It has been extremely rainy in the New England area for several days, thanks in large part to a series of tropical storms that worked their way north along the eastern coast. Today, a category 1 hurricane is parked off the coast, darkening our skies and giving us some drizzle but not making too much of a mess. Maine is in for it tonight, though, if it stays a Cat. 1 storm.
This is my last day in Connecticut. I am leaving in the early afternoon to drive north and west to Syracuse, NY, for my next seminar [1].I am very excited to continue my tour; I’m already getting nervous again. Ah, it never gets easier with practice.
One of the tangible benefits to me from this trip, apart from the pleasure of being scrutinized by colleagues, is that I get to think A LOT about the next step. I know that in the coming year that I will begin my first job search, hopefully get a few interviews, and then have to present my plan for research as a young faculty member. It’s the plan that matters – what are you going to do when you start working at a university or college?
There was a time when that plan was clearer to me. Lead with a transition to the LHC, while bringing to the institution the huge dataset of the Babar experiment. With BaBar cancelled months ahead of time, my fear is that such an offering is far less attractive than it used to be. While in reality the dataset of the BaBar experiment leaves a lot left to be done, the reality in funding is that it’s getting harder and harder to get grant money for BaBar. Instead, one has to be involved in something more relevant to current national science funding priorities. I have a deep interest in the LHC, in dark matter experiments, and in neutrino experiments. How to use these into a compelling proposal – well, that’s the tricky part, isn’t it?
I’ll have lots of time to think about this stuff. It’s five hours to Syracuse, five more to Montreal, and 11 from there to Columbus, where I’ll be for a talk on Friday.
[1] http://steve.cooleysekula.net/goingupalleys/2008/08/25/seminar-tour-dates/
