said.

(Cheering from the other postdoc in the office)

"Really?" I ask.

"I think it's ridiculous. I mean really... You have no publications... None, zip! You got that grant, but so what? Now if you have a couple of papers maybe, but I think you'd be just setting yourself up to bomb out of postdoc of the year." He said.

"Okay", I mumble.

After the boss walked out of the office there was a short silence before the other postdoc apologized for his premature excitement.

"Well", I said, "At least I have a boss who keeps me well grounded!"

---

In other news: I have been working with a Science Outreach program at my University. Basically, it's designed to get school children interested in science and to show them that science can be fun! I love it, and it's what I'm aiming to do after my postdoc. The Monday after next I will be leading the class in a chemistry lab, which will be a lot of fun. I found out yesterday that a local station will be filming the day for a news article! It's all very exciting!!

It's a good thing I have people around to keep me grounded, or it might all go to my head! :-)

3 comments:

Odyssey said...

A boss who keeps you well grounded? Sounds more like a boss who's grinding you into the dirt.

Congrats on the fact that another faculty member see's your worth. And congrats on the Outreach work.

mouthfulofpancake said...

He's just jealous! He probably never got postdoc of the year and can't bare that someone in his lab stands a chance.
Good luck and have fun with the science outreach! 15 seconds of fame...

Goose said...

It's all good. He can be a rather blunt person sometimes (ie. during grant renewals!). The "grounded" comment was very tongue in cheek!

The Science Outreach work is so cool... I have a wonderful future ahead!