Shortly after getting to the lab, I had to move another student's belongings from my assigned office space (as gently and delicately as possible since he's on vacation and probably didn't realize that the space was assigned to me). Later, I received a mountain of papers to read (I like to call this the "mega-stack"; a pile of papers your PI will want you to read before getting started on your research projects). In fact, there were so many papers, that they exhausted the quota on my brand new geology email account and froze it (meaning I couldn't send or receive any more emails until I deleted the attachments--papers--from my account). To top it all off, I wound up staying late on my first day to babysit the printer... as each sheet of the mega-stack was painstakingly printed. So, there's my first day in a nutshell!
I don't mean to make it sound like a negative experience. In fact, I came home in a rather good mood, despite my fatigue. I promised you a real look at what it's like to be a graduate student in astrobiology at an NAI-consortium member school and I'm sticking to it. Getting started at a brand new place in a new position is always exhausting. There are so many names, places, things, and rules to remember and you have to get all of it straight sooner rather than later because the remainder of your time there could very well depend on it. There are cards to get, keys to pick up, forms to fill out, people to get acquainted with... etc.
We all want to make a good first impression when we start somewhere new. In my case, I consulted others as to how to handle this situation where another student had taken up residency in my office space. The student in question was on vacation and the person in charge of office assignments was too (great, huh?). To be honest, I felt really guilty moving this student's things without his permission even though my name was on the list and his wasn't.
Although I hadn't met him yet, I wanted him to like me. Let's face it, moving someone else's things usually isn't the best way to make that happen. I left him a note, explaining my actions, along with a copy of the office assignment roster but I don't think I'll feel any better about it until I have had a chance to meet with him face-to-face and discuss it. I also informed my new PI of the situation since I know it's important to her that she be able to find me (in the event that I am the one who must find a new workspace). At the very least, I don't think I could have done anything other than what I did. My PI already has work for me, she needs me to have a place to do that work, the space was assigned to me, case closed, right? I guess we'll just have to see where that leads-- the other student is due back tomorrow.
Otherwise, things seem to be going pretty well. I like my new colleagues. They're curteous, helpful and hard-working. My PI is easy to talk to, has lots of interesting ideas and plans for the future. I feel like my interests and hers mesh well together. The papers she wants me to read are familar to me. I do not have to start from square one in the lab since I already know many of the techniques I will need (picked up from previous labs). I appreciate the fact that Dr. Sahai is always thinking of the present in terms of the future. When she comes up with a plan for one of her students, it is with timelines in mind-- any shortcut that could minimize the time needed to complete a PhD is considered. She also places a heavy emphasis on preventative measures. By keeping the lines of communication open, potential problems in the lab-- interpersonal or technical-- get nipped in the bud while they're still small enough to fix. I should say that not all PIs are like this; I feel these are really unique traits.
Dr. Sahai once told me that she keeps the lab small on purpose, for if she allowed it to get too big, she would not be able to invest so much effort in each student's development. For someone like me who came from a lab with over 30 students and a PI who was away from the lab more often than not, this is a drastic change. Over the years, I have come across many PIs with "open-door" policies who simply were not present to be available in the first place. Some students prefer this approach because it maximizes independence early. However, this can be a rather risky proposition too because it leaves you vulnerable when mistakes happen. Small problems can get very big, very quickly before anyone realizes what's happening and then, it could very well be too late to salvage anything. I also have a hard time understanding how a PI can get to know their students if they never interact with them. Let's face it. If we didn't need to learn anything from our PIs, why would we be in their labs in the first place? If I come Y University to learn from Professor X, then I would expect to spend at least some time benefiting from Professor X's wisdom and experiences... not those of his post-docs exclusively!
At any rate, I think you catch my drift. I'm starting to get a feel for what the next few years are going to be like here at UW and it seems like it's going to be vastly different than what I've experienced before at other institutions. I feel I am in a rather unique position to make comparisons between UW's astrobiology program and Penn State's (another "big 10" school that also happens to be an NAI consortium member). I will be scrutinizing everything from education & outreach to academic rigor and student retention! I hope my rambling will be helpful to other prospective astrobiology students out there who may be feeling torn between these two programs (or even, one of these and other schools I have not attended).
I expect to spend the rest of my first week reading that mountain of papers I mentioned before, and starting to get familiar with where things are in the lab. I'm already doing small things in the lab itself, like making buffers in preparation for dialyzing oxides that will be used in liposome adsorption experiments later this week. I will also be having a training session this Friday in XRD (x-ray diffraction). I realize it doesn't sound all that exciting but it is perfectly normal not to be doing much in the lab in the beginning. Now, the emphasis is mostly on literature review.
Lewis G. Weeks Hall of Geological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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