Lots of distractions, but remember to network!

So it has been quite a while since my last blog. Partly due to a slight slowing of my research pace, which I shall explain below, and partly because I am waiting on personal websites to be made available for research students in my department. In fact, our IT administrator has been doing a lot recently for its research students. They have now added pages which include photos of all the current postgraduates and descriptions (albeit brief) of their research aims. Luckily enough, my surname has meant I am at the very top of the list, visible as soon as the page is opened - way to go for my thoughtful ancestors! Hopefully I'll soon be able to link my blog to the same page.

If you'd like to take a quick look, the link is here :

As far as research is concerned, there has been a slowing of the pace, but this has been fairly par the course and is nothing to worry about! My SEM work is almost done, collecting micrographs of all my specimens - which is a welcome deadline. After a catastrophic loss of my laptop harddrive I have had to install a new one (a bigger, better one) and rescue anything I could from the old one!

Mostly, I have been concentrating on getting ready for the AAPA annual meeting in Albuquerque this April. I submitted two essays for student prizes, and was very pleased to hear that the one for the William S Pollitzer prize was successful. This gave me $500 much needed for my travel expenses - it isnt cheap being a Biological Anthropologist in the UK!
Also, I have been adding the finishing touches to my poster for presentation. It is really important to me that this is a good piece of work, as this will be the first time all the 'big names' in my field will have any knowledge of me - so I want it to stick! I hope to take photos and write about the event, mostly because I have found there is actually very little information out there for the novice conference attendee.

I think this kind of event is really important for a research student - whats the point of all that work just for no one to hear about any of it? Its a chance to meet the important people in your field, and this could get you access to intellectual help, technology, and even grants or awards. Don't be scared of them! I have never met an important academic who is rude or appears superior. This is not name dropping, but for example Chris Stringer, Richard Wrangham, Bill McGrew, Peter Ungar, Robert Foley and Steve Jones have all been absolutely lovely and very generous with their time and advice for me. I doubt any anthropologist reading this will be ignorant of any of these people.


And finally, the other reason that I have slowed a bit is that I have gone and gotten myself a part time job. At the moment there is little demand for my work as an osteologist and I desperately needed some income - living in London will do that to you!
And, luckily, I have found work as a receptionist/dental nurse at a private dentist!! I'm ever so lucky, because its actually given me a chance to see how the medical practitioners approach the study of teeth. And also I have access to extracted teeth for histology and am being shown dental xrays, for example.
Its three days a week, which gives me the majority of time for my masters, and the staff are all exceptionally lovely. In fact, the dermatologist who is also based here (a very good cosmetic scientist) has actually taken a look at my problem prone skin (the result of too much stress and not enough TLC). I know that bad skin is actually something a lot of female research students get annoyed about (think late nights staring at a screen and no time for yourself, combined with a bad diet), so I have linked to Stefanie's blog and website, because she really is THAT good and has given me some amazing advice.

Anyway, more updates to follow shortly