I’ve been whining about the head of my department leaving for a Canadian university for several months. Yesterday, Dr. Boss told me that he’s going up to Alberta in January to see what their facility is like.
Rational me: Dr. Boss and the DH have been working together for many years. It makes since that they would want to stay together.
Irrational me: Get your own damn researchers Canada!
Now, I’m going to download the “Blame Canada” song from the South Park movie.
(No Canucks were harmed in writing this rant.)
The showdown has become a cold war. Its a long story, so I’ll sum up: Our lab is in a building that is a joint venture between a private non-profit (PNP) research fundation and the University. The departing Department Head is a University employee, the PNP’s head honcho has been laying claim to all of the DH’s equipment.
University policy says that any equipment bought with grant money belongs to the U, but the person who bought the stuff gets to say where it goes. My lab, who has collaborated with the DH for over 10 years, was hoping to get some of this equipment since we have been using it for a long time.
The DH is getting a whole lab set up in Canada, he doesn’t care what happens to what’s here. We need this equipment, and I think my PI is not standing up for us. If nothing is done, the PNP will get several thousand dollars worth of stuff for free and not let any University employees use it. :mad: (Also the PNP is trying to get my lab to leave the building. Rumor has is that their Head is trying to run all U employees out.)
On the job hunt: No news from the folks who have interviewed me, yet. Its so close to the Christmas insanity, I’m not expecting to hear anything until after New Years.
Canada has its own damned scientists. They just end up in the US. One of my very good friends is here at Johns Hopkins, because he could not get funding in his field in Canada.
Yeah, researchers go where the funding is. I’ve been pinning my angst on Canada in general because for the longest time we weren’t told which facility the DH was going (and there is a very catchy song to go with it).
A friend of mine put it best, “This university lacks vision.” We’re losing good people left and right.
This is funny timing, to say the least. I just (as in 2 minutes ago) sent off an email applying for a postdoctoral position in Vancouver
Good luck with your job search, Mouse_Maven. If you ever feel like running away from Colorado we could always use some good people with critter experience here in Iowa…
Just think, Mouse_Maven - It’s possible that DH, as well as Dr. Boss, will be in Canada, but what if the University “finds” enough money to keep your lab open and you get a new DH, and an even better Dr. Boss! It’s possible! I can keep dreaming, huh?
You’re so sweet brendon We’ll see what the future holds. The lab has been in a funk. Lucky for us, its snowing like a sonofavich, so we’ve all stayed home. Yeah! (Except for the crazy grad student. I think he sleeps in the basement with the creepy carousel horses.)
Colder and darker. We’re just about at the shortest day of the year here, and our days are about five hours long right now, and Edmonton is three hours further north, so their days are even shorter. Plus, they don’t get the warm Chinooks that Calgary gets, and they get more snow, so I hope your boss likes his winters long, cold, snowy and dark.
Today in Edmonton, the sun rose at 8:47 a.m. and set at 4:15 p.m. It’s that time of year when the days are shortest, so you’d be looking at about 7.5 hours of daylight in Edmonton.
Mouse_Maven, or anybody else who is interested, The Weather Network has a great site for Canadian weather, sunrise and set times, and so on.
Calgary has even better summers (for those of us who don’t like the heat). Cool evenings and night, and few bugs - what more could you want? (Well, a decent lake or two for swimming maybe. Glacier-fed mountain lakes are…an acquired taste. )
We’ll see what the future holds. The lab has been in a funk. Lucky for us, its snowing like a sonofavich, so we’ve all stayed home. Yeah! (Except for the crazy grad student. I think he sleeps in the basement with the creepy carousel horses.)