Tag: grad school

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School is getting…”interesting”…

A few quick points, as I’ve been very, very busy recently. I had a committee meeting today that went pretty well, I think. For those that don’t know, your dissertation committee is basically the group of people that say “you’re ready to graduate,” so these meetings are pretty important so you can keep them apprised of your progress toward (eventual) graduation.

Anyway, I went over all my recent data, much of which I obtained last week after fighting with some assays and finally getting them to work. Either way, the committee was pretty pleased with what I had to show them. Suffice to say, I now have a list of stuff to complete and, assuming I complete that list (or the vast majority of it) by December, then my Dec. meeting will be my last one before my actual Dissertation Defense next Spring.

So yeah, basically, this is a good indication that I’ll actually be able to graduate next May, provided nothing catastrophic happens. The list of stuff I have to complete, for the most part, is pretty straightforward and shouldn’t include the learning of any new techniques (and that’s usually what ends up causing “hiccups”).

On another, semi-related note, I’m the Course Director for Drugs We Use and Abuse, the undergraduate-level class that we, as graduate students, teach in the Fall each year. Because of this, I’ll be the person coordinating all of the lectures and deal with all the undergrads give their lame excuses for why they can’t attend class. It isn’t a huge responsibility, provided you delegate the duties, but it will make me busier than normal during the Fall semester. I’m very much looking forward to this, as I intend on teaching once I find (read: apply for) a permanent position post-graduation.

I have a feeling this school year will have a “whirlwind” feel to it.

And I certainly have my work cut out for me.

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That’s kinda neat!

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So, I’m officially a published author now. I heard a few weeks ago that the manuscript I’d been working on (for, like, a year…) was accepted to Neurotoxicology, a bi-monthly journal published by Elsevier, but I didn’t want to post anything here until it was up on Pubmed. I should be receiving proofs sometime this week so I can look at the final version of the document (i.e. what it’ll look like when it’s actually in the journal), so maybe I’ll put up a picture of that, too!

Either way, I decided to search for “Linsenbardt” in Pubmed today and see if I was there. And I am.

That’s kinda neat! 🙂

Unless you have access through your university, you can’t actually read the paper yet. Elsevier is pretty annoying about such things, making you pay for access otherwise, but because NIH funds were used to pay for the work done in the paper, it’ll have to be made available, free, to the public sometime eventually.

I’m starting my second paper now (as in, as we speak…), and my PLAN is to get that submitted by October somewhere. But, as some of you know, that last paper took me FOREVER to actually get out and submitted. October is when the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting is, however, and it’d be nice to tell prospective employers that I have one paper published and another one on the way. Also, for the purposes of graduating, getting two first-author papers is a good thing (as in, typically, if your name is first on the list, then you either did most of the work, or wrote the whole paper yourself…not always the case, but usually it goes something like that…so “first-author” is pretty important).

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Neuroscience 2008

From Neuroscience 2008

Well, I got back from DC today…was there for a few days for the Society for Neuroscience 2008 convention (last year’s was in San Diego), where I presented a poster of some data I’ve been working on (and hope to get published soon!). Overall, the poster presentation (which was Sunday morning) went beautifully well. Last year, I presented later in the conference, so there were less people around to listen to me make stuff up… This year, however, was earlier so there was much more interest and, in general, many more people.

Other than that, I looked at lots of other posters and talked with some folks from different labs, checking into some Postdoc opportunities. I got some good information, and some good ideas as to where to go next (with my research and my career).

We did get some sight-seeing in, though, specifically getting to see the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (w00t!) and the National Mall (and all their monuments…). They’re all pretty self-explanatory, and you can check out pictures here!

Oh, and I also got to see Jeff Lin. Good times.

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Updat(ing)…

Nothing too special going on recently, but I’ve been keeping pretty busy…

1). Work has been going pretty well, recently. I’ve been getting lots of useful data, but I’m still waiting on an important piece before submitting my first paper for publication. I don’t really know which journal I want to submit it to yet, either, but that will partially depend on this last piece of the puzzle. Regardless, the data I’ve been obtaining in the last few week has actually been somewhat exciting, so it makes things interesting for me!

2). I got Super Smash Bros. Brawl last weekend and have been playing it mostly incessantly since I unwrapped it. The game is crazy addictive, lemme tell ya… I’m only about a quarter of the way through the single-player portion of the game, as I’ve been dabbling in the Event modes, Classic mode and on-line games trying to unlock characters and levels. If you’ve got a code for me, shoot me an e-mail or something so you can beat me up with Peach! 😛

3). Grounded was last night, and I think this was our 7th one or so. We’ve been having a great deal of fun with it, but it’d still be nice to see more people coming out (third Saturday of every month!). I recently got all the advertising materials from my sister so now I can start editing some things myself. As such, I added a new section to the Grounded site that has photos, wallpapers (I’m still working on those) and, more importantly, music. So yes, you can stream music recorded from monthly Grounded events from your own computer. w00t!

4). We’ll be heading to Columbia for Easter this year… We are supposed to play for the Good Friday service here in St. Louis first so we won’t hit town until Saturday morning. Otherwise, we’ll be at church Saturday night at St. Andrew’s, as per usual, and then hang out with the immediate and extended family on Easter Sunday. Hopefully giant radioactive rabbits don’t crash the party…

I guess that’s about it. Tomorrow is St. Patty’s Day, so Dr. Westfall, the chairman of our department at school, always has a huge party (complete with dancers…he has to install a wood floor in the basement for them every year…) and it’ll take up the entirety of my day. Heck of a way to spend a Monday, I say… 😛

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So now what?

My Prelim oral defense was on Wednesday…and was pretty friggin’ hard…but I got through it mostly unscathed. The exam consisted of a 20 min PowerPoint presentation generally reviewing all the stuff I put in my 25-page proposal, hitting the fine points and rationale, but not going through any specific experiments. This was followed by another 1 hr and 40 min worth of questioning on subjects peripherally related to what I’d written. A few questions were about why I’d chosen certain drugs, or why use this model for your experiments, or why this cell type, etc. Other questions were kinda related to what I was proposing, but mostly not.

In the end, I got 5 “yes” votes (out of 5) and was given a form letter from the dean saying that I need to be done by 2012. I certainly hope I don’t take that long, but hey…whatever…

Anyway, now I’m going to chill until after Christmas and then get started in earnest on the following:

1). I need to fill out the paperwork for “Advancement to Doctoral Candidacy,” get my signatures and get it sent off to the Dean’s office. Essentially, I’ve been a “graduate student” and now I’ll be an official “doctoral student,” which allows me to have fewer credit hours per semester (I only have 12 left that I need to complete…between now and 2012…heh…) and still remain a “full-time student.” It’s really just a formality, but still…can be annoying to get it all done…

2). Related to #1, I need to form a Doctoral Thesis Committee. This committee is separate from the one that I took the oral defense with, but can consist of the same members if so desired. These people are going to be in charge of pushing me along to make sure I’m not actually here until 2012. I’ll have to present my data for them every once and awhile (a few times a year?) and they’ll be the ones that decide when I’m done. They’re also there to “protect” me from my boss (which won’t be a problem…) so that she doesn’t keep me around too long doing lots of work when I could be out on my own… That’s their job, at least, but they won’t have to police Dr. Macarthur much, I expect…

3). Write up a paper for publication on the data I’ve obtained thus far. I want to get it started so I know what other experiments I need to start to fill out the paper. As Dr. Macarthur says (and I agree with), any paper should “tell a story”…so have a beginning, middle and end. I’ve got the beginning, certainly, and bits and pieces of “middle” and “end”…most of it being done, but I think I could use a bit more data to make the whole paper more complete.

4). I’ve got to present a paper on February 12th for “Journal Club.” This is done once a year (all students do it) and we have to pick a paper that we want to present in front of the department during lunch. It’s supposed to be pretty informal…but sometimes isn’t… 😛 Regardless, I’ve got to pick a paper first, then write up a PowerPoint presentation on it and generally know what I’m talking about with regards to the document. I’m not terribly worried about it, but it’s something else to complete…

That’s about it! Relatively downhill from here… I’m shooting to be done in early 2010, but if all my data comes in beautifully (as I know it will… :-P), then I could be out in late-2009. We’ll see…

Brooke just wants to go to Europe…so, the sooner the better for her… 😛

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D-Day: December 12, 2007

A day that will forever live in infamy… At 1:00 pm on December 12, 2007, I’ll orally defend (“D-day” as in “defense”) my preliminary thesis proposal. This is described as being the most difficult aspect of the Ph.D. process and will likely last nearly 2 hours, consisting of a brief introductory presentation by me, followed by lines of questioning about the subject and related subjects until they “feel I’m done” (or dead). The committee got together today to say that the 25-page document I turned in is “sufficient” and we can move ahead with the oral defense, and they set the date as next Wednesday.

I’ve been surprisingly good over these past few weeks with studying my old flash cards and review articles on the subjects of Parkinson disease, oxidative stress, the mitochondria and apoptosis (amongst others). I’m going to take a few days off between now and then to buckle down a few facets of the thesis proposal, as each committee member gave me a brief page with a few “suggestions” for things to think about. These are things they may ask about during the oral defense, but maybe not. Regardless, they thought everything was explained relatively well, but had a few questions on why I picked some experiments over others, or some time points over others, etc.

I feel pretty good right now about the whole thing, but I imagine that my feelings will change as we get closer. If I fail it (which does happen…), then I’ll get the opportunity to do it again…but I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that (obviously). Getting this all done before the Christmas holiday would be a big plus…

Here we go!

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SfN 2007

So, I was away in San Diego from Oct 31 – Nov 7 for two scientific meetings: National Parkinson Foundation and the Society for Neuroscience. These were my first real “meetings” that I attended and my first experience with people “in the field” that I’m working with (and there are a lot of the, apparently…).

The Parkinson meeting was over two days and was very helpful. The whole thing was set up so that there were presentations that were grouped along certain topics, discussed by people who know what they’re talking about, and educating the rest of us on this aspect of the Parkinson’s research field that we would otherwise be unaware of. Most of the discussions, it seemed, focused on the genetic forms of Parkinson’s disease (which only account for maybe 10% of total cases…) and that was informative, as we don’t really focus on the genetic forms, per se. Regardless, we met some folks, heard some good talks and learned more about the field.

While the Parkinson meeting involved 100-120 people, the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting involved…oh…30,000 people…which meant that I learned a little bit there, but not as much as before. You come to a point where you get overwhelmed by all the posters and topics that your head spins…and after 6 days of straight brain research, you get tired and ready to go home. I learned a bit at the SfN meeting, but there was honestly too much to learn, and thus, it was a bit overwhelming… However, Newt Gingrich did speak to us…more on that later, perhaps… 😉

San Diego itself was decent, although Macarthur was right in that the place seems “artificial.” By that I mean that the downtown area didn’t have much character: you can go to Dogtown, Soulard, and The Loop in St. Louis and get a feel of “character,” but San Diego didn’t really have such things. That, and it was hazy the whole time – it was only sunny for one day in “sunny southern California” while we were there…

Anyway, it was a good trip! Certainly informative for a first meeting and I look forward to going to more in the future…hopefully an international one next time… 😛

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Still here!

Well, I’m sitting in the convention center in San Diego, CA waiting another hour before I present my poster… It’s been an informative and interesting trip, to say the least, but I’m ready to come home…there’s only so much neuroscience that a brain can handle… 😛

I’ll try and recount the experiences in a few days after I’ve recovered a bit – I fly back to St. Louis tomorrow morning, so it’ll be busy for the rest of today and tomorrow. Until then, I’ve got a few pictures up on my Picasa page (click on the Picasa Web Albums plug-in to the right-hand side of this page) if you wanna see what’s been going on so far in the trip.

On another note, it’s about 65 F here…and I hear it got into the mid 30s last night in Missouri… 😉

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Moment(s) of truth…

Lots of stuff going on, folks, so here goes:

1). Tomorrow, I’m turning in my 8-page research proposal. Assuming it’s approved (sometime next week), I’ll expand it to a 25-page NIH-style research grant and then, once that’s approved, I’ll orally defend the research proposal in early December. So yeah, this is one of those things you’ve gotta do to get the Ph.D. and, for the most part, is the absolute hardest thing I’ll have to do to get through this thing. So, if I’m studying a lot over the Thanksgiving holiday, that’s why… ;-P

2). I’m going to San Diego, CA. on Oct 31 for the annual Parkinson’s Society meeting and the Society for Neuroscience meeting. I’ll be gone until Nov. 7th, so it’s going to be a long trip! We’ve been getting our plane flights, hotel reservations, reimbursement shenanigans, etc. in order for the last few weeks and I think we should be ready to go, but I’ve still gotta get my poster done. These meetings typically involve “seminal presentations” from the big names in the field (i.e. Nobel Prize winners, etc…smart peeps, yo…) and then “poster presentations,” of which I’ll be presenting my research with pretty pictures and graphs. All told, it should be a good practice time for me to answer questions about what I did to others in the field that know infinitely more about the subject than me, which is really good in preparation for my oral defense a month later. Either way, it’s a paid-for trip to California, so I’m not complaining… 😛

3). We’re holding Grounded again this Sunday. Check out the website that I set up (should look familiar, compared with this one…) and stop by if you’re in the St.L area at 6:30 on Saturday night!

I think that’s about it for now? Sorry for the list… I’ve been kinda busy… 😛

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Andy's a teacher?!

So, I got my first taste of teaching recently… As I may have explained before, the Pharmacological and Physiological Science Department at SLU (of which I’m a member…) runs a class for undergrad non-science majors every Fall titled “Drugs We Use And Abuse.” It accepts 50 students a semester and tends to be pretty popular, mostly because instead of learning basic biological principles, you learn more about specific drugs and their effects on people and society.

This is my first time teaching the class, and teaching in any form for that matter… I got to teach the Alcohol section, which consisted of two lectures, the first of which was Alcohol and the Body (i.e. mechanisms and physiological effects) and the second was Alcohol and Society (i.e. alcohol on campus, alcoholism, Prohibition, etc.). The first lecture was infinitely more interesting for me, and for the students too, I think. I talked about how alcohol works on the body and had a decent number of questions… The stuff today was pretty straight-forward and largely consisted of things the students already knew (as in, heavy alcohol use tends to lead to drunk driving, violence, skipping school, etc.).

So yeah, I think I enjoyed the experience overall. I had to write a quiz for my section, then wrote a few exam questions that will be administered in a week or so. Perhaps next year I’ll expand a bit and run more of the class, and more lectures. It’s team-taught, meaning that we each get a section to work on and all contribute to the exam for each section.

Regardless, I’m still planning on the “going into industry” route after graduation (in three years…), but teaching wasn’t bad! Maybe I’ll get more into it later on? Who knows…

More and more craziness, I say…being on the other side of the desk for once… 😛