(no subject)
March Meeting registration deadline is on the 21st... There is the question of whether or not to try to attend a pre-meeting program. The two I'm thinking about are the Division of Biological Physics workshop and the Division of Polymer Physics short course
In terms of the biophysics one, I don't really work on anything biological now (other than the virus project my undergrad and I are ostensibly collaborating on, but due to the pressures of the academic year we haven't really accomplished much since the summer). Nor do I feel that interested in working on biology; I'd much rather do "pure" colloid or polymer physics. The reality, however, is that the field of soft matter is increasingly moving towards biological stuff. There is of course a lot of soft matter in biology, and moreover the field has matured enough over the past two decades that most of the low-lying physics fruit have already been plucked. So while I'm not particularly interested in the experimental portion of the workshop, on membrane-bound channels, and while I'm interested in the computational stuff in the morning even if that's not what I work on, I am wondering if I should just go for my own good and educational benefit. Admittedly, neither of the topics for the workshop are particularly soft matter oriented, but here again for the obvious bio-soft matter topics eg actin networks) there are already plenty of people doing active research.
Then there's the DPOLY short course. I am interested in the polymer nanocomposite stuff from a scientific standpoint (interplay between structure/interactions/macroscopic properties like rheology) and there's obviously a lot of industrial applications here. Again, while I don't exactly dream of going into industry in the future, given the reality of the academic job market and my occasional doubts about whether I really want to work 80 hours a week chasing tenure down the road I know I should keep my options open for working for a company that does a lot of colloid/polymer stuff, like Rohm Ihaas.
The downside, of course, is that I'd have to leave earlier; my experience last year was that March Meeting is mentally exhausting in and of itself. I expect to be scrambling in early March and will likely be underslept by the time March Meeting rolls around. In particular, not only is the DPOLY course two days long (such that I'd have to fly in early Saturday morning), but there's a problem set involved on Saturday night. Still, given that travel money is not a concern, I'm wondering if I should go to one of these for my own benefit.
In terms of the biophysics one, I don't really work on anything biological now (other than the virus project my undergrad and I are ostensibly collaborating on, but due to the pressures of the academic year we haven't really accomplished much since the summer). Nor do I feel that interested in working on biology; I'd much rather do "pure" colloid or polymer physics. The reality, however, is that the field of soft matter is increasingly moving towards biological stuff. There is of course a lot of soft matter in biology, and moreover the field has matured enough over the past two decades that most of the low-lying physics fruit have already been plucked. So while I'm not particularly interested in the experimental portion of the workshop, on membrane-bound channels, and while I'm interested in the computational stuff in the morning even if that's not what I work on, I am wondering if I should just go for my own good and educational benefit. Admittedly, neither of the topics for the workshop are particularly soft matter oriented, but here again for the obvious bio-soft matter topics eg actin networks) there are already plenty of people doing active research.
Then there's the DPOLY short course. I am interested in the polymer nanocomposite stuff from a scientific standpoint (interplay between structure/interactions/macroscopic properties like rheology) and there's obviously a lot of industrial applications here. Again, while I don't exactly dream of going into industry in the future, given the reality of the academic job market and my occasional doubts about whether I really want to work 80 hours a week chasing tenure down the road I know I should keep my options open for working for a company that does a lot of colloid/polymer stuff, like Rohm Ihaas.
The downside, of course, is that I'd have to leave earlier; my experience last year was that March Meeting is mentally exhausting in and of itself. I expect to be scrambling in early March and will likely be underslept by the time March Meeting rolls around. In particular, not only is the DPOLY course two days long (such that I'd have to fly in early Saturday morning), but there's a problem set involved on Saturday night. Still, given that travel money is not a concern, I'm wondering if I should go to one of these for my own benefit.
