This was my first week as a faculty member at Southern Methodist University. It was pretty low-key, full of paperwork and unpacking. I was excited to choose anoffice and start moving in – that makes a place feel more like a home than a job.
Let me step back and talk a little about the physics department. The department was created less than 20 years ago, at least in its current form of supporting teaching and research. This was in response to the presence of the Superconducting Super-Collider just a short drive away. The idea was a good one; the proximity of SSC to SMU would make SMU a hub for activities on the SSC.
History intervened, and the SSC was canceled. This made growth for the physics department more difficult, but as it grows again I have to say this is an exciting time to be entering it. The department is located in the Fondren Science Building, right next to Dallas Hall (where much of the big administrators are located). Dallas Hall is one of the notable landmarks on the beautiful SMU campus [1], and a central part of Dedman College (of which the sciences are a part).
Jodi and I could choose between two offices in the department. I thought Jodi might like the first floor office more, so I offered to take the basement office. What we didn’t know at the time was that the lock to the first-floor office was still keyed to the Chemistry Department, and since departments don’t hand out their keys to other departments, Jodi was locked out of her office. While the Dean’s office said they would get the lock changed by week’s end, it didn’t happen. That left Jodi working in my office, unable to unpack her belongings.
The first few days were tricky for work. We didn’t have SMU computing accounts, just department accounts, so we were not allowed to use the full-access wireless network (SSH, etc.). As a result, work was quite difficult and we would try to do as much from home as possible before or after our day at the office.
I was able to unpack all my office boxes, and for a change the books and papers barely filled one of my three bookcases. That was refreshing, but then I realized I need to move more papers into the office from home. I have lots of notebooks that have been living at home since there wasn’t space at the office; now I have space, and some more heavy lifting to do.
My office looks out on the sidewalks and grassy area that lies between the Life Sciences building and Fondren. I have two windows (I’ve managed to conserve my window multiplicity from my SLAC office), an L-shaped desk, a round table and four chairs for meetings, three bookcases, and soon a small shelf for the back corner where I can put a coffee maker, etc. I am in the process of getting additional office furniture, such as a recent desk chair.
This coming week, the real effort of writing a grant proposal begins. I have more papers to continue editing for BaBar, including two projects of my own. I have to start using the high-performance computing cluster for BaBar work, and I need to ramp up my ATLAS efforts again. I have to get back to trying to hire people.
I am very excited about being a faculty member.
[1] http://smu.edu/dedman/about.asp
