End of the Year State of Thalidar
Well, it sure has been a while since I've posted here, but I thought now was as good a time as any to put in an update. :o)
I've been keeping myself busy this year, doing research and got my first publication as primary analyzer
published in Physics Review Letters, "Observation of ZZ production in ppbar collisions at root(s) = 1.98 TeV".
If you are masochistic enough to want to try to read it, you can find the arXiv copy at: arxiv.org/abs/0808.0703v3
I found out in mid-November that my current post-doc wouldn't have the funding for me effective the end of December. Sort of a last minute surprise. I had already started applying for some faculty positions for this cycle, but the interviews for those (assuming I get shortlisted for any) won't be until early next year. Still have my fingers crossed that I at least get shortlisted on a few, just for the experience of the interview if nothing else. On average, if one is lucky enough to get a faculty position in my field it is after 3-5 years of a postdoc and I'm just finished with my third year, so I'm starting early. But that is going to be rather hard to do, if I don't at least have a postdoc as a platform to be working from in the first place.
So, on top of the faculty applications I had to send out, I also needed to apply for postdocs, after the typical postdoc season. Luckily there were a few places still accepting applications, and of the 5 positions I've applied for, I already have interviews for three of them (two of them are at Ohio State but for different experiments), and the other two aren't reviewing applications until early next month. The one on the top of my list, that is probably the most competitive, is for a postdoc with FNAL itself, which would allow me to continue working on my current experiment, D0. I found out yesterday that I had been granted an interview, so at least I've passed the first hurdle. That would be the best for me since it allows me to stay at the collaboration where my current letter writers have been following my work since 2001, so if I have to go into the next cycle of faculty applications, I can keep the same letter writers and don't have to start fresh, and I can keep doing research with the current data and (hopefully) getting published rather than waiting who knows how long for one of the LHC experiments to start producing reliable results.
Then came the good news that my current adviser and the spokespeople of D0 were able to work out an agreement where the experiment will pay for part of my support for a few months (through March), while I'm interviewing, so with a little luck, I should be able to get another postdoc (hopefully still based here at FNAL be it with D0, CDF or the LPC for CMS to save a move), and if I'm super lucky, I might even get a faculty offer that would start in the fall. Of course, I'm not counting on that, I just need the second postdoc for now, and right now, I'm feeling pretty confident I'll get an offer on at least one of them.
Given the current economy, this has all been extremely stressful, but my wife has been amazingly supportive as has both of our families, so where I was pretty down in November and earlier December, things are looking much better now.
Anyway, I wish everyone a happy holidays, and here's to a wonderful New Year!
I've been keeping myself busy this year, doing research and got my first publication as primary analyzer
published in Physics Review Letters, "Observation of ZZ production in ppbar collisions at root(s) = 1.98 TeV".
If you are masochistic enough to want to try to read it, you can find the arXiv copy at: arxiv.org/abs/0808.0703v3
I found out in mid-November that my current post-doc wouldn't have the funding for me effective the end of December. Sort of a last minute surprise. I had already started applying for some faculty positions for this cycle, but the interviews for those (assuming I get shortlisted for any) won't be until early next year. Still have my fingers crossed that I at least get shortlisted on a few, just for the experience of the interview if nothing else. On average, if one is lucky enough to get a faculty position in my field it is after 3-5 years of a postdoc and I'm just finished with my third year, so I'm starting early. But that is going to be rather hard to do, if I don't at least have a postdoc as a platform to be working from in the first place.
So, on top of the faculty applications I had to send out, I also needed to apply for postdocs, after the typical postdoc season. Luckily there were a few places still accepting applications, and of the 5 positions I've applied for, I already have interviews for three of them (two of them are at Ohio State but for different experiments), and the other two aren't reviewing applications until early next month. The one on the top of my list, that is probably the most competitive, is for a postdoc with FNAL itself, which would allow me to continue working on my current experiment, D0. I found out yesterday that I had been granted an interview, so at least I've passed the first hurdle. That would be the best for me since it allows me to stay at the collaboration where my current letter writers have been following my work since 2001, so if I have to go into the next cycle of faculty applications, I can keep the same letter writers and don't have to start fresh, and I can keep doing research with the current data and (hopefully) getting published rather than waiting who knows how long for one of the LHC experiments to start producing reliable results.
Then came the good news that my current adviser and the spokespeople of D0 were able to work out an agreement where the experiment will pay for part of my support for a few months (through March), while I'm interviewing, so with a little luck, I should be able to get another postdoc (hopefully still based here at FNAL be it with D0, CDF or the LPC for CMS to save a move), and if I'm super lucky, I might even get a faculty offer that would start in the fall. Of course, I'm not counting on that, I just need the second postdoc for now, and right now, I'm feeling pretty confident I'll get an offer on at least one of them.
Given the current economy, this has all been extremely stressful, but my wife has been amazingly supportive as has both of our families, so where I was pretty down in November and earlier December, things are looking much better now.
Anyway, I wish everyone a happy holidays, and here's to a wonderful New Year!