The Crossroads

Interesting times we live in - certainly not boring.  While I steadfastly refuse to comment on things like politics, the economy and religion, I remain enormously disappointed where we are as a country and more importantly, as a people. We can and should do better for everyone, especially for those who cannot help themselves. We in this country are at a crossroads - one where if we continue on the recent path will, in my opinion, not turn out well for anyone - rich or poor. OK - I sit dangerously close to breaking my pledge...

So, we, err I, am also at a crossroads in my academic career.  As many of you might be aware, I applied for the position of Department Head in Biology at Utah State University, my home for the past decade (has it been that long?).  This was not an easy decision for me given the uncomfortable nature of being an "in-house" applicant and mainly for the reason this was not a position that I thought I really wanted. You see, dear readers, this was a position I turned down several years ago for many of the same reasons that I was hesitant to apply this time.  But I did apply at the urging of some colleagues, gave research talks and vision statements to decade-long friends, and as our story played out I did not get the position (I was "2nd",  whatever that means).  Was I disappointed?  Honestly, not really. Was my ego bruised? A bit but that has long healed.

Just where are the crossroads I speak of?  Well, when I decided to apply for the position of Head I made myself a promise should I not get it (which, if you've been paying attention, I did not), either to decide once and for all to either (1) work more diligently to get greater administrative experience and responsibilities and continue to try and move up the academic ladder or (2) get my rear end back into the laboratory more and become an even better, more productive researcher.

Looking back along the path, I have been trying to do both and probably have not been great at either. By being Associate Head for 7+ years and involved as Associate Director and then Director of the now defunct Ctr for Advanced Nutrition and doing a ton of committee and service responsibilities, I had been steadily chipping away at research time.  All the administrative duties made it harder to find time to read papers and the critically important aspect of taking some time each day to sit and think about science. I don't know if every researcher feels this way, but for me to think creatively or "outside the box" requires that I have the time to put my feet up, lean back in my chair and just let my mind go at it. Gawd, that sounds presumptuous and arrogant, but I don't know another way to say it. Anyway, this is the role of the orange chair* in my other office - my place to sit and think (OK, and occasionally nap). Despite the many responsibilities I had taken on in recent years, the lab has managed to stay productive and funded (if you could see me, I am furiously knocking on wood at the moment), but like our country, the laboratory could and should do better if we are going to remain active researchers. 

So, keeping the promise to myself, I have thought and thought - both in and out of the orange chair - about which way to go. Like any decision, there are pluses and minuses to each choice and I won't bore you with the specifics. But the orange chair did its job - I came to the realization that I am in my professional career, first and foremost, a researcher - that is what I love to do and, if I am being frank, is something I am probably better at than being an administrator.  I have never been a big fan of meetings for meetings sake, which seems to be item #1 in the job requirements for any administrator. And, there are real, tangible benefits to choosing the research path - I'll have more time for life outside the university (i.e. real life), a life filled with family, skiing, the Broncos, nature, etc. Maybe, I'll have the time to finally really learn to play the guitar well. So, I have chosen the path - I'll decrease administrative and committee responsibilities where I can and figuratively put on the old, graying lab coat. Is it the right decision? I am not sure, but coming to this conclusion has made me incredibly content and has re-energized me.  But one thing I've learned is that I will probably come to more forks in the road as I move forward and I'll be back in the orange chair again and again.

*some consider this chair rather ugly, while I really, really like it both functionally and aesthetically.

My love/hate relationship with my iPhone

I have had an iPhone 3G for quite a while now - about two years or so - and in that time she and I have developed quite a relationship with her {I am not sure why but my phone is definitely a female}. When I ordered her, it was the anticipation that comes with the start of a new relationship... the exhilaration when she arrived and I got her working and downloaded my first messages...

In the two years I have had a smart phone, the relationship has certainly changed, like all relationships, I suppose. It has matured and the newness and excitement that was there early on has grown into something different.  The phone has in two years gotten scratched, has more than a few cracks, doesn't hold a charge as long... but none of that has dampened my love for her - it's just that I have learned to hate her as well.

The iPhone is a great device - one where I can stay connected 24/7/365 - and this is where the trouble comes in.  With technology like this comes the expectation that you are always available to answer emails, respond to texts, take calls... whatever happened to "time off"?  I know, I know... you say "just don't take it with you" but that is not really a possibility given that (1) I am a parent of a young child and (2) I don't have a land line...  So, she is always with me, ready at an instant to alert me of incoming emails asking/telling me what I need to do/should be doing/should have done...  I never thought I'd be "one of those people" who incessantly checks their phone for emails, but I have certainly become one.  I was at a conference a few weeks ago and during one of the talks looked around the audience and saw at least half the people at any point in time suffered from a similar malady.  Rarely, can I sit though a meeting or seminar without checking the phone at least a few times. Sometimes, I think if I could get away with it during my own lectures, I would...

But I have made strides in curing this addiction - I changed the settings so that it doesn't alert me when a new email arrives (it was buzzing incessantly!) and this has been a plus since I don't need additional prompts for me to look at my Inbox...  Before I changed this, when am email arrived I felt I HAD to look at it immediately. What was I expecting, an email saying I had been made Head Coach of the Denver Broncos, but only if I replied within the next 30 seconds?  I do, however, get emails from Nigeria saying I can get several million dollars from the estate of a prince if only I send them my bank account information... you see, it seems they need to move some money and I apparently am their only option... makes perfect sense. But I digress.

Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I admit I made this change because having it constantly pushing email to my phone was eating battery life, and, god knows, I couldn't let it run out of batteries!!! Recently, I also have been trying to "forget" it on my desk in my office when I go to some meetings so I am not tempted to peek at it... just where is my self-discipline? So, how do I unplug and get some time away from the office?  I dunno... but I am working on it.  Until then, if you email me, chances are I'll see it pretty soon after you send it.

Tricky Questions on Final Exams

The 500 student Biology II class I co-teach had its final exam yesterday - meaning the course is this close to over... it is not officially over because there is still work to be done. While in a class this large (without teaching assistants!) we are forced to evaluate performance using multiple choice exams that can be computer graded, the logistics of compiling and assigning grades is always a bit of a heavy lift...

One of the things we deal with after the exams are turned in, graded and the students receive their scores are the usual bevy of emails from students asking why the answer to question 7 is "A" and not "B".  This type of question usually takes several forms from the polite query asking for the rationale to the other extreme where the student will blatantly accuse us professors of purposely trying to trick them by asking obscure and misleading questions. Since I teach the Physiology section of Intro Biology, my "favorite" emails are those that tell me the right answer to question 7 should indeed be "B" because they asked a friend/cousin/neighbor who is a physician this question and they, of course, agreed with the student.  This, despite the fact that the lecture notes and book say the opposite, their physician reference knows more than any professor possibly could at a state university...

Do we sometimes ask bad or unclear questions? Certainly, it happens (a lot less than the students think) and with computerized grading we know when and if this occurs.  It is easy after the fact to discard these questions.

However, on the issue of tricky questions, while I can only speak for myself, I seriously doubt it is the intent of professors to try and trick students by purposefully asking misleading or obscure questions. Some students don't realize that we actually WANT you to do well - there is no secret memo directing us to weed out students - and that when the class doesn't do as well as we'd expect or desire, we die a 1000 deaths.  I have asked a number of students what they think is the definition of a tricky question. By and large the response I get is that it is a question which is not explicitly stated in the notes or book.  I guess when we ask integrative questions or ask the students to think and not just memorize, we become guilty of being tricky... sigh.

Another all too common email after grades are in are those that request an additional point or two to  bring their grade to the next higher level so that they can graduate/keep a scholarship/continue in their major/etc.  We all, as faculty, are sympathetic to these issues that the students face and understand through our own personal experience how hard it is to juggle lots of classes, work, family, and so on.

But the reality is we cannot manufacture points after the fact for one or two students and not do it for everyone. Ethically, this becomes a slippery slope and we have to hold the line on the grade distributions set up before the class begins. Like the "tricky question" issue, this makes us appear heartless to the students ("What would it hurt to give ME a couple of points so I can keep my scholarship?"). Certainly, we'd LIKE to do this, but at some point the grades wouldn't mean much if we did.  It is always strange to me and my colleagues that many students feel it is perfectly justifiable for us to give only them an extra point or two and to heck with the other 499 students...


Anyway, teaching a large intro course like this is never boring - and despite some of its challenges - is something that I actually enjoy doing... Having said that, the day when the grades are in and it is officially over, like today, is always a good day.


Next scheduled lecture for this class: 1.10.2011... the countdown begins... NOW.

and a year or so passes without a whisper

About a year ago, it seems the Tasteman™ was abandoned to the darker recesses of the internet, to places where even Ole Lange would not venture... and, I was OK with it.




Frankly, in this job it is hard to find the time, energy and desire to do anything else on a computer other than the normal work we have to do. I don't "surf the web" (is that phrase EVEN still used?), or play games on the computer or do much of anything except write & read for work. Well, and this occasionally. So, it languished... and it sat... and it collected metaphorical dust. I thought it was done for...



But, today as I ate my lunch at my desk (Yoplait Light Pineapple Upside Down Cake yogurt; surprisingly delicious), I went into the Gilbertson Lab website, which coincidentally is similarly collecting dust these days, and on my way to PubMed to look up some papers, clicked the wrong button and got side-tracked into the Tasteman™ where I happened to re-read some of it. I got a little bit nostalgic. Now, I don't envision this as a period of renaissance for the ol' blog, but thought I'd ought to post something to keep it alive to try and stave off the infection that comes from lack of use (yeah, yeah, use-it-or-lose-it, blah2.)



While there I stumbled across a blog from one of our undergrads and soon-to-be-medical student, Heather, which is interesting, hilarious, insightful and, something the Tasteman™ is not, deep. And, no, I won't link to it here - I am sure she doesn't want the riff-raff that reads the Tasteman™ perusing it [you know who you are]. Or, maybe she does, who knows. Anyway, it made me want to write here again (for at least a moment or two).



Like most, rather than posting to a blog, I have been on Facebook for a while - and, while useful to connect with some old friends via FB and getting to post videos/pix of Shayde to show family/friends, it becomes a bit much at times and I don't venture in all that regularly... and it certainly is not a place to ramble on (i.e. like this)...



Anyway, the Tasteman™ is supposed to be about the lab, the labbies and the like... And like my last post about a year ago, this year two more of our graduate students will move onward and upward. Both Tian and Cherry (the new Mom) will be getting their Ph.D.s sometime during the summer. This will make 4 Ph.D.'s leaving the lab in about a year. Something to be proud about to be sure, but a time of profound change. On a related note, I am really pleased Arian and Bhavik are coming back to walk during graduation next week!



I think we will be taking on 3-4 new graduate students starting in the Fall 2010 semester, which will be an interesting task but necessary to keep us in business... I think Han was afraid she'd be the only remaining grad student next year and therefore I'd be less likely to forget about the biweekly reports (oh, don't get me started on those!!!).



Anyway, back to the real work - see you in about another 12 months.


-T

Labbies in New Places

Ah, the passage of time and with it, we have to accept our losses. Not to get too maudlin here, but our lab is in the throes of change. But in a way, good change. Two of our finest, Arian Baquero and Bhavik Shah, have left the nest to other (greener?) pastures. Both have completed their Ph.D.'s at Utah State U and are off to seek new challenges as postdoctoral researchers...

And, of course, we will miss them greatly but as the old Hindu proverb states:

Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.

So, we'll struggle to carry on without them.

Dr. Arian is off to the University of Colorado-Denver to work for my previous postdoctoral mentor, Dr. Sue Kinnamon, where he will continue to:

(a) enjoy the absolute thrill of working with mammalian taste buds...
(b) enjoy the great environment of Colorado
(c) be close to the Denver Broncos

Personally, item (c) is the one I am most jealous of (at least until they get eliminated from playoff contention).

Dr. Bhavik is off to Harvard University - specifically Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard's Medical School) - where he will change gear's a little and work more on obesity/diabetes/energy metabolism issues from a molecular genetic perspective.

And I am happy to report that another former labbie, Dr. Kris Watson, has just accepted a faculty position at Lake Superior State University. Kris tried hard to find a place with winters that were colder than those found in Logan, UT. We are pleased to report that she succeeded.


Best of luck to all of you - we'll miss you!

I am anxiously awaiting my sweatshirts from CU-Denver, Harvard & LSSU...

Appearance counts...

We've been away awhile for a whole host of reasons, but I am back for a moment to post what has quickly become one of my favorite student comments of all time. By way of a little background, each semester students evaluate the classes they are taking, both for the course in general and for the instructor. Generally, these are useful tools for us professors to see how students feel about the course, things we could improve, things that are done especially well (or poorly), etc.

While useful information, much of this has to be taken with a grain of salt - and some trends always are clear: larger classes tend to be lower rated, the harder the class the lower the rating, the lower the level, the lower the rating, as so on...

Anyway, one of the courses I teach is a large, lower division general biology course, (BIOLOGY II: BIOL 1620), which is co-taught with another professor. When the reviews for this course of ~450 students come back (which they did today), I look over the reviews for the reasons outlined above. The really useful information generally comes not from numerical ratings, but most often from the comments section, where it asks what aspects of the course (1) were especially good and (2) what could be improved...

There are the usual responses that the tests are too difficult or too easy, lectures too fast or too boring, too much material or too little material... Occasionally, there are really useful comments that I take to heart and work hard to change the next time I offer the course. Well, today I received a comment that certainly caught my eye and is one of those I will keep for posterity - it makes my top 5 comment list of all time:


Apparently, appearance counts - fortunately at least I seem to smell OK during lecture...

Follow up to mascot melee...

The accolades and attention keep coming for Utah State U Men's basketball program and, importantly, Big Blue. I can't recall a year in which Utah State has received so much national attention.

Here is the Deadspin NCAA tournament bracket that prominently highlights Big Blue's recent altercation with New Mexico State's Pistol Pete in the upper left corner.

click to enlarge

Deep down, I hope our football team will show this much toughness next year and that they ask themselves WWBBD (What Would Big Blue Do)!