End of Summer Roundup

Summer has come and gone. Classes start next week. What did I accomplish and enjoy these last three months? (My one-month-in report can be found here.)

Research Goals.

I wrote up the paper for the project I’ve been working on most of the summer. Just submitted it this morning! Now we’ll wait and see what the reviewers have to say. That’s probably my biggest accomplishment for the summer workwise. I spent most of July running calculations and getting lots of good results, and then wrote up a full draft of the paper in the first half of August. Then I let the paper sit for a week and a half before doing my edits and preparing the supporting information. On the other hand, I did not start working on the other paper where the results are mostly in because we’ll see if my very talented student (who did almost all the work) wants to take a stab at the first full draft.

My conference presentations in July and August went well. I was adequately prepared for both, and had some good conversations that may lead to new collaborations. In-person conversations have resulted in follow-up e-mails from fellow scientists who I met at the conference. That, of course, might mean more work added to my schedule – but I’m looking forward to involving students in part of the process.

Teaching Goals.

No progress on the Potions textbook yet. When there’s no deadline or urgency, sometimes things just don’t happen.

I did complete the syllabi for my classes this fall semester. I’m excited about my General Chemistry class where I’ve moved around the material to fit my new theme: “Hiding in Plain Sight: Uncovering the Secret Structure of Matter”. This morning I worked on selecting the online homework problems for the first several weeks of class. Basically, I look at what I assigned last year and then make small modifications so it’s not much work on my part. I have approximately 3-4 weeks worth of notes transcribed into electronic form. (My previous first semester G-Chem notes were hard-copy; I converted my second semester notes into electronic form five years ago. Not sure why I did the second before the first.) I’m also looking forward to Research Methods after talking to my colleagues about what they’ve been doing in the new class format.

Hobby Goals.

I read a bunch more books in July and August, and tried cooking three new dishes. Three in two months pales compared to June where I tried three new things in the same month. I should continue working on this in September. Also finally got around to playing a bunch of games of Bios Genesis. I like the new design! I also got to play several games of War of the Ring, although I did not get round to re-reading The Silmarillion – and that’s unlikely to happen until, perhaps winter break.

The one drawback of the new semester is that there will be lots of meetings, particularly at the beginning of the semester. That’s why it’s good to get a bunch of class prep and research done before the semester begins. I have a number of returning research students, and no new ones starting this semester so that frees up some time. (The learning curve for a new student at the beginning is challenging. We normally set aside two full days for training just before classes start.) I look forward to meeting new first year students in G-Chem! I’ve exchanged e-mails with a few of them already as I e-mailed out the syllabus to them last Friday, and I’m also their academic adviser. It’s a new (academic) year!