Group solidarity, & cast of characters

Yesterday was my first group meeting with the new group at SRU. I feel a bit foolish, because I'd just assumed the postdoc (hereafter referred to as Dr. TX, or TX) would tell me when the group meetings were--but instead, on the third week, I was tooling around in lab after I thought everyone had gone to lunch when one of the grad students I'd met over the summer (nicknamed CO below) poked his head in and said, "Hey, you know there's group meeting in ten minutes? I didn't know if anyone had told you." Whoops! He then disappeared without telling me where this meeting was, but I managed to catch SY, another student in the group, who led me down to the conference room.

I was nervous at first--was I going to have to talk about what I was doing?--but when I got down there I found that generally the group meeting consists of one long presentation by a group member on a topic of mutual interest followed by various orders of business. This week it was on a topic I knew a bit about, and while Dr. GE (the professor I work for, or my advisor, I suppose) was displeased with the presentation itself, I could see what he actually did expect and think I will not be too terribly nervous when it is my turn.

The rest of the meeting was, first, Dr. GE reiterating from before winter break that everyone should learn how to do a certain somewhat rare technique that I in fact learned as an undergrad, and second, a discussion of how our lab space could be more efficient and useful. Dr. GE pointed out that when the group was moving into its current space, lots of people took shelving and the like from the lab space before they moved in--cannibalism is just the way of things around here. After a pause CO mentioned that he'd taken some shelves from a nearby lab during its recent turnover. "Good!" said Dr. GE; "That's what they did to us!" CO offered that there was a lab moving out of an adjacent building, and Dr. GE, while telling us "I didn't tell you this," encouraged us to go get some useful things for ourselves. CO did mention that there's a sign on the lab door threatening to prosecute anyone who takes anything from the lab, though, so I think we're going to get our shelving the old-fashioned way: from Home Depot.

We spent a while wandering around the lab finding ways to rearrange and coming up with new storage ideas. I seem to have already won a bit of a reputation as someone who is good at maximizing efficiency of space--which makes me happy! I do like rearranging things. I found good places for all the old journals, theses, and lab books to go while staying out of the filing cabinets in the offices and off the computer desks. Now I just hope we get our new shelving hardware! The company that made the shelves we use above the lab benches seems to have discontinued the brackets we need, which is not at all helpful. Also, Dr. GE seems really committed to updating everything, but I haven't been around long enough to know if it's all talk or what.

One of the big upsides of having gone to this meeting, now, is that I have learned a bit more about the make-up of the group. It's a friendly, comfortable group, a little over half female (did you even know that was POSSIBLE in physical science?), and full of first-years. Here is the cast (and no, these are not their first and last initials). I mention their countries of origin and language situations only to give a sense of the diversity going on here, and because language barriers were a huge part of what made CIT so isolating for me.

Dr. GE - The male professor in charge. Mildly irritable, but seems devoted to getting his students a great education, and comfortable and fairly informal except when formality has some kind of benefit. Not American, but speaks fluent English. His son, who is a friendly freshman maybe-chem-major at SRU, comes in to do some labwork sometimes.

Dr. TX - The male postdoc who gives me my marching orders at the moment. European; speaks okay English but doesn't often seem to understand what I am saying, especially if I catch him off-guard. Can be quite short with people and perhaps a bit socially awkward, but definitely knows what he's doing scientifically. Very "friendly" with the chemicals--doesn't use gloves, goggles, labcoat, or a hood.

TK - Works across the hall from me. Male, Asian. I know almost nothing about him; he has not yet spoken to me directly.

RM - Also works across the hall from me. Female, Asian, speaks very good English. She was the first person I met in lab, and has been in the group the longest. She's very friendly and sweet, and seems to always be working in lab.

SN - Works across the fall. American, female first-year with the same first name as me (it's a common name, but come on! With only one other student from an English-speaking country in the group, she has the same first name as me? She even uses the same nickname sometimes, though I go exclusively by the nickname and she by the full name most of the time). I first met her in my class I'm taking; she seems outgoing and fun.

CO - Male, European, works on my side of the hall but spends his time in a different office. From the same country as Dr. TX and KS (below). He's the safety coordinator and seems pretty nice, if a little harried sometimes. Speaks fluent English.

KS - Female, European first-year. I have not spoken to her at all, nor do I really know anything about her. She also works on my side of the hall but in the other office. She teaches during our group meeting, but apparently Dr. GE doesn't actually care about that?

AT - Male, European, wonderfully nice guy who explained the whole situation with Dr. TX to me. He sits next to me in my office. He doesn't seem terribly happy with his lot in life, but he's good to me. Speaks nearly-fluent English but (I just noticed today) does things like taking notes on English presentations in his native tongue.

AP - Female, Asian, first-year. Speaks fluent English, although weirdly I keep having trouble understanding names of chemicals when she says them--I suspect it's that she uses British pronunciations for them, and I'm not used to that. She's very nice to me, and was surprised that I didn't automatically know she's a first-year. She sits on my other side in the office.

SY - Female, Asian, first-year. Speaks fluent English and is shy, but kind. It took her a while to introduce herself to me, and when she did we both laughed at our own shyness. I like her a lot.

And, for good measure, someone who's not in the lab group at all...

HG - My wonderful fiance (we got engaged just about three weeks ago, now, and will be getting married in November). He's a humanities PhD student, so we have both big things in common and very big things not in common about our careers. I adore him, and he makes my outside-of-lab life wonderful. He was my first boyfriend about eight and a half years ago, and after seven years of mostly staying in touch and good friendship, we got back together last year. He's the reason I ended up at SRU, though it turns out to be a great career choice for me.

I think that's it for now, and I'm getting tired, anyway. More later; I have a few stories to tell.

A brief opinion question

Would you rather work with a solvent that gives you headaches when you accidentally breathe it, or one that's a known carcinogen? Assume both evaporate quite quickly, but also that you have gloves, a hood, and a labcoat at your disposal.

That's my choice for the day!

Lab politics, and the usefulness of informants

I started recently at a new lab at SRU, a lab I had visited multiple times in the past and found friendly and welcoming. I'm working under a postdoc who's new since the first time I visited the lab, and while he's quite busy--frankly perhaps too busy to really train me, but he's trying--he's been pretty patient with me, and I love the job.

I noticed that the first couple of times I came in to meet him and be introduced to the project, now that my addition to the group is certain, the people who'd been so friendly to me when I was a prospective student seemed to resent my presence, or at least to be very much less friendly than they were before. The first of these times, I figured it was because it was the last week of the semester and everyone was stressed; when I showed up for my first "real" day of work and everyone still acted that way, I figured it might be because my situation is special--a research position was created for me pretty much out of nowhere, and the professor in charge of the lab group warned me that his making this exception for me, instead of making me do the typical thing [at SRU, at least] where I would prove my usefulness to him while TAing and then get an RA, might be an unpopular move on his part.

So I figured there was some hostility about my position in the lab, and while I was sad I shook it off, even as my new officemates tried to talk the postdoc out of giving me the desk I'd been assigned because it was more convenient for them to keep their books there. I figured I'd just have to win them over.

But on my second day, my officemate--we don't share an office with the postdoc--came in and smiled brightly at me, as he had the first two times I'd visited the lab, and pulled me aside to apologize for his resistance in giving me a desk. I had noticed that after his initial reluctance, the next time I'd come in the day before he'd cleared out the space for me, so I smiled back and told him it wasn't a problem--I know how hard it is to lose space one's been using.

"But I just wanted to let you know," he said, "that it's not about you. [The postdoc] and I simply don't get along. He came into this lab recently and changed everything about how it ran, and it makes a lot of us resent him. I am not the only one who feels this way, so you might notice this. But I want you to know that you are quite welcome here."

On the one hand, it's too bad that I'm walking into this mess of a political situation in the lab; on the other, it's a relief to both know it exists and know it's not about me. I am incredibly grateful that someone took the time to tell me about this. I don't plan on taking sides or anything, but I am at least glad to know that there are sides to take, so I can consciously avoid them and play it safe. This comment also made me notice things like how, when the postdoc asks a lab member to do something for/with me, he or she will be reluctant to do it, but as soon as the postdoc leaves the room it's all smiles and willingness again. I may think it's sort of immature, but at least I know what's going on... and knowing is really more like 99% of the battle in this case.

Has anyone else experienced walking into a warzone like this? Did someone tell you what was going on, or did you just have to piece it together? Did you end up taking a side?

Welcome!

Hello, everyone! I'm starting a new blog to celebrate my new graduate studies in chemistry. My name's Gen Chem, or Gen for short. Here's a little about me:

I received my BA in chemistry from WLAC (short for Western Liberal Arts College) after growing up in an east coast state. I started a graduate degree in another, related field at CIT (short for Corporate Institute of Technology) but did not finish it, and am now starting my PhD in chemistry at SRU (short for Southern Research University). I've started in a new laboratory this year and wanted to write about it a bit.

In any case, welcome, and I hope you enjoy something of what I've got to say!