A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
That was my father.
At 80 he went to teaching only one class so he could keep his office and spend the rest of his time doing what he wanted.
At 90 he finally retired. He wrote dozens or articles and finally left us in Jan this year at 92. The last day he was alive, he dictated a book review to me he had promised to a journal. His final wish, that I type it up and send it in for him and let them know he would not be able to take on any more book reviews.
I'm sorry for your loss.
On a different note, your username is fantastic and I'm sad I didn't think of it first.
Thank you for the kind words
I hope this doesn't come off as callous:
What an epic mic drop of your father's. That's like something out of a novel/film.
He sounds like a super hoopy frood. Sorry for your loss.
Thank you.
He was one of the most disciplined people I've ever known. He rarely complained about anything. He spent every minute he could doing what he loved, researching and publishing. He wrote several books include an award winner. He won a Lifetime Achievement award from a prestigious body in his field at 84. He just kept going. At 86 he had nearly lost his eyesight but a doctor was able to restore partial vision, enough for him to continue his work and I never saw him happier. He did what he loved until his last waking moments. Then he closed his eyes and went to sleep, I imagine finally able to relax, all his commitments settled. I hope I get to go out the same way.
TwoAstronauts.jpg "Wait, it's all Grant Committees?" "Always has been"
precisely why I left with my Master's. working a 'regular job' is a lot more liberating.
Zero freedom to pursue the truth, infinite demands to support other people's ideological agendas.
I didn't get it that bad personally, but I watched a few friends have research derailed by some random committee member's bullshit.
I think it’s grant committees dictating the research agenda all the way down. They’re after all the ones with the money.
Odd, I know a fair few PhD students and post docs and they all researched what they wanted to research. They either didn't have a professor or they found one who offered the right subject.
You can't do a PhD without an advisor. It is possible that the advisor doesn't care, and signs off on everything their students write, but an advisor has to exist, at least on paper.
I don’t have a tenure committee and nobody cares what I research as long as I publish and get grants. Ymmv. Edit: also, the comic skips postdoc, which is probably the most care free career stage (you can pretty much do whatever the fuck you want as long as you manage to impress your supervisor every now and then with original stuff and follow through to turn them into papers).
also, the comic skips postdoc, which is probably the most care free career stage
As someone taking a course by a postdoc, yes. Half the lectures so far where cancelled because he prefers research and conferences over the university mandated minimal amount of teaching.