The spring semester has ended again and its time for the summer,
when those of us who teach during the school year get the majority of our work
done. It is also time for summer traveling, sometimes for fun but definitely
for work.
I am attending the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious
Disease conference and workshop this year in Ann Arbor, MI and am excited to
geek-out about parasites and disease ecology. Because I am the only person
studying disease ecology in mammals and ticks at IU right now, these meetings
are always fun because I get to talk to other researchers who work on similar
systems. This meeting is also relatively small, which means you can get
face-time with “famous” professors, and get to meet a lot of really awesome
students from all over.
This summer’s meetings have a bit more pressure than usual.
I am hoping to graduate next spring or summer, so this summer my job is to talk
to possible post-doc advisors and give people a face to put with my name if I show
up on any of their job searches. I hope I can wow them with what I have been
doing for the last few years and talk about possible future collaborations and
projects.
I will be mobile-blogging while I am away, mainly through
Tumblr I think, but I will try to have posts copy to my blog here as well. Also, International
Towel Day is in a
week and will happen while at the meeting, so I hope to post some Douglas Adams
homages while away.
Happy spring!
