The Real Purpose of Grad School . . .
. . . Is to make sure you know how ignorant you are.
After group meeting today I decided to go to a seminar given by an editor for Analytical Chemistry about mass spectroscopy and proteomics. It really wasn't terribly exciting, mostly because I'm not interested in the subject and partly because we covered about the first half of the seminar in undergrad. A fair bit of my time was spent doodling random geometric patterns in my notebook.
At the end I left from back of the room. Walking around the hallway to go back up to the lab, I ran into my advisor (figuratively of course). That's cool, I like to hear what he has to say about seminars. As we're walking up to the fourth floor he asks me what I thought of the seminar. I think of something reasonably intelligent to say about wishing more recent research had been covered, but end with the fact that I had spent time doodling. Then I ask what he thought, and was told, "I think she should use more lasers." (As a side note, our group is basically obsessed with lasers; we like them alot.) Then he shows me the doodling he did during the seminar. Turns out he had spent the time figuring out how to subtract and depict chi(2) tensors (And if I knew what a chi(2) tensor was, I'd be so proud of myself) conveniently . . . or something like that.
So, the moral of the story. Never compare your own seminar doodles to those of your brilliant advisor. Second moral, trying to sound intelligent is sometimes overrated. On the upside, having a brilliant advisor who doesn't mind that I'm currently ignorant is a fabulous thing.
On a different note, this morning during 621 lecture, my prof said something pretty hilarious and terrifying. "I could torture you by putting this problem on your exam. You would cry." Cue wimpering and gnashing of teeth.
After group meeting today I decided to go to a seminar given by an editor for Analytical Chemistry about mass spectroscopy and proteomics. It really wasn't terribly exciting, mostly because I'm not interested in the subject and partly because we covered about the first half of the seminar in undergrad. A fair bit of my time was spent doodling random geometric patterns in my notebook.
At the end I left from back of the room. Walking around the hallway to go back up to the lab, I ran into my advisor (figuratively of course). That's cool, I like to hear what he has to say about seminars. As we're walking up to the fourth floor he asks me what I thought of the seminar. I think of something reasonably intelligent to say about wishing more recent research had been covered, but end with the fact that I had spent time doodling. Then I ask what he thought, and was told, "I think she should use more lasers." (As a side note, our group is basically obsessed with lasers; we like them alot.) Then he shows me the doodling he did during the seminar. Turns out he had spent the time figuring out how to subtract and depict chi(2) tensors (And if I knew what a chi(2) tensor was, I'd be so proud of myself) conveniently . . . or something like that.
So, the moral of the story. Never compare your own seminar doodles to those of your brilliant advisor. Second moral, trying to sound intelligent is sometimes overrated. On the upside, having a brilliant advisor who doesn't mind that I'm currently ignorant is a fabulous thing.
On a different note, this morning during 621 lecture, my prof said something pretty hilarious and terrifying. "I could torture you by putting this problem on your exam. You would cry." Cue wimpering and gnashing of teeth.
posted by Victoria at 8:56 PM
3 Comments:
Victoria, I have decided that what you need to do in order to really immerse yourself in this whole science thing (especially lasers) is to watch MacGyver. The first season is out on DVD. Trust me. It'll work. MacGyver was totally a scientist. ;)
Out of all of the possible comments from you, that was not one I was expecting.
Although, come to think of it, I probably should have.
lol Victoria! I totally need to meet the amazing people that make up your super-cool-laser-fanatic research friends!! Your advisor sounds fun, too. :o)
PS: I met Brian Greene!!! :o) Someday, he will be my research advisor! :o)
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