Last night, Jodi and I attended a farewell dinner for one of the students I work with on BaBar. I’ve begun to realize that a lot of the students I’ve come to know in the last year are defending their theses and moving on to better positions in the field. It’s the natural course of things – a student works hard, earns a post-doctoral position, and off they go. Still, I’m a bit wistful. Like anybody else, change makes me a little uncomfortable. I guess it’s a little strange to think that more and more chairs will become vacant at lunch over the next few months.
What makes me happier is knowing these crazy physics nerds are heading off into the field to do good, becoming independent researchers with their own ideas and training their own students. Having worked on and off with many of the BaBar students at SLAC, I’m proud of all they have accomplished, if a little forelorn that there are fewer familiar faces over time.
