28 April 2014

Adventures in transitioning from post-doc to professor.

It's that time of year. After dwelling in an esoteric professional purgatory for a few months, I can finally start to visualize where my career will be heading when my time as a post-doc has ended.

In my case, I'm happy to say I'll be joining the Biology Department at the University of Texas at Tyler as assistant professor. My time here at NESCent prepared me well for hitting the job market, but now I'm faced with actually making decisions that up until now were exclusively hypothetical. What is my 5 year research plan? How will I find students? What kind of desk chair should I buy?

I would say that you should expect my blogging to take on a slightly different flavor, but I'm confident in my ability to maintain a consistently inconsistent theme as always. As a quick preview, I'll be thinking lots over the next few months about how to set up computational resources, building collaborations, and teaching things like genomics and bioinformatics. On a more personal level, I'll be contemplating moving across the country, the quasi-nation-state of Texas, and how to explain to my new colleagues that I'll be knitting during faculty meetings.

Onward, towards adventure!