I guess it's safe to say by now that there's no way I'm gonna blog every day this month unless I can get more than 24 hours from a single day... as it is, I barely sleep anyway. TGIF
So, this post is in English because my question is in English. Also, I don't post names of people or places, and my recollections and opinions are my own.
To begin: Wednesday was pretty cool for me because I got to visit a research institute with a friend. We were led on a tour of the place by a Ph.D. we had met a week before. Long story short: we met this Ph.D. at a networking event, we emailed him afterwards, asked for an interview, and in response he gave us an interview AND a tour... it was awesome.
BUT that's the thing, "cool" and "awesome" don't cut it for me when I'm trying to express just how cool (damnit) someone's work is. I mean, sure the word maybe works as a compliment the first couple of times, but by the nth research poster he showed us I had hoped to come up with a better response than that. Alas, I didn't... and I'm kinda embarrassed about it. I'm not wishing for some eloquent long-winded comment, just a more eloquent first response. [Example]
To give you some context, this is a high level research institute that works on the advancement of military medicine encompassing knowledge from specialized yet diverse and synergistic disciplines. Think systems biology, bioinformatics, computational drug development, simulations, etc. ... You don't get to work in a place like this unless you've earned a Ph.D., and I'm sure our guide has at least a couple of post-docs.
So in the world of networking, interviewing, and general human conversation, how do you say nice things about something!? I'm sad that I have to Google this, but I'm honestly at a loss of what to say when my brain is tripping on sciency stuff. I'm sure someone somewhere has come up with a fan of adequate and adaptable phrases to fit any situation... and I hope to find them. If you have any guidance on the subject, I welcome it.
On a different note, their published articles are incredibly interesting and the stuff they're working on is probably even more mind-blowing. It's such a cool approach. And it's not just the science stuff that got to me, it so happens that the way they're organized is also very interesting. Their work distribution and organization map showed me a top-down view of how different research areas are linked, plus it also illustrated their boundaries, focus, and implementation in order to achieve a goal. This is powerful admin planning. It made sense! I got a global view! In diagram form even... I feel enlightened! Too bad we couldn't take pictures.
Side note: I admit that answering "that's interesting" to everyone and about everything sounds dismissive to me, so maybe that's why I shy away from that phrase. Basically, I've gotta find some more-than-two-words response to things without turning verbose.
Finally, I am incredibly grateful to this Ph.D. for everything, not only because he took the time out of (his very busy day) for showing us the place, introducing us to some of the authors of the posters he presented to us, and even for his latest -autographed- article he gifted us, but also for the great advice he gave us. This man, whom we've met only once before, literally sat down and mentored us. That's priceless! and an interview with someone like him really doesn't get better than that. We could ask questions! He shared answers! In my mind it subtly boiled down to "how do I get to be like you?" ... He said the first step is to figure out whether I want to pursue a Ph.D. or not.
There you go. Step 1.
