• Driving 2200 miles to a temporary home in the Washington desert to work at the LIGO Hanford Observatory in Hanford, Washington.
• Drafting three out of four of the data chapters for a dissertation.
• Making a move to Holland, Michigan and finding a job close to home.
• Interning at The Nature Conservancy’s worldwide office in metro Washington, D.C., raising awareness about TNC’s Nature Rocks initiative, a program aiming to increase the amount of time children spend outdoors.
• Spending some “blissful, concentrated, and devoted work-time” at an air-conditioned coffee shop.
• Attending the Enoch Graduate Seminar at the University of Notre Dame, and catching up on reading.
• Getting settled into a new job and planning a wedding.
• Taking prelims and starting work on the prospectus for the dissertation.
• Preparing for and giving a talk at a conference for the first time.
• Starting a postdoctoral position at a local university.
• Defending the dissertation and moving to Detroit.
• Presenting at a conference in Istanbul, Turkey and in San Diego and attending a tango festival.

Now for the Farewell

Thank you from all of us at Rackham to our bloggers who are moving on to the next chapter of their lives. Darshan, Ebony, Kathryn, and Kimberly, we’ve enjoyed following your journey at U-M and we wish you the best of luck!

This summer I will be busy preparing to present at two conferences one in Istanbul, Turkey and the second in San Diego. I feel attending conferences is an essential part of graduate education and when I present my work at the conference I have the added responsibility of being an ambassador of the spirit of U-M! That feels like a lot of responsibility for my little shoulders to bear! A generous travel grant makes it possible to fly down to Istanbul but also involves the hassle of acquiring a Turkish visa, for which I have to put together the many documents and plan a trip to Chicago for the visa interview. A bonus problem involving the trip to Istanbul involves the renewal of my F1 student visa at the U.S. embassy in Istanbul so that I can come back into Ann Arbor. I am hoping that both the visa interviews happen smoothly or else it would mean a lot of undue stress coming up with alternative plans. I would love to hear success stories from other students that have triumphed over such situations.

On a brighter note, I am looking forward the big tango festival happening in Ann Arbor during the first weekend of May, two couples will be traveling from Buenos Aires, Argentina to the campus to nudge eager tangueros like me to dance better. The festival draws dancers from the neighboring states and provides a lot of dancing including an all night milonga, so you know where to find me during that weekend.

Some of the highlights of the Summer in Ann Arbor involve the Art Fair, Summer Festival and Top of the Park which happen in June and July. Watching movies on a big screen for three weeks is the best part of my evenings. I hope to go kayaking down the Huron, have at least one camping trip and a road trip to my friend’s wedding in Virginia and somehow fit sky-diving into my execution list this summer. Phew! I like how summer provides the promise of making the most of the outdoors. I hope we all have a wonderful summer and live to tell tales of our accomplishments!

Everyone has assumptions about the world, and we base our whole lives on the assumptions we make. Engineering is based off of assumptions, too. “Let’s assume the flow is laminar on this airfoil,” or, “Let’s assume that pressure is evenly distributed in this combustion chamber.” Most astonishing was an assumption I heard in an economics class: “Let’s assume perfect information and rational actors.” These are assumptions we are taught, and they are just that—assumptions. Perfect, instantaneously distributed information? People and organizations and corporations as rational actors? It is abundantly clear that the world does not follow these assumptions. But we still hold on to them, because they give us the power to build something with those assumptions as foundational, be it an econometric model, a bridge, a deep-space probe, or an advertisement. These assumptions are valuable to other people and organizations, from the policy circles of Washington, DC, to the claustrophobic streets of Manhattan. That’s why the University of Michigan can get away with saying that we, the students, are “the leaders and best.” Nine years in cozy Ann Arbor have thus allowed me privilege I didn’t know existed. Within these “six square miles surrounded by reality,”I have walked to see the most majestic of artistic performances that very few people have the opportunity of experiencing. I have rolled out of bed to the most amazing farmers’ market around. I have had access to information, nature, people, and thoughts found in only a handful of places in the world.

But I can’t help but think that at the same time, being in Ann Arbor is a world away from being in a place like Detroit, where you can smell the industrialism that allows Ann Arbor to be what it is, where those who don’t have cars actually can’t do much other than eat at the local convenience store and get obese. Ann Arbor can set us up to think that the only places that we ought to go next are Washington, DC, or Manhattan... “upward mobility,” they call it. The assumption is then that the rest of world will provide for us what we want—gourmet food, the latest iPads, and a wonderful loft apartment to live in. The “real world” is neatly reconciled then with the coziness of Ann Arbor.

I truly love the State of Michigan and Ann Arbor. But it seems like for a little while, the world I have built up for myself must be poked and my assumptions must be questioned. I want to be in a vulnerable place, surrounded not by the unknown that is oddly similar to the known, but rather by a real unknown to me. Hopefully this poking, prodding and questioning will open up new spaces to be inspired to do something that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

The 1972 Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, familiarly known as “Title IX,” was landmark legislation that changed the lives of women and girls. The conference, to be held at Rackham May 9th through 11th, will celebrate its 40th anniversary and refocus attention on its goals. It has been organized by SHARP, a research and policy center that is a partnership between the Women’s Sports Foundation and U-M’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the School of Kinesiology. Conference speakers and delegates will deliver a call to action, demonstrate how research contributes to the understanding of Title IX’s impact, and offer a platform for academics to discuss how future research can have the maximum impact for policy change. In addition to U-M faculty members and scholars and researchers from around the nation, conference participants include: Laila Ali, boxing champion and President of the Women’s Sports Foundation; Olympic athletes; and leaders such as Amy Berman, Enforcement Director, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education; David A Brandon, Director, Intercollegiate Athletics, University of Michigan; Neena Chaudhry, Senior Counsel, National Women’s Law Center; James E. Delany, Commissioner, Big Ten Conference; Dr. Nancy Lee, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health-Women’s Health; and Karen Morrison, Director of Gender Inclusion, NCAA. The conference opens on Wednesday at 5 pm with several events that are free and open to the public, including a keynote address by Laila Ali, a public reception, and an interactive workshop on gender equity led by Nancy Hogshead-Makar. See links on the Rackham website for more information.

“The 12th Experimental Chaos and Complexity Conference,” held in the Rackham Building on May 16-19, aims to bring together researchers in the broad field of experimental nonlinear dynamics and its applications to various fields of science and technology. The conference will focus on experimental approaches that explain observations, suggest new experiments or provide new methods for analyzing data, including applications of nonlinear dynamics techniques to biological and social processes. Invited speakers include U-M faculty from across all schools and colleges—LSA, the Medical School, and Engineering. Panel topics include Neuroscience & Physiology, Systems Biology, Energy Systems Dynamics, Nano & Quantum Systems, Hydrodynamics & Plasmas, and Extreme Events. A public talk for nonspecialists, on bacterial colony growth, will be given on May 17 at 7:30 p.m., by Harry Swinney of the University of Texas at Austin. Take a look at the article in The University Record for more information.

Looking ahead to next spring: the topics for the 2013 Michigan Meetings will be "Liberal Arts in the Research University" and "Reproductive Justice.”

Work and life balance:
My work and life balance was completely off balance throughout my first and second years of grad school, with too much emphasis on the former and very little of the latter. I think I’ve been improving gradually, learning from experience that emphasizing the importance of life makes work more productive, and importantly, more fulfilling.

Faculty connections:
I’ve made errors, but mistakes are to be learned from. Candidacy was also an interesting experience in this department, as it really emphasized how awesome my committee selection was and how I can turn around from being timid around professors to enjoying their scholarly discussion about my work.

Candidacy:
I would say that this was my greatest accomplishment during my second year, but I think it’s actually how things changed after candidacy that are more worth mentioning. I’ve renewed some of that confidence I had completely lost upon entering grad school (a.k.a. imposter syndrome) and no longer feel encumbered by that need to prove myself to this apparition that’s been hovering over my shoulder.

Winter in Ann Arbor:
Is awesome.

Why I came to U-M:
And still wouldn’t change my decision if I had to go back and do it again.

Success is:
Something that I STILL don’t know, but I think it’s something about that discovery process that is success in itself. Just speculation.

This all sounds really positive, but like I said when I started blogging, I wanted other students to know that they’re not alone in those doubtful thoughts. I sank really deep, but at some point in time I started wanting to prove all the doubters wrong. And so I will do that…and more, and hopefully surprise you with all that I can do and accomplish . That is what comes next.

So with all that…choose your path:
Continue

Quit

Rackham interviewed 20 current graduate students from a variety of programs on a range of topics of interest to new and current students, including getting to know Ann Arbor and special advice for international students and students with children. Videos of these interviews are available on the Rackham website along with other materials for new and current graduate students.

One topic that may be of interest at this time of year is “Getting to Know Ann Arbor.” In this video, graduate students share their personal advice on what's unique about Ann Arbor, advice on how to get around town, living options, must-sees and must-dos in the area, and their favorite things about Ann Arbor. Whether or not this is your first summer in Ann Arbor, you might learn something new!

I’ve been sketching ideas for my first research lab in this easy-to-carry notebook since 2007.

The fact that my time here is quickly ending truly hit me a couple of weeks ago when, out of all things, I e-mailed my department’s administrator with a simple question. I needed to confirm the last day of my fellowship, and my health insurance, so I could switch to my husband’s insurance carrier until I begin my postdoctoral position. After I sent it, I experienced a deep sense of amazement. When I first began, five years seemed like such a long period of time, plenty of time to accomplish what I came to do. But here it was, five years later, and I still didn’t feel ready to leave. While I will be here for another few months, I don’t anticipate feeling prepared enough to be on my own when I do leave (Advisors, don’t worry, though, I’m still leaving…).

This doesn’t mean that my time being a scholar is over—in fact, it is only beginning. I have said before, and I will say it again—there is so much to do at Michigan if you are excited about learning how to be a scholar. At some point, however, you must take the next step from learning to be a scholar to actually becoming one. I think this jump is what is most intimidating for me, because it will be up to me to manage the production of knowledge. For example, I have a research assistant who has been helping me with some of my data analysis. When I meet with her, I often think to myself, “Someday, I will be managing a team of people just like her.” In my field, at least, being a scholar is not just reading and synthesizing information, it is also managing a setting where the desire to create new knowledge is nurtured (and funded!). Research is an industry, after all. And this is the path I will continue to walk once I graduate.

I am looking forward to these next steps. After graduation, I plan to take a postdoctoral position at a local university. While there is still an element of being a student, it is a step towards independence. I set my own agenda and create my own questions under the guidance of senior researchers. While I will have mentorship, I won’t have advisors who constantly remind me to get this or that done or tell me what I should be doing. It will be up to me to motivate myself and to plan my own trajectory. After a postdoc, I plan to transition into an academic faculty career. I will write my own grants and set up my own lab. It will be up to me whether my career is successful. The thought can be intimidating, but also exciting.

Ultimately, I know that, despite my fears and concerns, my doctoral training for the past five years has given me the skills I need to be on my own—I only need to tap into them. But more importantly, I have gained a zeal (such a stereotypical scholarly word, right?) for taking what is already known, and turning it into something new. No matter the fears, that zeal will carry me through my next steps and beyond.

The meeting will be the 2nd big conference of my PhD career and my very first talk at a meeting. Excluding having to present, I’m looking forward to the upcoming conference for a number of reasons. First, the meeting gathers researchers who study one subject: Circadian Rhythms. This means that I will be exposed to the similarities and differences in circadian rhythms between model organisms—from  mammals to crustaceans. I will also hear the latest on a wide range of circadian-related topics such as circadian diseases, aging, digestive and metabolic rhythms, and sleep cycles. Second, I’m hoping that people will be interested in hearing my research into circadian light entrainment and that I can get feedback from experts in my field regarding how my results fit into our current understanding of circadian biology. Lastly, the meeting has an entire day dedicated to the training of graduate students, postdocs and new faculty to prepare us for the particular challenges of our current positions. Let’s hope that I get selected to give my presentation on the first day so that I can take advantage of all that this meeting has to offer without worrying about my talk!

Here’s a link to the conference presentation schedule if you are interested in seeing what the hottest topics are in Circadian Rhythm research!

How did your first talk go over? Do you have any words of wisdom for a first-time presenter? Share your presentation strategies below!