This is a sequel to the post I wrote a year ago, “Thoughts After One Year as an Assistant Professor”. Again, I’m writing this for people who are wondering what the early stages of a faculty position are like. As always, these are just my own opinions, shaped by my own experiences, and may not be universal. In short, everything from from last year still … Continue reading
Somehow it’s been a year since I started as an Assistant Professor at Emory, where I teach and run a research lab. It has been a whirlwind! As a postdoc I had no idea about what the transition to faculty would be like, so I’ve decided to write up some thoughts in case it’s illuminating to grad students and postdocs. As always, these are just … Continue reading
Going on the faculty job market last year was one of the most stressful experiences of my life. In the end, I was very fortunate to land a job as an Assistant Professor at Emory University, which I start in January 2022. My husband will also be a faculty member at Emory in a different department, and figuring out how to get not just one … Continue reading
Note: I wrote this essay on my postdoctoral work for a competition (I didn’t win). I wanted to share because I think it’s a nice summary of the work I’ve done over the last several years, written for a general scientific audience. Non-scientists may have a hard time in some spots, but please comment or email me if you have any questions! Few sensations … Continue reading
Welcome to a special year-end Brain Bits! Today I’ll discuss some of my favorite papers of the year. *As always, “best of” = random papers I found interesting. Apologies to the authors of all the other awesome 2019 papers not mentioned here! At long last, the sour taste receptor I’ll start with a story near and dear to my heart: the long-awaited discovery of … Continue reading
By popular demand (i.e. one person commenting on Twitter), I’ve followed up on my CSHL bingo post and made a bingo card for those of you going to SFN :) And here’s my post describing the SFN experience in more detail, including some (questionable) advice for navigating the meeting. (Yes, maybe someday I’ll get back to writing about actual science, but for now this is … Continue reading
The 2019 Neurobiology of Drosophila conference at CSHL starts tomorrow! As you can probably tell from the multiple blog posts I’ve written about it (here and here), this is one of my favorite meetings. For anyone going to this meeting or any other meeting at CSHL, here’s a bingo card for you to fill out during during the conference! (If you don’t get some of … Continue reading
Hey all, this is Part 2 of my list of 10 things I wish I knew when I started my postdoc. Here’s a recap of #0-5, which you can read more about here: Your job is to get another job Try to get your own funding Cultivate collaborators and/or co-mentors If things aren’t working out, switch labs sooner rather than later The clock is ticking … Continue reading
As I’ve somehow become a “senior postdoc” (a moniker that I’ve attempted to elude for years with diminishing credibility), I’ve been reflecting on all the things I wish I knew when I started. Mistakes I’ve made, lessons I’ve learned, regrets I’ve heard from other senior postdocs. That reflection has led to this post, another installment in my series which could be entitled Practical Advice for … Continue reading
In my last post I started to explain why our perception of reality isn’t a faithful representation of the real world. If you haven’t already, go read that post to learn about how we only perceive a small part of the world, and what we do perceive is highly distorted. This follow-up post discusses another way that our brains fool us: categorization. There are a … Continue reading