The Sad Truth of Getting Into the Group

Dear Diary,

Decisions on group members are done in the following way:  1)  A group member rotates with us 2)  gives a presentation on their former research and 3) receives a decision from Kieron about whether they are in the group after getting input from all of us.  We'll analyze this process below.

First, the big news.  Kieron called Dave into his office this morning and, after discussing his work, suggested that Dave start to look at other advisors.  So, he'll be investigating other possibilities for life.  He'll still finish the project he started, obviously, but won't start another.  Psych!  He's in the group!  And that fake account of what happened is exactly how Dave tricked me this morning.  Don't ever do that again, Dave!  Now I won't believe any bad news you ever tell me again!  The sky is falling?  Chicken little!  Cry wolf?  Go blow your horn!  Man made climate change is driven by excessive green house gases including carbon in the atmosphere?  Uh...well, ok I'll believe that one...

Let's take a moment to process the process of getting into the group.  One naturally wonders if our input matters.  Of course it doesn't!  We're not the professor!  At most we'll have to only put up with people in our offices for a year or two; Kieron gets a life sentence!  But let me chime in on the psychology of the process as I see it.  Without knowing exactly what you want, the thought process for me (and I suspect others) devolves into whether I'm a good fit in the group and whether the answer to that question can help meunderstand why I'm in the group.  Having published one paper as a secondary author and seeing now that Dave is about to put something out in his first two months and, well, it makes me wonder if I can possibly work up to Dave's impressive start.  And if its good enough.  I have no barometer for these things.  Since I have to make a personal website now and add him to email lists, I should have voted no.

But I voted for him.

Curriculum Vitae

Coup Blog, Day 2:

Dear Diary,

Professor Burke wanted to check our CVs.  He had us all put them up the projector so we could see how to improve them.

The other group members had colors, great formatting, and well chosen items.  They all said mine was crazy vintage--like it was from 50 years ago!

A few tips that we gleaned from looking at everyone's CV:

1)  Avoid information from high school
2)  Put wordy statements of research into another document
3)  Include group duties.  Like you, diary!
4)  Only include publications that are fully published or submitted
5)  Include links as a pdf and colors and pretty fonts
6)  List the people you supervised if they are below you in level
7)  List dollar amounts on prizes (at least for American opportunities)
8)  Make it so people want to hire you
9)  Little knobs can be useful (ex: undergraduate research)...so mentioning an activity might pique the reader's interest

Professor Burke said he needs these in case he's ambushed and needs to turn in someone for the reward!  I'll have to keep mine up to date and make it nice looking so I can get the benefit!

My little secret

Dear Diary,

I've been keeping a secret from you. I failed my first qualification exam but SHH! Don't tell anyone!

Here, they don't give you your score, so it's really not possible to tell how I did on it, but they do tell you if you either passed, failed, or should get out of graduate school.  This second time, I passed after studying the previous exams and problems from the courses for several weeks.  It was such a relief that I missed this morning's seminar on the imposter syndrome!

But there's lots of work to be done...now I have to see what classes I'm taking...and work with physicists...and not earn nearly as much money as everyone else I know who has a job...and work with professor Burke for however many years he sees fit...and write this blog...

Oh God.  I've made a huge mistake passing the exam--it's too late!

Posters

Dear Diary,

Justin and Lucas are headed to a conference soon!  I happened to eavesdrop on their conversation about how to print posters.  I went ahead and added a poster template to the beginning's students sample folder on pbe.

Bon voyage, bros!

Building Keys

Dear Diary,

I paid a visit to the Chemistry office to get keys today.  The secretary prefers to deal with keys between 1pm and 3pm, so I had to plan that out.  Professor Burke signed a form and sent an email to make sure I was legit.  I also fortunately had the one time $25 deposit.

Working towards As while learning C(++)

Diary,

Classes have really been eating into my research time.  I successfully ran the codes that Lucas told me about.  I've decided to pick up on code while I learn what it means to maximize my working time.  They say that it's better to start working on something right away than read a lot of literature first.  That's because you can be productive while you pick up the finer points of the research.

The group likes to use C++, but my background is in Fortran.  There seem to be a lot of online sampler programs and books in the library that I want to use to learn C++.

Notes and Computers

Dear Diary,

The group Computer Whiz has set me up with several computers.  First, there is a computer that he works on.  I am to run all the code for that on this computer.  Second, there is a software hub on the internet named GitHub that the group uses to make available its software.  There are also several big computers to run larger codes that I can use if I make something that big.

Now, there is also a server called pbe (PBE is a functional that Professor Burke made with two of his friends...we'll have to talk about that later, diary!) that is public for everyone in the group.  So, work that I create needs to be on that server.  Professor Burke says that if I'm hit by a bus, then the next, younger, brighter, and more machine-like student should be able to pick up my current research in a snap.

I have my own personal folder under the home directory marked by my username.  I've formatted it so I can find things easily in there.  I also need to make sure that a copy of all the work is under /home/pbe/gamma where everyone else's stuff is.

I joined the group!

Dear Diary,

I finally got a chance to accept Professor Burke's offer.  I can't help but wonder if I've played right into his plans.  He said as soon as a desk opens up, I could move into the building with the rest of the group.

He also wants me to take the ABC of DFT introductory course.  He's written a book over the past few years with his students to introduce the topic.  The Chemistry department offers the course as a class for credit, so I'll take some units and show up for all the meetings.

I'm in the group!

Diary,

Professor Burke took a poll of everyone in the group and offered me the last spot on the group.  I guess I didn't make everyone angry!  I'm very keen to accept and will tell him that tomorrow.

Right now, the quarter is taking up a lot of my time, and I should probably concentrate on the classes since they're only a few weeks long.  I only get once chance to do well in my classes, but I'll make sure I put in a lot of effort over the summer to produce high quality research.

Maybe I can sneak in some research anyway...

Introductory Research Presentation

Dear Diary,

I gave my research presentation today to the group and it started as a disastor.  I misread the email that was announcing the meeting and showed up 18 minutes late (which I thought would be 12 minutes early).

After that, everything went ok.  I filled up the 30 minutes with what I'd done for my Master's degree, took some questions, and half of the people from the beginning were still there at the end!

Professor Burke will get back to me in a few days with a decision.

Decision to Join

Dear Diary, 

I can't help but be interested in what this group does.  Lots of people say that it's old physics and that I should only do it if I really want to, but I can't help but be interested by it.  I'm afraid I'll have to try to get into the group.

I told the Group Manager that I want to schedule the talk. The next meeting is in two weeks, so I'll have some time to prepare a 30 minute introductory mini-lecture on my previous research.

First Group Meeting

Dear Diary,

I went to my first group meeting today and got to meet everyone.  All of Professor Burke's students are really nice, but I don't know any of their names. I've decided to keep a low profile since graduate students are meant to be seen and not heard.

One of the post-docs, Miles, gave the first of a few talks on the renowned Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG).  Apparently the method is a computational way to renormalize density matrices in a group and a really slick way to calculate things in one dimension.  I took good notes and will see if I can figure out what they mean as I go forward.

What is DFT?

Dear Diary,

I suppose I should give some details about the group and Professor Burke so we can all get to know each other.

We chatted about the group's focus which is using Density Functional Theory to investigate fundamental physics.  There is also the small concern of how to use DFT accurately.

As an example, there was a new airplane with a cutting edge lithium battery that had to be grounded because the batteries are prone to catching fire.  One of the ways to guess how batteries (and other things) will function (how much charge will be stored, etc.) is to use Density Functional Theory. This happens even before you make it.  Professor Burke makes a living making refining the technique and helping to make more accurate predictions.

Sounds exciting!