Michael Tremmel
@MichaelTremmel
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Astrophysicist, Lecturer at University College Cork, Comic book enthusiast. Proud member of @theNbodyShop . Formerly Yale, U of Washington
Cork, Ireland
Joined January 2014
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Lyft driver: so what are you in town for?
Me: conference
LD: what about?
Me: astrophysics
LD: you an astrophysicist?
Me: yup
LD: you interested in experimental physics?
Me: ...yeah?
LD: *takes pamphlet out of glove compartment* I have a new theory of gravity!
Me: oh no
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Physicists need to stop thinking everything is trivial and they can speak with authority on any topic. At best we look foolish. At worst we do real damage.
But also it’s ironic how people that fashion themselves as great thinkers are often closed minded and, frankly, stupid
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@keshawnrants
Yeah my mom recently boasted that she has been using the same container of salt for like 10 years or some ungodly long time and suddenly my entire childhood, filled with bland-as-fuck home-cooked food, flashed before my eyes.
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If we aren’t careful “Harvard scientist” may soon become the “Florida man” of academia…
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apparently this week is postdoc appreciation week... You know what would make me feel appreciated? Job security.
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I'm very happy to say that in January 2023 I will joining the University College Cork Department of Physics as faculty (lecturer)
@UCC
@PhysicsUcc
So,
@CTremmpleton
and I will be moving to Cork, Ireland! 🇮🇪
Really excited about this new chapter in my life and career!
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astronomers, the name of your code or survey or simulation doesn't need to be an acronym. It could just have a name. You don't have to force it. Ends up, most things in the world have names that aren't acronyms. Weird, I know.
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I’m seeing comments from people in US about BA vs BS degrees and I just want to say be careful. I have a BA in physics and math b/c that’s all that the college of arts and sciences at Northwestern offered those majors, not b/c it was less rigorous! Many could be in the same boat.
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Astronomers: pulling public data and fitting them with power laws
Everyone helps flight the pandemic the best they can:
#Biologists
- working on a vaccine
#Chemists
- working on new drugs
#Mathematicians
- working on predictive models
#Physicists
- approximating everything to a sphere
We can do this together 💪🏻💪🏿🦾💪🏽💪🏼
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I'm happy to announce that I've accepted an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue working at Yale! HUGE shoutout to
@Carrieleet
and Yale Pathways to Science for helping me draft a really awesome outreach proposal that I'm excited to get working on!
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@keshawnrants
Also this is why at least once a week when I’m eating my own food I marvel at how delicious food can be when properly seasoned (also when you aren’t afraid to use fats when cooking). I’ll never forgive my mom for all those years lived without eating Brussels sprouts…
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Old white man asks mostly old, white male friends to rank scientists, finds they all agree. Turns out, they are all themselves great by their own standards! amazing.
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This tweet gained traction so I feel the need to add that I was totally sucked into this culture as a physics undergrad. Luckily 22-year-old me grew up a lot (also joined an Astro department). I just wish a lot of 40-50yr olds could grow up too.
Physicists need to stop thinking everything is trivial and they can speak with authority on any topic. At best we look foolish. At worst we do real damage.
But also it’s ironic how people that fashion themselves as great thinkers are often closed minded and, frankly, stupid
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My job application writing process:
- ugh I'm worthless and don't deserve to be in academia. Everyone will know I am a fraud.
- ok, this is actually sounding pretty good
- huh, this is actually kind of great stuff! Everyone will love this! I'm great!
- *gets rejected*
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I think both of these things are true:
1) we owe it to undergrads to provide as many avenues as possible for research experience. Its crucial in informing their career choices and building marketable skills.
2) the research "arms race" for PhD programs in the USA is VERY bad
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I lose so much productivity thanks to two-factor authentication. I sign onto a computer then get out my phone for Duo, but then I immediately get distracted by twitter.
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@jradavenport
It’s an important offering to the campus dragon, who will otherwise require the sacrifice of one first year grad student each year. The dragon has emeritus professor status, but no one knows in which department.
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We can all trash this "impact" study on twitter, but the fact is that there remains a powerful contingent of older faculty living in an echo chamber, continuously patting each other on the back for being "great" while they hold up a poisonous system of fake meritocracy.
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It’s weird that in academia it seems that everyone skis. Is this a function of family wealth, growing up near mountains, or something else? I’ve never understood. To me, growing up middle class in the Midwest, skiing always felt extravagant, pricey, and inaccessible as a hobby
People who grew up with money will look you in the eyes and ask you something insane like “do you ski?”
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My dad died in May pretty suddenly. He often joked about wanting a Viking funeral. Today we (kind of) made that happen with his ashes, a paper boat (made by
@CTremmpleton
), and my hometown’s lake. My dad would’ve really appreciated this. I can’t imagine a more fitting sendoff
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This is what you get under capitalism. People love to say how the free market allows innovation to thrive, but that’s all bullshit. Once you have profit as your main motivation, things go to shit.
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Ok but like…. My hot take is that we probably already have enough physicists? Is there a shortage I don’t know about? The problem is the distribution of people who are encouraged and supported to become physicists. We don’t need more physicists, we need more diversity.
i was hoping that the oppenheimer movie would inspire a generation of kids to be physicists but it really missed the mark on that.
let's get that movie made!
(i think the social network managed to do this for startup founders.)
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I saw an argument months ago that people weren’t taking the pandemic seriously because it mostly affected older people, as opposed to children (using polio as the key example). I think now we can safely say that was wrong and many people just don’t give a fuck about anyone
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Wow this kind of blew up. I’m an astrophysicist studying galaxies and supermassive black holes. Info on my research is on my website (see bio) and I often post on here when new results come out. Also in my bio is the blog I share with my wife
@Carrieleet
!
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Our paper on massive black hole occupation fractions in low mass galaxies as predicted by the Romulus Simulations has been published in the Open Journal of Astrophysics!
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Some shameless self promotion:
A press release for some recent work on wandering supermassive black holes
A public talk I gave this past winter at
@AoTSeattle
:
I’m also featured on a couple episodes of
@UniverseUniver5
podcast
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Today I am doing something I should have done long ago: Make the switch to python3. I'm scared. Please keep me in your thoughts (sorry but I do not accept prayers)
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It’s my birthday tomorrow and I got some good job news this week, so we have champagne! Also shoutout to
@fdmtweets
for the awesome sweatshirt!
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I think the Ivies and other “top” schools coast on their reputation. The assumption is the education is better, but students experiencing it have no real baseline to compare. Then people hire graduates based on same assumptions, feeding the narrative. A self-fulfilling prophecy
cheaper. less awful people. probably less awful instructors. i don't see the problem here.
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As we near the two (2!) weeks of final exams I’ve been thinking about how educational systems driven by fear of failure, where your goal is to prove you’re worthy rather than to learn or be curious, are shit. This isn’t how learning + creativity are fostered and it makes me sad.
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I 100% disagree, at least for US schools. One reason to wait: you may get more. I waited and I got offered a fellowship to add to my salary. The system is shit but as a grad student it’s not your responsibility to make it better. Do what’s best for you. You don’t owe anyone.
Very unpopular opinion: If you’ve been admitted to multiple PhD programs this yr, pls don’t wait until the deadline to reject schools. As you down-select, pls let the schools know. They have waitlists & they can’t move people off of the waitlist until you tell them.
#gradapp
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looking at you white male astronomers who think they have clever talk titles...
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Holy shit. I never knew this history or, honestly, considered the Fermi Paradox in those terms. Fascinating and horrifying how much white supremacy still pervades science and our view of the Universre
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I think that in general academics tend to not have any kind of personality/interests outside of working, hiking, and exercising… I find this really sad.
every astronomer's website bio:
When not working, you can find me enjoying the outdoors.
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New vax numbers from Yale: 96% of students (97% undergrads), 91% faculty, and 90% staff are *fully* vaccinated. Gotta say, I like those #'s! Shows what requiring a vaccine can do. Students are also required to mask in classes regardless of vax status. Hope more schools follow!
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A common response I've gotten are people saying they hate hiking. But, I'd like to pose a question. Academics (especially faculty!) what are some interests/hobbies that you put significant thought and time (and/or $) into pursuing? Respond in the replies! Hiking counts! :)
I think that in general academics tend to not have any kind of personality/interests outside of working, hiking, and exercising… I find this really sad.
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Four years ago today I defended my thesis... feels like just yesterday. Seriously though, postdoc life has me so focused on the “next step” that I feel like I’ve never been able to enjoy/appreciate the present moment. Not really very healthy. The pandemic hasn’t helped either
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Mistakes are normal and I've certainly made my fair share, but it's not ideal that academia incentivizes rapid, flashy results over careful, thoughtful analysis. And, if you have the right name (or your collaborator does), your flashy results can get in the flashiest journals.
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Flight attendant: Is there a doctor on the plane?
Me: Yes, but I’m not that kind of …
Attendant: we have someone that claims their hydrodynamic galaxy simulations have no free parameters!
Me: I’ll be right there
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I could not disagree more with this! Captions should not only explain the content but also summarize the meaning of a figure! A legend can tell you what the symbols mean. Most readers are not going to be reading in detail, but scanning figures and captions.
In general, captions are too long. They should only describe the meaning the plotted symbols. The physical description & interpretation should be in the text.
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Lol physicists jealous that Astro is more interesting than their field. There’s a reason it’s such an ancient science. It speaks to our innate desire to learn, rather than a desire for consumable products. And for the record changing our view of the Universe IS changing the world
The supposedly groundbreaking announcement that will be made next week comes from a collaboration of pulsar timing arrays so I think it's fair to assume it won't change the world
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A lottery where some people intrinsically have more tickets than others, and where the more you win the better chance you have of winning again.
Academia isn't a competition, it's a lottery. The only people who insist that it's a competition are the ones who think they won.
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9 years ago I set up a date with this weirdo on OkCupid and we met up at
@CaffeVita
in Cap Hill, Seattle. We talked for several hours (Carrie got a parking ticket) and the rest his history! Happy Anniversary
@chaos_carrie_
! Looking forward to new adventures in Ireland!
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Hey
@jaregan
and I are planning a meeting on massive black holes in the early Universe taking place in Kinsale, Ireland, at the wonderful
@TridentHotel
! Check out the link for details! Happening 29 April - 3 May, 2024!
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Look don’t get me wrong I care about galaxies (kinda my job) and I’m very interested in new JWST results. But I also have a life outside science and I don’t mind waiting a few days for an official announcement from the team who designed a program to share the initial results.
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Landed in Dublin and now driving to cork with the monsters! the most amusing (frustrating) part so far has been the rental car itself which is… special. The turn signal and wipers are on switched sides so every time
@chaos_carrie_
tries to change lanes she runs the wipers 🤣
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Last week we welcomed about 80 astrophysicists from around the world to Kinsale to discuss the evolution of massive black holes in the first billion years of the Universe. I think it was a success! Tons of interesting presentations and discussions
#BlackHolesKinsale
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During an outreach zoom event a kid said their favorite scientist is Elon Musk and I died inside
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It was a long time coming, but I'm happy to say that my paper on Ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) formation in galaxy clusters using the RomulusC simulation has been accepted by MNRAS! Read the updated version on ArXiv!
#nbodyshopgotchu
#nbodyshopexcellence
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Prospective applicants are looking at your dept's use of the GRE and your qual exam system. These things send a message to students about your priorities. Maintaining antiquated systems proven to be not only ineffective but also incredibly biased doesn't send a good message.
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Modeling Supermassive Black Holes in Cosmological Simulations
“Galactic Archaeology With Metal-Poor Stars”
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oh hey, it me
We look forward to welcoming Michael Tremmel, Yale Department of Astronomy, on campus - for our first in person seminar in two years 🥳🥳
Fine more details and all
@PhysicsUcc
seminar listings here:
@UCCPhysoc
@SEFSUCC
@CorkAstronomy
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I hope this is what my simulations do when I look at them…
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Paper day! We use the Romulus simulations to examine the environmental dependance of the massive black hole occupation fraction in galaxies
Thanks to my amazing (and patient!) coauthors Angelo Ricarte,
@SheerPriya
,
@j_bellovary
, Ray Sharma, and Tom Quinn
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seems like a good time to tweet this again
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I've heard lots of negative stuff about life as a professor and for good reason! But, as I'm on the faculty market, I'd love to hear from non-tenured astro/physics faculty: what about the job do you enjoy and derive fulfillment from? (not just your love for your field of study)
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Hey Cork, I know I'm new here but you should come see my public talk with
@CorkAstronomy
on 17 April. I'm an astrophysicist studying galaxies but I don't use telescopes! Instead, I use computer simulations. Makes life easier not worrying about clouds!
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This has def been me over the last 1.5 years… frustrating setbacks, isolation, etc have really taken their toll… I hope I can find that spark/fire again. It can be really hard for academics to internalize that we are more than our work. I’m still trying to get to that point.
Shoutout to the postdocs (& other short-contract academics) who feel like they've lost their spark and their fire for the work. You still matter. You are more than your research.
#MentalHealth
#AcademicChatter
#AcademicTwitter
#PostdocChat
#PhDchat
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Hey come check out my poster this morning! Learn about supermassive black hole dynamics in the Romulus simulations! 141.10!
#aas233
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@aussiastronomer
The nepotism feels bad in this case, but the broader reality isn’t much different. In order to be faculty at a top 20 R1 (or basically any R1) you need to have a top 20 pedigree (+know the right people). Its all a silly game run by people that want more copies of themselves.
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First time in the Netherlands! They… really like bikes here, huh?
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Our latest paper will be on the ArXiv on Monday and I'm really excited about it! We model *for the first time* in a fully cosmological simulation the formation and evolution of ultra-diffuse galaxies in a galaxy cluster. It has been a long time in the making, but well worth it!
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My first Halloween as an adult with trick or treaters coming by the house!
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My issue is less about living far from “home” (home can be many places, not just where you are born). Rather, it’s that the frequency of moving means that we often don’t have a chance (or the motivation, really) to put down any roots and make our current location feel like home.
Weekend Twitter has taught me that all academics (including myself for the last few years) live over 1,000 miles from home. Very cool profession.
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Wild that a kid I TA’ed for at UW is in the Super Bowl…
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Look, I’m a supporter of
@LeagueofIreland
and
@CorkCityFC
but I’m not sure who in their right mind would watch a LOI game today instead of watching
@FAIWomen
play a euro qualifier against France. Seems like a scheduling mistake to me.
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Def worth giving this thread a read for some perspective, especially if, like me, you’ve made fun of this work yourself. Scientists (especially physicists, honestly) love to knock other scientists down. I think we’d all be happier if we gave people (esp ourselves!) more grace
Every so often, this incident comes up on social media and everybody has a laugh at the ignorant biologist that didn't know basic math. I think this case illustrates something very toxic about the way many of us think about a life in science.
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Job season is hard but small acts of kindness by other academics/astronomers mean a lot. Taking the time to give someone an encouraging word really makes a big difference and can help people remember that rejections aren't reflections of one's worth or the quality of one's work
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I’m so fucking tired of tv shows and movies portraying teachers as either 1) doing it as a form of “retirement” from their “real” job or 2) failures who couldn’t do anything else. Teaching is a challenging and dynamic profession that’s incredibly under appreciated and underfunded
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Press release day in celebration of our newly published ApJ Letter studying the connection between ram pressure and supermassive black hole growth in RomulusC! If you want to study supermassive BHs in interesting and unique ways,
#nbodyshopgotchu
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Perfectly normal, healthy culture we have here in academic astronomy (from the astro job rumor mill)
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Watching this made me think about how academia could channel this energy. I can imagine conferences where new researchers are approached by more senior people to talk about their work rather than the other way around and, when they do, are met with genuine interest and positivity
Tony Hawk went around town asking random skaters to “Do a kickflip” and if they landed one he’d give them free gear 👏
(via
@berrics
)
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How desperate am I to get back to in-person conferences?
I’m going to AAS (and it isn’t in Seattle or Hawaii).
‘Nuff said.
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Just got an early birthday surprise from my entire family (including
@CTremmpleton
). I am very spoiled.
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@aussiastronomer
After my initial reaction I realized it was all kind of absurd. “How DARE they just ignored those other talented candidates like the postdoc from Yale with a PhD from U Washington, or the postdoc at MIT with a PhD from Berkeley, or the postdoc at CITA with a PhD from Santa Cruz”
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Yale has all these fancy prizes named after previous alumni (who I assume donated money). I want a prize named after me, but all you get is like a king-sized candy bar with a golden wrapper.
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My parents have accumulated some pretty funny teacher mugs over the years
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In Dublin… it is early and we are sleepy… sadly our hotel room won’t be ready until the afternoon. The sun has just risen and we are learning most things don’t open until 10am or so… at least we found a nice cafe!
📸:
@CTremmpleton
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observers: lol stupid simulations, why should we believe or care about anything you say?
also observers: OMG we have results in tension with these handful of simulations! Is LambdaCDM wrong?!?!?
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Just heard someone say that the east coast is “beautiful right now”… in February? The fuck are they talking about
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Had my first ever faculty meeting. Important milestone accomplished. It was… educational.
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So it only took about two days for my brain to go from the initial "woohoo I'm great and deserve this" reaction to getting a prestigious fellowship to "oh fuck, now there are going to be real consequences when they find out you're a fraud!" Ah, good old reliable imposter syndrome
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@astrogrant
Bunch of people got together to decide which of their friends’ essays they like best.
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I think we should strive for this to be true for academics as well. It’s unhealthy to have your identity so wrapped up in your work. And it can lead to you having unhealthy interactions with others too.
My identity and self-worth are NOT tied to my job. My approach to work is emotionally sustainable. My company values work-life balance.
I'm proud to be open-minded and excited about my career evolution, and simultaneously have more important things in life. Wild, right? 2/2
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whelp the faculty position I was shortlisted for will not be hiring this year due to
#COVID19
. Sucks, but I'm lucky to have landed a pretty darn good position for the next 3 yrs without needing to move anywhere so I can't complain too much. Many others I'm sure are not so lucky.
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Is the AAS job register trolling us by putting up a faculty job for the school of medicine? "haha so I heard you astronomers think you can do biology and medicine since you love posting your own COVID analysis so much"
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Had a dream where I was totally unprepared for teaching (I start my first semester as lecturer in January)… And then for some reason my mom (a math teacher) showed up to my classroom to judge me as I struggled. This is all normal right? Definitely doing well over here
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What is the word for the rush one feels when a batch job begins running immediately after submission?
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So telling of academic culture that we consider being barred from authorship/collaborations, or publishing under a certain affiliation, as being on par with imprisonment without trial.
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My paper on RomulusC, the highest res cosmo simulation of a galaxy cluster ever done, has been submitted and is now on the ArXiv! Been a long time in the making and excited to finally share it!
Shoutout to all my collaborators who made this possible!
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The Hubble fellowship is consistently a magnet for immaturity on the Rumor Mill. A friendly reminder: no one is under any obligation to post any information about themselves on the mill. Get over it. I get that we are all feeling very insecure right now. Deal with it like adults.
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I’m sure Biden and Harris were super excited about
#JWST
, but they (and all our leaders, really) still prioritize funding for weapons and war over basic scientific research so you’ll have to excuse me if I’m not particularly moved by their enthusiasm.
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