Sorry for the long delay in posting here. It's been an eventful few weeks. After my return from the
ASM annual meeting in Toronto, I attended an excellent PhD thesis defense (Tetyana Nosenko from
Debashish Bhattacharya's lab), and then left immediately for the
13th German-American Frontiers of Science Symposium. I'll write more about this meeting later..
From there, I went directly to the
Outer Banks of North Carolina for a week of vacation with my family. The main agenda items for me are given in the title to this post. I spent 4 of 5 days on the beach, drinking beer, body-surfing and other water-frolicking, napping and reading books when possible (one day was spent recovering from a sun-burn).
Beach. We (12 of us, comprising both my immediate and extended family) stayed in a
guest house in Hatteras which was situated ~5 min from the Atlantic Ocean. It was glorious. The kids (myself included) has a great time splashing in the waves and digging in the sand. Thanks to my sister, Beth, for making the arrangements.
Beer. Throughout the week, I emptied many bottles of
Red Hook's Longhammer IPA. This was a perfect beach beer. It's both tasty and refreshing! Of course, there were a few bottles of
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (my standard libation) consumed, too.
Books. Although I brought more than I could possibly finish, here are the ones I actually cracked (and in a couple cases, finished):
Blink (Malcom Gladwell);
Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs (Chuck Klosterman);
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig);
Killing Yourself to Live (also Chuck Klosterman).
So it's back to reality for me, but at least I enjoyed myself on the Outer Banks!
First thing tomorrow morning, I'm heading off to the Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution (SMBE) annual meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is being held jointly with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIfAR, formerly known as CIAR), Program in Evolutionary Biology, which has been a major force in building Canada as a major powerhouse in molecular evolution and evolutionary genomics.
Tara reports on the selection of University of Iowa's new president, Dr. Sally Mason, who is currently (until July 31) the Provost at Purdue. I'm thrilled about Dr. Mason as our new leader, as are many of us here. She's a biologist, which makes me happy, but that's not all. I heard Sally speak last week at her interview and I left the room feeling truly inspired. I was surprised to have that reaction, but I came to find out that I was not the only one who did. When I heard Sally speak at her introduction on Thursday, she left me with the same feeling. I think we scored a great catch here at Iowa.
Beach. We (12 of us, comprising both my immediate and extended family) stayed in a guest house in Hatteras which was situated ~5 min from the Atlantic Ocean. It was glorious. The kids (myself included) has a great time splashing in the waves and digging in the sand. Thanks to my sister, Beth, for making the arrangements.
Hearty congratulations are well in order for Banoo Malik, who successfully defended her PhD thesis last Thursday (June 14th). Banoo is the first student in my lab to both start and finish a PhD under my supervision. In her case, that entailed moving with my lab from Emory University to the University of Iowa. She has been a major player in my lab group and her work has made considerable, long-lasting impacts on the lab's research.
