23 April 2015 Thursday
I went and met this good professor from the biophysics department yesterday. It was nerve wrecking, the mere thought of engaging in conversation with someone so high up.As I waited in the cruch area outside his office, I was calming myself down , firstly by praising God, and secondly by helping myself convince that he is only another human being ( and relying on politeness so he wont be nasty).
I have an awesome husband. Yesterday morning, AJ was on a roll. I was standing right behind him, and he took both my hands on either side of him , so that he can hold them in a prayer pose along with his palms. Its a very natural pose, which gets me praying for him and thanking about him like crazy. Anyway, during breakfast, he was revisiting tamil hymns he knew. I don't know why, why yesterday or why tamil songs! It just was! I don;t remember the first song he sang about, sorry ( I should eat more fish for my memory sake). The second song was about the wall of jerico., and how it came tumbling down when they believed that God is with them and started singing and praising God. AJ said these motivational stuff just out of the blue. I felt like its the apt things i needed to hear, they helped me a lot to cope with the wait before the prof made an appearance.
He , the prof I mean, was really nice. Considering how his profile and my background don;t match at all, I was really surprised that he agreed to meet with me. I even told him so, and what is said was 'It is always good to talk to people' . And this I take as the positive message off my meeting with him.
He detailed very exhaustively all the projects he deals with. At one point, he asked about my bio background; I mentioned school...and then he started explaining things in even more simpler terms. I have respect for that professor.
The bottomline of our talk was...he doesn;t know me enough to spare money and take me on, especially since my biology background is very little. He proposed sticking around for 2 months in his lab as an intern to try it out....could attend lectures on biology,.....trying a year of his money till I find a fellowship.....try fellowships!!!
He said my resume is good for fellowship trials..my publication record especially! He said the fellowship usually requires atleast 2 first author papers. I am strong in that aspect. Also, he appreciated the journals I have published in. And he was amazed by the amount of citations. He remarked that my work must be hot and how research in 'methods' tend to result in much more citations.
And he also said, post phd is the time where I should clearly frame what I want to do with life. Even in terms of project I would want to do in his group, I need a step wise decision, it seems. sigh
Anyway, the talk was...basically....very good! Lasted just over an hour.
If fellowships is my way out, I'd rather apply for topics more along the main frame of my research interest.
Dear Lord, thanks for the experience.
I'm thinking that .....I should talk to people more. Its always good to talk to people. :D ;)