Invocations to precede decision-making for hiring scientists

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I.

Please grant me the serenity

To squarely face my own biases.

To recognize others’ strengths, even in areas where I lack that strength.

To accept others’ failings in the same way that I strive to accept my own.

To realize that there is more than one way to do good science.
And that my way is not necessarily the only way.

Please grant me the serenity

To recognize accomplishments

And to recognize potential in others.

Even though others might look very very very different from me

II.

Speak out, Hallelujah!

When you hear a wrong, make it right!

When you hear bias, pick the fight!

Equality should not require riot!

But this is not the time for quiet!

Use your logic!

Mind your fears!

Support young colleagues!

And their careers!

III.

Dear Gods of Science

Please forgive me

For I am biased.

It is not on purpose, for I bear no ill will towards any gender.

I might even be a girl (excuse me a woman) myself.

I’m just as biased as any man.

Because my brain is not very scientific.

(Except for when it is consciously trying to be)

For even though I am a scientist

I am human.

And though I serve the Gods of Science whilst I am awake

I am not always awake.

Skills for Scientists

Please drop a line if you have more to add!
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Scientific knowledge base

Depth of knowledge in chosen subject area

Breadth of knowledge in general field, adjacent fields, scientific literacy

Approach-specific knowledge base

Laboratory, field, theoretical/modeling approaches

Quantitative skills

Setting up a problem

Back of the envelope calculations

            Basic computing--algebra

            More advanced computing—linear algebra/differential equations

            Programming

           

Receptive communication skills

            Reading—textbooks

            Reading—papers

            Listening to seminars

Active communication skills

            Writing papers

            Writing proposals

            Writing “one-pagers”

            Designing Posters

            Presenting research

            Graphic design

Dynamic communication skills

            Reviewing papers/proposals

Poster sessions

            Working in pairs and/or groups

“fuzzy” skills

Creativity: coming up with new approaches

Curiosity: asking scientific questions

 Sense of scale of problem: How much detail is necessary?

Productivity: Getting things off the desk, though not necessarily perfect

Self-discipline/self-management/time-management

Clichéd but useful:

“Eighty percent of success is showing up”            -Woody Allen

 “Don’t boil the ocean”

Science is (or should be) about play: playing with ideas, numbers, pictures, puzzles.

A good science course should introduce students to scientific puzzling—so that scientists can ultimately figure out their own puzzles and solve them.

List of Department Seminars in Geo* Field Part I

I started with the top part of the list of NRC rankings for geosciences, and am working my way through it.
If your department isn't listed here, it's either because I have not yet looked or the current seminar series is not published in an easily-accessed way.


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·  University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Department of Geology Fall 2012 Colloquium

7 men

3 women

·  University of Michigan Smith Lecture Earth & Environmental Science Department Winter 2012

12 men

1 woman

·  Penn State Department of Geoscience Fall 2012 Colloquia

2 women

10 men

·  UC Santa Cruz Whole Earth Seminar Spring 2012

9 men

1 woman

·  University of Arizona 2012-2013 Geosciences Colloquium

12 Men

3 Women

·  University of Minnesota Earth Sciences Fall 2012 Seminar

2 women

6 men

·  Brown University Geology Dept. Fall 2012 Colloquia

3 women

7 men

UCLA Earth and Space Sciences Department Spring 2012 Colloquia 

4 women

6 men

·  Caltech Division of Geological and Planetary Science Fall 2012 Seminar Series

13 men

1 woman

·  Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration Fall 2012 Colloquiua

3 women

9 men

·  UC Berkeley Earth and Planetary science Seminar series Fall 2012

9 men

4 women

Northwestern Earth and Planetary Sciences Seminar Series Fall 2012

0 women

8 men

Princeton University Geoscience Seminar Series Fall 2012

6 women

10 men

 

Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory's 2011-2012 Colloquium schedule

6 men

5 women

Yale University Fall 2012 Department of Geoloogy & Geophysics Colloquium

6 women

6 men

Harvard University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Fall 2012 Colloquia

7 men

3 women

MIT Earth, Atmosphere, & Planetary Science Fall 2012 Lecture series

6 men

0 women

The longest ever “Early Career”

Recently, I was an invited participant to a prestigious scientific convention for the brightest shining early-career stars. I was flattered of course. It is fun to meet with scientists from every discipline, and hear interesting talks, and meet new people. I like conferences, and am always on the lookout for good science and kindred spirits.

The registration form contained the usual spaces for poster title, research abstract, brief biography, and birthdate. With year. This last bit I left blank.

The conference organizers—smart people—would easily see that one of the reasons I’m such an exemplary early career person—all those accomplishments!—is because I’ve been “early career” for (-ahem-) 15 to 20 years, depending on how you count. And at either bound, it was not an early start. 

I'm afraid I'd be kicked out. Or perhaps added to the panel tasked with discussing "Old-Fart Science."

 

If you normalize my accomplishments to my years-at-it, I am not at all exemplary, but simply a working scientist who divides her time among research, teaching, service, family, friendships, occasional recreation, and sleeping and eating.

Why am I perceived as early career when I am actually much closer to menopause?

Here are my top 3 ideas:

1.     I’m short, but not without gravitas. Excuse me. Gravity.

2.     I use the word “awesome” liberally when talking about science that I think is awesome.

3.     Perhaps it’s the pink glitter I use in my hair.

Departmental Colloquia Aggregator

It is interesting to track who is giving what talks and at which University/Research Center.

I have decided to start a Tumblr to aggregate this information for my field.

goearlytobed.tumblr.com 

I am also tweeting the links. Please follow @goearlytobed

Please send me links to departments you would like to see included in the aggregator!

Personal Statement Mad-Lib

(Scientific Sub-Sub-Field) Research at  (Venerable Institution)

            My research group examines the behavior of (plural noun) under conditions of (adjective) (state variable) which is important for (place) within the larger (another place). My group consists of (a whole number) people who do (experimental, theoretical, modeling) work to measure (a physical property) to unprecedented precisions of (a number) (SI unit). Our results tell us about the (gerund) of (noun: singular or plural). This research is especially relevant to (adjacent scientific sub-sub-field) and (scientific sub field). This research program is funded by (government agency).

New Academic Year

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The summer has ended, most of the rest of the people in my life have been back into the swing of the new academic year. Since classes don’t start at my University until the end of next week, I have been able to pretend until now that it is still glorious summer. But this is my new year.

And it has been a glorious summer, though with close reminders of the bittersweet necessity to live life as richly as possible. I enjoyed family, friends, messing about in boats, and a new turn of phrase: to do a science. I did lots of sciences this summer. I derived a series of equations. I started to learn programming in Mathematica so I may see how the equations behave. I ran a few fun experiments at synchrotrons. I talked with students about their research, and did lots of reading, writing, and editing.

Each year, my summer ends with my first teaching dream of the school year. Spoiler alert: this dream is a teaching-anxiety dream in impostor-syndrome subcategory.

Here’s the real part: This fall I am taking on a new course (for me), a meaty, required graduate class that is required for the PhD program, and taken by most of the first year graduate students. I requested this change after teaching an also meaty, also required undergraduate course for the past ten years. I loved it for nine years, and then all of a sudden I didn’t and I knew I needed a break. Also, the graduate class is squarely in my discipline, and I had concerns that some of my colleagues were forgetting I was of that discipline. I asked the department chair nicely, and my requests were accommodated. Or, as my department chair put it recently in a slightly different context: “You asked for it!”

Here’s the dream part: Remember the retirement party from my first blog post? The professor who retired, one of the shining stars of the discipline, and had famously/infamously taught this course for many years. He consulted with the department chair and together they decided that I shouldn’t be allowed to teach this course, because I have never TA’d it. So eminent professor came back from retirement *solely* so he could teach this course so that I could be his TA. I woke up in the middle of the first lecture, when the professor introduced their TA (me) to the class, and walked out of the room while I addressed them.

I was happy to wake up, but sad the summer’s over, but glad to be kick-starting the swing of the new academic year, and glad to be preparing my own teaching notes, and learning a new course.