I've been scolded for not posting in a while. On the one hand, I've been very busy. On the other, I got a cute little netbook last week that means I can practically blog anywhere, anytime. Like in class. Which, I'm not in right now. Promise.
The real reason I got the netbook was because I am working on a few papers and talk and being able to get away from my desks to do so is quite nice. I've seen my desk at work a LOT lately, especially at strange hours. It won't get better for the next two weeks.
I've been working on one project from December to March. I started working on the paper in January, submitted a draft as a conference abstract (which I find out about tomorrow), but found a few issues in the process of getting it ready for the conference submission. So the simulations were re-run...
And then I went back to my "other" project! The group has done some Cerenkov work and I meant to do simulation work back in the fall. I hit a wall (optics) and gave up... for a longer time than intended. So I'm working on Cerenkov "full time" again. Why? Back in January I submitted an abstract on Cerenkov to APS April meeting, thinking I was "almost done" with my other project. Silly silly me.
So with 1 month to go till April meeting, I had to get my act together and have something to show. So I presented a Cerenkov paper at group meeting to get me back in the right mindset... and found an exciting thing. That I had simulated and written up in a week. So that (short) paper is now in the editing stage and I hope to get it submitted to the Journal of Nuclear Medicine very very soon. Because I still need to work on the part of the Cerenkov simulation I said I was going to do for April meeting! In 2 weeks! That it now looks like I might be giving a press conference at.
While it might be silly to try to give a press conference on what I haven't done yet, it actually makes a lot of sense. Talks at April meeting are short - I have 10 minutes. And given that I want to present something on Biomedical Imaging to physicists, MUCH of that time will be spent on the basics of optical imaging. And then I can talk about Cerenkov Imaging (in general, with the work other groups have done over the past 2 years). And then I will have time to show 1 or 2 slides on MY work. Some of which will be what is in the paper I wrote this weekend.
So likely the press conference will be mostly about Cerenkov Imaging in general, and little about what I have done myself. I think that is ok. Usually the "big" results come from big collaborations - people present on behalf of 100 or more researchers. It is just strange to be presenting research done by a bunch of people who I don't represent in any way. I will give lots and lots of credit to other researchers and I will try very very hard to use data out of my own group whenever possible. I think Cerenkov Imaging is really neat and I would love to share it with journalists. If I just share with them my simulation data they won't think it is very neat... it is the big picture they'd like.
Of course, I'm not as crazy as I sound. I've scheduled a SASS (SLAC Association for Student Seminars) talk for the Wednesday before I go to April meeting (you know, next week) so I need to have everything ready for THEN. So I won't be working up until the last minute before April meeting. I'll be working nonstop until next Tuesday. And then taking the questions and comments from SASS and using them to improve my talk for APS.
So I haven't had much time for blogging lately, and I'm not sure when I will have time again. Possibly when my second paper is submitted...
