I'm a 3rd year?!

Now that the brand new crop of first year graduate students are starting to arrive, I will officially have to introduce myself as a third year PhD candidate.  I remember meeting one of the third year students when I first started grad. school and thinking "Wow!  She has it all together and knows what she's doing!"  Now I am supposed to be the third year student who has it all together...and some days it certainly doesn't seem like that'll ever be true!

Also, two of the brand new students are joining my adviser's lab group- which means I am no longer the "baby" of my adviser's students.  I am moving up to "middle child" status and looking forward to it.  :-)

As I think ahead to the coming year (or even more immediately to fall semester), there are potentially some big research goals ahead!

• Present research at AGU.  I am going to the AGU conference in San Francisco, CA in December for the first time.  I am very excited that I will finally be able to share my most recent research, present some cool old garnet ages, and see lots of science.  (Plus it's my first visit to San Francisco and I'll get to meet up with an old friend or two!)
• Write and submit for publication my first, first-author paper.  It's time to tackle my first paper!  It's going to cover the same research being presented at AGU.  Then I will finally be able to openly share what I have been working on for the past year.
• Lots and lots of lab work.  I think it's pretty self-explanatory- I need to generate as many quality garnet ages as possible on rocks from around the globe.
• Hopefully some field work!  Who doesn't want to go look at some of Earth's oldest rocks in northern Canada or Greenland?!
• At least two more classes.  I finally get to take isotope geochemistry.  About time, since I'm an isotope geochemist!

Here's to another year of graduate school adventures and LOTS of science ahead!

(Bonus update: This week I officially hit my 300th sample run on the TIMS.  Time for a new log book!  I also made the mistake of calculating how much time that means I've spent sitting in the TIMS chair and running the instrument and came up with a rough estimate of more than a month's worth of 12 hour days.)

Week One. Done.

I have now officially completed my first full week as a graduate student at BU.  If I had to use a phrase to describe the week I would have to go with "settling in."

Orientation was actually prior to the start of the week on the afternoon of Sept. 2, as mentioned in my last post.  The department's orientation followed the basically universal pattern of orientation = food + information overload + new names to learn.  We were fed pizza and discussed everything from where our mailboxes are located to course specific degree requirements for getting a PhD to the forms and oral exams I can "look forward to" in the future (QUALS...ewww).  After the group orientation meeting, each new incoming student had an "entrance interview."  We met with the department's graduate program coordinator, our adviser, and at least one additional faculty member to discuss any coursework deficiencies from our previous education, to clarify any additional degree requirements to be added on an individual basis, and to plan out the courses we would take this semester.  I would say mine went pretty smoothly- no course deficiencies or added degree requirements and a consensus on the courses that I should take now and recommendations for future semesters.

Classes started on Tuesday, Sept. 6.  I am taking two classes this semester- the graduate section of Geochemistry and a Quantitative Modeling Methods course, which is one of two courses required for all Geology grad. students.  I also have to begin learning all of the required lab skills associated with column chemistry, working in a clean lab, sample preparation, and TIMS operation (future blog topics!).  I have been told it will be a good two to three years before I am truly self-sufficient in the lab and understand the intricacies of the process.  That's pretty intimidating!  Especially when you also consider that one of my main research goals is to develop an entirely new method that no one can teach me..because it doesn't exist yet!

This week mainly consisted of starting observations of others running the TIMS, beginning classes, safety training, getting an office (another future blog topic), meeting LOTS of new people, asking lots of questions, and trying to figure out what in the world I am supposed to be doing while surrounded by a crowd of busy grad. students who all seem to know what's going on.

Bonus City Life #1:
You never know exactly what you're gonna see when living in the city.  This is what happens when smoke is pouring out of the top floor of a building along Comm Ave!

Fire engines with ladders up blocking Comm. Ave.