I think the lab meeting was very successful today 
. The presenting student showed some strips from this web page, and now I am going through archive, having fun. “Addressing reviewers comments” is just hilarious. I think I am going to look through best 200 next, instead of trying to get anything useful done. After all, I just came back from vacation.
Comic strips from the lab
Conference tips
This reference is coming from “my other life”, it was a link in one of the photography blogs I am reading in my spare time. But by reading it I realized, that attending “Photoshop World” or any other professional meeting is not any different that attending a scientific meeting, thus all the tips given here apply. I personally found the “elevator pitch” useful.
Webinar and membership app
Being a member of American Chemical Society, I decided to join also Society of Toxicology as well, it looks good on CV and they have good programs for carrier development.
However, the major reason was the fact, that they have a post-doc assembly, which is very active.
I recently part in SOT Webinar “From Postdoc to Faculty: Climbing the Ladder of Academia“. It was an eye opening event, and gave me some ideas where to start even thinking about my future carrier. And I am not even talking writing research statement and teaching philosophy, I am talking about independent scientific project! I was flirting with this thought, because I wanted to get some grant money to help with my salary, but it seems I need it to be even considered for the job. I never thought that if I changed a lab, I will need a project I can bring with me, not to compete with my old lab. Sound obvious? Yeah, sure, I just didn’t realize it.
After this Webinar, I wanted to join them on Facebook, to know when next events come, but was denied because I am not a member. I was upset for a while, but I thought about it more, considered the price, and the fact that I will attend the national meeting, and decided to apply.
And man, those guys are serious about their application. It is a really competitive process. You fill out all the information about your degrees and scientific work, and they consider you. I wish I signed earlier, I could add it to my “green card” application under “competitive professional organizations” . Well, of course I would have to get it done before their decision making, which happens only 3 times a year. Next time is in January. And, luckily, my boss is a full member, so I could use him as a “sponsor” and he was happy to write a recommendation letter for me.
Now, I will wait till sometimes next year, to see if I am good enough. I will keep you posted.
Posted in Scientific life, University
Tagged membership, post-doc, professional organization, Society of Toxicology, SOT, Webinar
Leave a comment
Paper out
My pharmacokinetics paper is out. The one I presented as a poster last week at the meeting. It is Environmental Science and Technology paper, not bad. You can check it out here.
It seems like things are coming this year, after all. It looked pretty bad so far, with the project I started to work on last summer still not working, and a lot of rather useless results, I still don’t know how to approach it. This summer I started another project, but it will be month until everything is analyzed- no chance for paper this year. It is good that some stuff was still “in making”, and I am expecting altogether 3 papers out by the end of the year. But only one as first author 
.
Posted in Scientific life
Tagged Environmental Science and Technology, EST, paper, PCB
Leave a comment
PCB in caulk
Seems like PCBs, not a main trend environmental contaminant those days, is making news from time to time. Just last week, EPA released school guidance regarding possibility of presence of PCB in caulk. Something scientists have been working on and knowing for years now, apparently it was proven enough to be stated to the public- we still are exposed to PCBs, and not only by our diet, but also by the air the breath. And not all PCBs are coming from industrial areas, but they can be present in residential spaces because of something as innocent as the sealant.
Posted in Scientific life
Tagged caulk, EPA, PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, public release, sealant
Leave a comment
Surprising prize
End of last week was quite successful. I submitted two abstracts for Central States Society of Toxicology (CS-SOT) meeting, and although I was not chosen to present an oral presentation, which by the way I love doing, I presented a poster from my pharmacokinetic study of PCB atropisomers. To my huge surprise, my poster was awarded the prize! Don’t get me wrong, it is very interesting work, but it is more chemistry than toxicology to toxicologists, and more biology then analytical chemistry for analytical chemists. In either case, my presentation was noticed, and I got the monetary prize to use towards travel to national SOT meeting, in Utah . Good. I did not anticipated having a budget to go, so I didn’t even think about submitting an abstract! And the deadline was just next day, on Saturday.
Anyway, here are photos from the event, credits to Gabi Ludewig and Linda Wild.
Discussing poster
Congratulations on award
Posted in Scientific life
Tagged conference, CS-SOT, meeting, poster, prize, Society of Toxicology, SOT
Leave a comment
Getting help with literature review
I was sitting and reading some papers last weekend, and Ace, my cat came to keep me some company. He just loves playing with pencils and pens, so I caught him on this image. He look just like he was reading that paper and making notes .
Publication update
It is a pretty good week. I just got two papers accepted, I hope we will get proofs soon, so it is ready for on-line and I can post some links. Meantime, a paper is out to which I contributed, in Archives of Toxicology. If N-EtFOSE (N-ethyl perfluorooctanesulfonamidoethanol) is your thing, check it out here.
Continuing edu on iPod
I am getting to the point in my scientific life, where I am far enough from the point where I started (organic chemical technology) not to remember at all what gassing a coal is, but also still have no idea what a transcription factor is and what it does to say I am a toxicologist. I decided it is a point I need to fill in my education, to broaden it with the topics I am really working with on a daily basis. I was thinking first about looking for some Podcasts, I am listening to a lot of those to learn about photography. But somehow, I cannot imagine anybody doing a Podcast systematically explaining basics of biochemistry or molecular biology. And then I remembered something my husband found some time ago. On iTunes, there is a special “type of Podcast”, there is iTunes U(niversity). You can download and listen to regular college classes, right on your iPod. I went to check, and here they were- both topics I needed, one of them- even from MIT. I downloaded the biochemistry course first, and I am already 1/10 through semester after spending about 5 hours today in the lab, doing manual job not requiring much thinking- perfect for listening!
I certainly can recommend giving it a try. I enjoy my Biochem 4362 from Seattle Pacific University.
Posted in Scientific life
Tagged continuing education, iTunes, iTunes U, Podcast, science
Leave a comment
Revival
I decided to revive this blog. I have my photography hobby blog, used almost every day and thriving. I thought this might be a good place to make my scientific blog. Where I go for meeting, what problem I solved in the lab, some thoughts on what I am doing that… Hey, I got this idea during the night today, so it needs some more working on it . But stay tuned.
Posted in Life
Leave a comment