Social Animals

I've learned in my career that success on the job is determined to a great extent by how others perceive us outside our normal job responsibilities.

In industry, there were certain things I "had" to do to fit in that I thought I wouldn't encounter in graduate school.

So, when I quip about happy hour, it's not frivolity or hyperbole. Research is serious business. Many I've heard finished ABD: All But the Doctorate primarily because of the perception that they were unapproachable by their peers. Not only do you have to be creative, innovative and generate valuable intellectual property, you have to get along with the people you study with, research with and (within REASON) party with.

"No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

John Donne, Meditation XVII

Scientists are connected with the world and passionate about contributing to the solutions its discipline is obligated to solve that politics may impede.

I hope this blog, as I've stated before, dissuades the stereotype of the reclusive "mad scientist." Reclusive? No. Focused? Yes. Smelly? At times...(lab time, experiments, need to shower before presentations, hygiene...)

Physicists are probably the most diverse group you'd ever meet with a shared passion for the pursuit of knowledge (and a wry sense of humor)!

A running joke among academics that became a comic strip (BY PhD Jorge Cham):

B.S. Bull @#$%
M.S. More @#$%
PhD: Piled Higher and Deeper

As usual, I have to end with a grin...;-)