Research talks

The C-MORE summer course has now started in earnest and so far it has been great. The first day was mostly filled with chemical, radioactivity and lab safety training though which was not very exciting, although crucial for our lab work after the upcoming cruise.

In addition to that though, I had the privilege of listening to prof. David Karl's introductory talk of the course, which honestly was one of the most inspiring talks I've heard in a long time.
They really make us feel as a part of something bigger and we've been congratulated for being here on several occasions, especially since we are here based on our previous achievements and future potential, hand-picked from - according to Matthew Church - the year with the toughest competition and largest pool of applicants, in the course's 10 year history.
I feel really fortunate to be here.

There are plenty of opportunities to get to know both the faculty and the other participants on the course throughout the days since we so far have had many coffee breaks and also lunches and dinners together with the whole group. They even provided pizza and beer on site (nice local IPA's I might add!) after the first long day.

Today saw more lectures, but thankfully not on lab safety, by new faculty which was cool. It was all about carbon and phosphorus cycles and finally physical oceanography and loads of general information and research from station ALOHA and the HOT program (Hawaii Ocean Time-series). Station ALOHA is where we will sample during the cruise.
I'm not very big on the phosphorus cycle so it was a lot of new information, but Dave is a fantastic lecturer and still made it very fascinating.
However, it was really cool to see some of the data from the HOT program and the carbon cycle is more along my previous work. Matt also touched briefly on the subject of my current PhD project before it was time for the students research talks.

The talks were supposed to be 12 min long and should comprise of each and everyone's current research. There is a serious diversity of subjects among the participants. I don't think a single one of us 16 students even have something similar, which made the talks very enlightening and interesting.
For the first time ever, I was first out with my research talk. Of course I was very nervous before hand (as usual), but I think it went very well. I even got a few nice comments from some of the faculty when I was done. I'm very thankful of all the input my supervisor, Rachel Foster, gave me on my talk, it definitely paid off and I learned a lot.
So I can proudly claim to now have done my second official talk as a PhD student, in front of world leading scientists of my field, and with flying colors.

The calm before the storm

Today I guess that I have experienced the calm before the storm. It has been a fairly relaxing day, just getting to know everybody on the course and checking out the surroundings while battling the inevitable (although mild) jet lag.
Everyone seems to be really nice which is great and with that said I'm sure it will be an awesome course, because lets be honest, with a couple of knuckleheads on the train, regardless of activity, it would not be as good or as enjoyable.
It seems like I'm among the most recent PhD students though, which I can't really tell if it's a positive or a negative thing. So I guess I'll just see it as irrelevant and that's that.

So we all did a hike together, while getting to know each other a bit, to a fairly closely located waterfall. To be frank, it was just another waterfall which just as well could have been located in Tahiti (I don't even like hiking that much) so I quickly vouched for the beach instead after having seen the waterfall. So we split up into two groups, while my group had lunch by the beach and the other group continued hiking to another waterfall further up the slopes.
That was pretty much my day since the heat and jet lag started to get to me by that point. Atleast I tasted two local beers, one lager - the only fancy thing about it being the name - Koru Longboard I think it was, and then a richly hoppy IPA which was really cool but a bit too heavy to drink beach side in 30 degrees heat.

Speaking about the temperature and climate, I'm actually positively surprised. I would say that it's currently very close to a decent swedish summer day, with the exception of the evenings being warmer (sleeveless was almost too cold though). Usually it's the humidity that gets me, but here, it is nothing compared to New Caledonia or Tahiti, which in my opinion is nice.

Now it's time to read some papers and make last minute adjustments to my talk before the course introduction starts tomorrow. I'm excited but also a bit nervous.

Safely arrived in Honolulu

After one of the longest days of flight I've ever experienced I'm finally checked in at the Lincoln Hall on University of Hawaii campus. I left Sweden at 12.05 and arrived in Hawaii at 21.15 (the same day, Sunday), approximately 26 hours of travel time later. The local time just didn't make any sense with that long a travel time, but looking at earth's rotation, flying west means prolonging the day. You literally fly within the boundaries of the rising/setting daylight. The best realisation of this was the flight from Amsterdam to Seattle, some 10 hours. But when I arrived, in local time only 1,5 hour had passed. Mind blown. At least it's better than flying the other way around and lose time...

All in all it was a pleasant journey without any hassle. The only unpleasantry I experienced was the landing at Seattle airport. I had fallen asleep right before landing and woke up as the aircraft slammed down on the runway. The second after that, the whole aircraft started swerving strongly back and forth. Having just woken up, still confused as you are by waking up in that manner after too little sleep, I was in that very moment convinced that things would go to hell. Thankfully it didn't.
A moment like that makes you miss your family even more, as if it wasn't hard enough already leaving today.

Now I'm getting ready for the C-MORE course which will start in earnest on Tuesday and then I will have my talk on my research on Wednesday.
I'm getting really nervous about it, which is natural I guess, considering the big scientific names that will be sitting in the audience. I'm sure this won't be the first time I'm in this position though, so I "just" have to make the best of it.
My supervisor has eagerly given me advice on my presentation and presentation technique, which has helped a lot even though it was a bit frustrating to see my whole initial presentation getting ripped apart. Oh well, I guess this is what it means to be a PhD student/candidate. After all, I'm here to learn from those far more knowledgeable than me.

So far I obviously haven't seen much of the place yet. However I did get my own room at the Lincoln Hall and the temperature at night seems to be comfortable enough (neither cold nor drenched in sweat). Lets see if I say the same tomorrow.
I know there are many different plans for tomorrow among the course participants (which have been organized in advance online) but I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with my one (out of three) days off on the island. I do have some last minute work to do as well.
Tomorrow will have the answers.

A busy month

I've now been home for a bit more than a month. I started out with a well needed "vacation" with my family for almost two weeks before getting back to the lab and crucial work, both for upcoming plans and for concluding the scientific cruise. I'm amazed by the amount of administrative work that needs to be done before and after this kind of journey and it is never simple either.
Being a scientist is a lot more than just doing science and in the end of the first two weeks back at work I had to get my priorities straight even though it meant pissing off some people at HR.

 The reason for me being all stressed about lab work is that I have two more major events upcoming and both of them require me to have some extensive results to show from the OUTPACE cruise.
This means that I've had to set up and prepare the qPCR, the DNA-extraction and primers, probes and standards for my targets, in very short order. At least it has paid off, and I've had some interesting data come out of it, however, I'm far from done. In practice I only have a week left too!

In 10 days I will again leave Sweden and my family far behind when I attend the extremely prestigious summer course (C-MORE) on Microbial Oceanography at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu. Application was international and highly competitive, which makes me proud of being one out of 16 PhD students and post-docs accepted for this year's course.
I will be working closely together with world-leading scientists in the field of microbial oceanography for almost five weeks, including a 10 day scientific cruise on the R/V Kilo Moana.
My supervisor told me on several occasions how envious she is that I get to go on this course, but made perfectly clear that it will certainly not be a walk in the park. To be honest I don't expect anything but a proper challenge, especially since I only have three days off during the course.
So here's where the data I'm now struggling to procure comes in. I will give an initial talk on my project for the entire C-MORE course and it better be a good one!

So just like prior to going on my previous cruise I'm starting to get this slight feeling of anxiety. It is a difficult feeling to describe but it originates in the fact that I once more will be away from my fiancée and kids for an extensive period of time. At least it's only half as long a time as last.
I honestly hoped I could take them with me on this one, but in the end the flight time to Hawaii is just too long and the journey too difficult with three kids. In addition, after getting the course syllabus and realising I won't have any spare time whatsoever, it was more or less out of the question.
My fiancée did great last time I was gone, so I have faith in her. She will do no less this time I'm sure and I'm extremely proud of her and thankful that she puts up with this. At least it will be my last international trip this year.

On a happier note, I've had a great time home with my family again, even though the Swedish climate at this time of year is mostly cold. However, that didn't stop us from having an early barbecue premiere along with some outdoor activities for the kids.

I'm super excited about Hawaii, but it's certainly damn great being home with my loved ones.