Talk Number One in the Books.

Very quick update. I gave my first job talk today, at East Coasty Healthcare Engineering Institution. It went really well, and I was quizzed by grad students, post-docs, and professors. It was treated basically like an invited talk. I had fun.  And actually, interestingly, the talk was recorded by a camera crew which was filming for a documentary on systems engineering in healthcare.  The crew was there working for the National Science Foundation.

After the talk, I sat down with the facility director and talked about what type of position I was looking for, and what I would bring to the facility. They do engineering, not research. Applied, practical stuff. Which I love. But they don’t normally apply for grants, etc. And so they don’t really know how that all works. But I want to keep being able to explore my own research agenda, so I was clear with them that that was something I’d need. And they were cool with that. Especially because it’s a new kind of revenue source for them that they don’t know much about, and I know something, though not a great deal.

So they’re looking at how to partner with East Coasty University, or another university in New England, to put together a joint appointment that would allow me to pursue my own funding to advance my own agenda. All of this is likely to take a lot of months at the inside. But that’s fine. I just want to have options and irons in the fire.

Now I’m exhausted, eating cupcakes, playing scrabble, and getting ready to talk to ECyU tomorrow. Thanks for all the support from everyone. And I’m truly excited that there’s a very high probability that I will be on the cutting room floor of a National Science Foundation documentary.