science!

It's funny how academics seem to think that they are famous. The week before we flew to Hobart for our polymers conference, our research group had a guest lecture from "the inventor of ATRP, the 6th most cited chemist in the world... Krzysztof Matyjaszewski!". One of the other PhD students and I were contemplating getting I Met Krzysztof Matyjaszewski t-shirts printed out. We could walk down the street, and people would stop dead in their tracks and stare at us in silent awe.

These men (yes, they're mostly men) are scary. They spend a lifetime fortifying confidence in their own intellects, they devote their lives to picking logic apart, and they're bigger than you. I gave a presentation at the conference. If two gigantic projector screens, two microphones and a large hall weren't nerve wracking enough, these superior, contemptuous looking men dotted the audience. I had woken up before my alarm clock that morning, buzzing. I couldn't wait to talk, and at the same time, I was afraid that I'd still be a ball of nerves by the time I got up in front of the audience. A couple of cups of black tea had calmed me down a lot by the time I was on stage. I smiled, made a joke about turning into a nervous puddle of goo, and saw the scowls on the faces of the academics melt into pleasant smiles. They were human after all, and it was fine after that. Apparently everyone enjoyed the talk and found what I had to say interesting, and I came away from it feeling all happy and warm and fuzzy. Here is a photo.


The poster Ly and I made also went down well, though it didn't win the prize we were hoping to win. We had tried to keep it toned down and understated, but even then I heard it being described as "a little too overdesigned" and MCA for a scientific conference. Everyone liked it though, albiet with slightly raised eyebrows, and Ly and I had an "aaah, yeah" feeling when we finished it. All the time we spent on it was worth it.


Back to writing now. One more hard week of work and we'll submit this paper of mine. My current piece of research will be completely finalised. After that, there will be nothing in the background for my thoughts to latch onto when they feel the need to pick and probe. I see clear space everywhere. I can't wait, it'll feel like jumping off the edge of a precipice.