The news of the day is that I found a place to stay. Fairly close to the lab and in a pleasant house with two folks from Tassie (as Tasmanians like to call their island). Next step: cell phone.
In the lab, I started culturing malaria for my upcoming drug trials and went through a long safety induction. They take safety quite seriously here, but there are some interesting contradictions. For example, bovine serum can be carried through the building by only certain people (Australia is anal about any contaminant escaping into the environment, which is great), but then ethidium bromide isn't kept in a hood (they do at least mark the areas very well to avoid contact with it). So it's somewhat strange.
I have my own space in the computer area of the lab where I connect my laptop. I don't really have a bench as my work is done almost entirely in the culture room hood. The lab organization is quite interesting, though. My actual lab consists of Dr. McFadden and six post-docs, PhD students, etc... But the whole School of Botany is connected by various grant funding and shared equipment. The whole building is essentially one extended lab and there are several meetings and seminars weekly to discuss people's research and hear relevant outside work. Then the Malaria group (several labs from Melbourne Uni and a nearby research insitute) has a meeting each week with a similar goal of uniting everyone and encourage communication. It's a very interesting and lively environment. More news to come.
1 comment:
Are there any undergraduates in the lab with you? What is the reporting structure like? Do you work "under" someone's supervision? How indpendent are you? What is the gender ratio like? And how does it compare with what you have observed in Emory labs you have worked in?
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