Thursday, June 6, 2013

June 6, 2013

Man, tenure track is tough. Hence the lack of blog for over 2 years. I didn’t want to sound too pessimistic. But, perhaps reality is important to others considering the same path…

People: 
I have continued to have summer students in my lab – two last year and two more this year. It is a lot of fun, even if their experiments don’t always work, because they are not yet jaded and bitter. Very refreshing…

The post-doc situation has varied. Just because someone comes with a PhD and good references does not always mean he or she will be able to fit into the lab environment or be able to actually do decent experiments. Being intelligent and interviewing well does not necessarily correlate with doing experimental techniques well. There can also be issues where people feel certain lab members will do their work for them. Challenging for sure. There was a year of much training, retraining, advising, counseling, goading, encouraging, threatening, and other such attempts to light the right sort of incentive fire, with no effect. It was exhausting, it almost led to the quitting of other lab personnel, and at the end of the year there was nothing to show except money lost.

Also, it was a shock to learn my lab technician had become pregnant and therefore took a year off for maternity leave. It was wonderful for her and she will raise a wonderful child, but it was another rug pulled out while trying to get things rolling. I was able to find someone to fill her shoes for the year, but the personnel change really altered the lab dynamics and I was always unsure if everyone was really communicating with everyone else.

I almost had a graduate student start a Master’s last year. I flew him out on my dime for an interview and he was accepted by the program. Then within weeks of the start date, he told me his wife did not want to move to Edmonton so he wouldn’t be coming. I had already passed deadlines for other candidates, so that was that.

I rallied again this past year and hope to bring on a keen PhD student this September, if all goes well…

The latest and hot of the press crisis is a misinterpretation of work permit application renewal which has now led my research associate to be banned from any work or volunteering for the next 5 or 6 months. Yes, I am serious. Now I am trying to become an expert in immigration law – in my free time…

Papers:
We published our first “real” home-grown paper this year in the Journal of Biological Chemistry on differences we found between a and b alleles of prion protein. It was actually quite publicized and landed me on the front page of the Edmonton Journal. We have a bunch of follow-up studies in the works. However, the work was spearheaded by my research associate (previously post-doc) who is now unemployable for 5-6 months because of a work permit issue. Just when you think you are getting somewhere – whoosh, another rug pulled away.

I did manage a couple of book chapters last year, a review, and a collaborator paper. This year I will soon have published a book (a neuroradiology pocket book guide for medicine residents), and we have a review submitted. Hopefully two more papers will soon be in the works.

Grants: 
Last Sept/Oct I wrote 8 grants. For 3 of these I was just a collaborator, not the main PI. CIHR was the big one. I had failed at the previous CIHR so thought I would come up with something new and more exciting. I got none of the grants.

This past April alone I wrote 6 grants. For 3 I was again a collaborator. I will find out the results sometime this month. If I get nothing, I will have to start self-funding my lab or figure out how to do all the research myself (but then who will fill in all the forms?).

Equipment:
We have all the bits, but sometimes things are still a major pain. Our fractionation system has taken a LOT of time to get up and running for a myriad of reasons.

The Centre: 
Believe it or not, we finally became active October, 2011, 34 months after I started at the Centre… We now have 7 full time faculty and lots of trainees. It finally feels like things are rolling. If only we could secure core funding…

Clinical: 
I am up to 6 cases of CJD here in Edmonton. I still enjoy the general neurology clinical work and the teaching I do with residents and medical students in the clinic and hospital. If only the political situation were a bit friendlier towards the healthcare providers. Physicians and the government of Alberta have not been getting along. At least we have finally agreed on a contract so we shall see how the next few years go. We have to balance funding an optimized healthcare system with the cutbacks to the budget the government is making because of low oil and gas revenues. The government has also really cut funding for universities. That, and the added trend of grants moving towards funding more translational products with more immediate economic impacts (as opposed to basic science research), makes me feel attacked on all sides – clinical, teaching, research.

Talks: 
I continue to give plenty of talks, including a new tour with Jay Ingram last year. It has been a bit tricky at times though, as I get asked to give inspirational and motivational career talks at times when I am about ready to throw in the towel myself…

Tenure: 
The word tenure induces stress in me. It is a big mystery. It is something that must be obtained, but exactly what is expected and what it is worth is not clear. In the past two years I was informed that there is an expectation of 4 papers per year. Whether quality of paper counts isn’t clear, or whether they all have to originate from my lab. Prion research takes a while… I know that if I don’t make tenure, that is it – no job. But if I make tenure, nothing really changes – it is contingent tenure and I still scramble for funding or lose my lab. In my “third year review” I was slammed for lack of papers and was given a 0.5 merit increase (usual is 1.0). I found out only 3 people in the entire department got 0.5. Nice. The excuse that the lab was not active until October, 2011 didn’t count… This past year I got a 1.0 again (the first two years I got 1.5’s), but I am still deeply shaken by the earlier judgment which has seriously led me to question if I am cut out to do this clinician scientist thing or not. When I express my concern about making tenure to some of my colleagues, the reply is very much like, “Of course you will make tenure, don’t worry! Besides, you’re a clinician.” I think that means I can always get a job if I don’t make it…

For anyone out there trying to follow this crazy path, find yourself as many mentors as you can, preferably advocates, as flying solo is NOT the way to go…

Other:
I still play with Concordia Symphony and I joined a new group, LaFolia, which is a string ensemble that performs early music (we even tune our instruments done to a 415Hz A and use uneven temperament tuning). We are performing Vivaldi’s Seasons this weekend (I am playing Autumn). Thankfully I still have music. Otherwise I would be certifiably insane by now… Okay, maybe I will blog again after tenure is decided…