John Trant ๐จ๐ฆ๐บ๐ฆ๐
@TrantTeam
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Chem on the edge...of Canada @ChemUWindsor ! Sens Fan Married to @Shufflersunite Tweets my own He/Him/His Probably writing a grant/emailing Vaccinated, 5 of X
Windsor, Ontario
Joined November 2015
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One day a young person decided they wanted to be an organic chemist. Understanding the cutthroat culture of organic chemistry, they sought out a kind, knowledgeable, well-funded, and successful organic chemist guru who happened to have their lab set up somewhere in the mountains.
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My wife just pointed out that essentially every academic conference involves entering a room full of people who don't even remember they rejected you for jobs.
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I'll let you in on the secret: There IS NO undergrad research. There is just research done by scientists currently pursuing an undergrad degree. It is not different than our other research. They are not "lesser" members of the team for not yet having a BSc.
@DavePalmerUSask
@USaskChem
Between you and
@TrantTeam
gushing over undergrad research symposia my heart is so full. Two great examples of supportive leadership โค๏ธ
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Accepted as is: Rosemary Iris Jackie Trant, born at 9 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches.
Preliminary findings: She likes cuddles and food. She dislikes baths and needles.
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Joke seen on reddit:
Scientist: "My findings are meaningless if taken out of context."
Media: "Scientist claims findings are meaningless."
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And today another student learnt the most important lesson in organic chemistry.
When a reaction isn't progressing, add more reagent and heat it. Keep doing that until it turns to black tar or converts.
I learnt that from Bill Ogilvie as an undergrad. I will never forget it.
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I received my tenure letter today. I want to thank all my students, postdocs, and colleagues, and most of all
@Shufflersunite
, for making this possible.
So, as I say to my team every December, we are in the discovery business for another year! Except now until retirement!
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Just got notified that I was awarded the biggest grant of my career. Today will be a good day.
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Fischer Projections Must Die.
-Your friendly neighbourhood carbohydrate chemist.
I have refused to teach them as they literally have no point, confuse the students, and haven't been used for much of anything in the past...I don't know...40 years?
#PrincipledStand
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Because I think it needs to be said:
We are boycotting the
#ACSSpring2023
and meetings held in regressive states with laws that dehumanize any of their residents or visitors. This means we will miss a good chunk of the meetings over the next decade. I hope it gets better then.
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I am opening The Journal of Tar Synthesis for submissions. We accept articles with well characterized materials, attempting reactions, that proceed exclusively to insoluble tar. Organic, inorganic, biochemical, earth sciences, and, if something really goes wrong, particle physics
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I am going to add my voice to this conversation.
I did a 15 month postdoc in the Hudlicky lab.
He is second to none in his experimental rigour. I respect that. His fights on that point have largely been ignored in the past 10 years by the literature.
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23 years together today. Also our last anniversary alone as one of those weird childless couples. I love you
@Shufflersunite
.
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As of today, I am tenured and am an Ass Prof (lvl 2). This means I can do anything I want.
So very little will change.
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Something I've been pondering for a bit. I would, in all seriousness, like to launch "Chemical Futility: The Journal of Reaction Failure." Chem. Futil. for short. It would accept cutting edge failed reactions not otherwise cited in the literature.
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Got some good news today. A postdoc is leaving after a short stay with us for a more prestigious position. A reminder to PIs...a postdoc's primary job is to get out. So
Ill be hiring again as soon as i am back to work!
#supportyourpeople
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#TransDayOfVisibility
We celebrate with the chromatography. And need to purify our cancer-diagnosing dye. So a twofer.
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The preprint. Mother and baby are doing great. Dad should be partially recovered in 25 years or so.
Didn't do the wordle yesterday, had a baby instead. Official announcement to follow.
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So
@Shufflersunite
and I published a thing in Nature Chemistry. As she notes, this is not an
@TrantTeam
paper, but rather a Trant and Mรฉnard paper. But still, it embodies the ethos of what we try to do here. TLDR: We have a safety culture problem.
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Students who report close calls in the lab are the best students. This is happy paperwork. We learnt something, no one or thing was hurt or damaged, but we will avoid similar happening again. Which might cause hurt or damage. Normalize reporting incidents. Even if nothing happens
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Preparing my tenure package. I'm not nervous. You're nervous.
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I had a good day today. I've had a good independent career so far. It doesn't come without cost, and we don't talk about that. It has taken a dedicated focus on work, and this causes damage to relationships and the rest of life. 1/n
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We have had a heartbreaking start to 2020. One of my grad students, Jonathan Chiaramonte, passed away in an accident on New Years' Day. Our group and
@ChemUWindsor
are in shock and grieving; our condolences go out to his family.
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I have one of my team taking cover in the Kyev metro. They decided to stay in Ukraine despite the threat. I can't believe we are seeing the shelling and attack on a European nation. This has to end with the fall of Putin.
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I'd really like to thank
@ScienceUWindsor
for selecting me for this Student Mentoring Award and my team for nominating me. Working with these research collaborators is an honour and privilege and I am so happy they feel the same. Letters from our Poet Provost are always distinct.
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@tribelaw
you can check out any time you want, but once you are on the Trump Train, you can never leave.
--The Eagles. Probably.
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CONGRATULATIONS DR. SADRAEI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm feeling shouty.
The first PhD from the
@TrantTeam
defended his MONSTER of a thesis. I want to thank the committee for a very friendly discussion, and the time it took to read the whole thing!
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The morale of this story?
Clean your Fucking Glassware.
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Running a research group is more like running a business than being a scientist. This makes me sad.
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The two types of chemists I respect most on here:
1) The ones who try to engage in meaningful dialogue about our role as leaders in the world who have a chance to affect things;
2) the ones who post really pretty pictures of nature.
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Self-serving take:
Self-plagiarism of methods sections is not self-plagiarism.
Changing it essentially means admitting that either I did a less than ideal job writing it the first time or that I am arbitrarily making it clunkier and less clear this nth time for difference only.
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Why am I supportive of undergrad research? Because I am supportive of research. And researchers start somewhere. These are core members of my team, and we are going to miss them immensely when they move on. But they are so ready to take over the world.
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The great thing about working with dyes is they are very colourful. The annoying thing about working with dyes is a clean-by-NMR sample can look like this.
@DinaGheyret
with the prep plate. If you like the sharp lines, even spread and TIGHT baseline...
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I like the new paint job. Everyone is not only welcome, but encouraged and positively supported here
@UWindsor
. Symbolism matters.
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I'm convinced that most of the hate for MSWord is from people who don't know how to use MSWord. The reformatting I do to fix some pretty crazy hacks I see...is painful. Proper text wrapping, anchoring/moving with text, and using section breaks solves basically all problems.
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@CBCPitchbot
Dying is expensive. To further cut costs, make sure you go missing while dying. This will benefit everyone if you still have significant debts!
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As an organic chemist, there are elements on the periodic table (not radioactive, just big) that I believe humanity was never meant to explore. Really surprised that we are ordering salts of a bunch of them. Entering the Heavy Zone.
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We have been told the technical term is "A Chonker"
Accepted as is: Rosemary Iris Jackie Trant, born at 9 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches.
Preliminary findings: She likes cuddles and food. She dislikes baths and needles.
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Today I am cleaning NMR tubes. We have "unknown" stuff in tubes from a lab that used to work with fun things like thallium and arsenic. Can't ask students to do this.
People: Clean your stuff. Don't leave it for the next people. It's dangerous.
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Nothing seems very important right now. I hope for Ukraine's defense. I hope for a rapid conclusion. I hope for minimum casualties and suffering. These are mutually incompatible hopes.
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I learnt a lot from Hudlicky.
How to distill 3 mg for EA.
How to report ranges of yields.
How to characterize materials.
How to approach chemical problems.
How NOT to run a group.
I am very sad that he chose to publish this. Sadly I am not entirely surprised.
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It happened. I am now, officially, John Grant. ๐๐๐
A Windsor Chemist received a $50,000 federal grant for his COVID-19 research:
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Extremely honoured to be awarded an
@thiemechemistry
Journal Award for 2019 as a promising new investigator in
#OrganicChem
. I remember when
@GilroyGroup
won a few years back. The global recognition feels good especially as one of my first papers was published in Synlett.
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From a Canadian scientist to our friends South-of-the-Border...just...don't drop the ball on this one eh.
Ok America?
You've got this.
We don't have enough poutine to share with 300+ million of you.
#VOTE
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You either die young, or you live to become a MOF chemist. Apparently we are doing MOFs now. For drug purification. Sigh.
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I hate dealing with academic integrity violations. It's the worst part of teaching. I think the online world has made this a lot worse; or maybe it has just become more trivial to detect it. Either way, depressing. Courage to everyone else dealing with these now.
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Today I write reference letters. These are the most important things I do as a professor. And I think what most separates me from being a researcher. It isn't about the science first. It's about the people doing the science first.
Never forget that.
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I was on vacation for a week...but the team wasn't. And neither was our artist! Some new kickass portraits of
@M_Reynolds95
@NTaimoory
@samanehmhr
. I think they encapsulate the INTENSITY.
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Editing a manuscript. Coauthor used the verb "dropwised" to mean to "was added dropwise" and I think I really like it. I'd leave it in if we think we could make it happen!
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Who wants to join a petition to get Universities to eliminate those stupid percentile charts on admissions?
Just filled out an honest one for one of my applicants to my program. Their 90% average does not get him into the top 50% of my comparison pool (my research students).
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This happens BECAUSE chemistry is a closed loop of (mostly) white men. Not in spite of it. We need to support diverse voices. We need to support diverse people. This is how we will improve the field. And the field is improving.
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Just had my 50th paper accepted. Pretty stoked and high on this right now! Details to follow when it goes online!
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One of my grad students asked me essentially:
"What is a chemical bond"
to which I answer:
"I know it when I see it"
Which is not very helpful.
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@doktor_clark
@J_A_C_S
JACS is a game. Excellent work by lesser known scientists get desk rejected. The shopping lists of "luminaries" get published, or the nth time they have done the exact same thing. Screw-em.
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Our goal: Innovative chemistry making really cool new compounds with biological activity.
What we are doing: Discovering new ways to fail to protect and deprotect sugars, amino acids, and drug candidates.
Chemoselectivity is hard.
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He was my biggest champion when I was looking for a position. And fighting for your people is something I took from him, and something I do everyday. I respect him as a scientist and as a mentor. But ALL THIS was always there. And I never respected that. People are complicated.
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Less centralization of training (what percentage of TT faculty are PhD or PDF from top 10 schools? Yeah That's not diversity). We need to consider where people come from, what they have suffered, who they will be, and who they inspire. This cries out for diversity
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@AcademicChatter
Who cares what the postdoc thinks? They aren't gods. Good grades matter for fellowships, and education isn't all about the lab work. Mostly, but not all. Students are students first, and productive lab members second. That can't be forgotten.
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Hey! BArF people! We are making it because we are losing the solubility game. Badly. And we don't understand why.
I know there are experienced people on here, and vague remember some chats in
#chemtwitter
. But any comments on this? Or are we good to go?
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These scientists are with us typically for 3.5 years. They are early in their career, but they are smart, motivated, mature individuals. They get the opportunity and responsibility they are able to take on considering their interests and other commitments.
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I pledge to boycott all Russian businesses and collaborations until President Putin is no longer in power in the Russian Federation. This has a small but measurable impact on our purchasing as a lab group, and will involve discussing sourcing with our suppliers. It's worth it.
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This isn't the 1920s when a chemist has a full-time wife to raise the children and keep the household, so that he can focus exclusively on HIS GLORIOUS SCIENCE. Damn the torpedoes. That is the view implicit in the lab culture. I worked 14 hour days 6 days a week.
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I can't go myself, or send my trans, gay, lesbian, or female team members to a place where they are not safe. Racist US visa policies are bad enough for an international group. They don't need more crap.
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I'm going to launch a new journal ChemChemChem publishing articles of exceptional innovation and importance at the interdisciplinary boundary of chemistry and chemical chemistry. Articles lacking this interdisciplinary component will not be considered. Nor will stupid questions.
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Trans rights are human rights. I speak as a scientist.
Diversity of voices makes science stronger. Science makes society more resilient. Denying the humanity and agency of anyone is a monstrous unforgiveable sin.
I support trans people living their lives.
#TransAwarenessWeek
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@HenMazzig
@YoniFreedhoff
It should be noted that all crossings at Rafah are subject to Israeli oversight and that Israel does not allow unauthorized entry into or out of Gaza through Egypt. A lot of this is Egypt maintaining the Israeli built wall to meet Israel's demands. It's why the wall is uniform.
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So, this was on brand. We had one table, no bathrooms and a poorly thought out plan. The cops came by, but we weren't the ones with the music. I won a grant. All in all, it was a solid, fun
@TrantTeam
party celebrating
@Dora92356435
and
@ISadarei
recent and impending graduations.
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We don't have "undergrad projects" we have tough ass science problems that need solving. We have brilliant, hard-working, thoughtful, and communicative pre-BSc researchers able to take them on.
Yes they are less experienced at first.
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Our problem is that some large labs encourage a culture of dishonesty and irreproducibility to make a bigger splash. They produce a lot of trainees who then go out and continue these practices.
Competing labs then sometimes do the same to keep up.
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The
@ScienceUWindsor
community, and the greater
@UWindsor
community is grieving the loss of many of our brightest and most promising students who were on the airplane that crashed in Iran last night. My thoughts are with all my Persian students who lost multiple friends.
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Twitter asking if I want to read the article before retweeting.
DUDE. I wrote the fucking article.
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Hi everyone. I am trying to help someone, and we just can't here at the Trant Team. He's an Afghani chemist, and he is looking for a postdoc/RA/research assistant position somewhere safe. He has a good PhD from a good school outside Afghanistan, but he will be forced to go home.
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@Ermentrude112
@professor_dave
How did they over reach? My understanding is they asked to have the same basic dignity as anyone else and not to be harassed. It's not like they asked for unique tax breaks or preferential access to services.
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The University fixed an elevator in our building. It has been out of service since a month after I started here at UWindsor. PhD students have applied, studied, and graduated during this time.
All I'm saying is miracles happen.
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They made it out of Kyiv and are in their hometown assisting on the medical front. They didn't ask for ammunition, but they did turn down the ride.
I have one of my team taking cover in the Kyev metro. They decided to stay in Ukraine despite the threat. I can't believe we are seeing the shelling and attack on a European nation. This has to end with the fall of Putin.
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#Chemjobs
Looking for a PDF to study natural products using HPLC, GC-MS, and LC-MS-MS to start...immediately as part of an industrial collaboration. Funded for 2+ years. Please see the website for more details. : Analytical Chemistry position.
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Our neighborhood is full of high performing kids (read: upper middle class parents). So I am answering the door as the scariest thing possible.
A professor of organic chemistry.
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There is a subtle but important distinction to using the:
"I am your PI and you are going to do X" and "I am your PI and I strongly suggest you do X to save yourself a ton of grief"
Both have their role.
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The implicit racism and ethnonationalism in the article is extremely upsetting to me as well. There is amazing work coming out of China. And I have German and American research groups on my "Black List" where we do not use their protocols (because they are reliably unreliable).
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Deeply honoured to be recognized as the winner of the
@ScienceUWindsor
Student Mentoring Award as nominated by my team. The letters made me cry. It is really bittersweet as my trainees didn't win in their nominated categories and that is the victory I wanted.
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Academic funding is terrifying. You are always at the point of running out of money. Always. You need to spend it all, then you need to find replacements for it all. I think we should be in a great place later this year, but right now they are all in review...
I hate this.
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I give up
@Chemjobber
#Chemjobs
I am looking for an army right now. Multiple (in each category) computational, analytical, synthetic/natural product chemistry PDFs and structural biology (protein expression and crystallization) PDFs available spring/summer 2020. 1/5
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Just bought new balances. Could have bought a car.
Again, the regular reminder that science is very expensive and grants are very small.
#SupporttheReport
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Student just told me, half seriously, that I shouldn't be nice to my guys because it doesn't prepare them for asshole future PIs. I don't know what to say. Except maybe tenure decisions should involve a check on the stress levels of trainees in labs. Don't tenure slave drivers.
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This is GOOD origin of life research. Based on experiment with feasible priors.
From Joe, of course. Again.
Can stereochemistry be transferred in metabolism before enzymes? We show that metal ions allow the RNA-derived cofactor NADH to reduce keto acids stereoselectively, linking the worlds of metabolism and genetic molecules at the emergence of life.
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I wonder if Payroll ever forgets to pay the President of the University his salary...
Nope. Only ever seems to happen to frontline staff, postdocs, and RAs.
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Last year I offered to support any Ukrainian student who needed a home.
This year, I offer to support any Palestinian scholar who needs a home. Let's do this. Unlike Ukrainians they are getting killed by both sides. Hey
@NSERC_CRSNG
hoping you can see if the GOC can give funds.
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Are you a doctoral advisor if you don't spend some time with your students on at least a biweekly basis? Asking on behalf of a lot of very prestigious R1s.
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I'm really touched by all the support and well wishes, especially from all my
#chemtwitter
friends who I haven't met IRL. I hope we can remedy that soon. But at least I will still have a job as an excuse to travel around and talk chemistry, mentorship, and fighting the good fight
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HELLO Canadian Chemistry! I have a great experimentalist, shiny PhD student looking for PDF/job opportunities. Synthetic organic chemistry, and good at working in a multidisciplinary group. I know y'all are looking...Canadian citizen and PR. Ready to start tomorrow. Hit me up!
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What happens when you cool root beer (in the can) in liquid nitrogen for 15 seconds to get it cold fast?
One of my grad students just did the experiment.
He is mopping up the results from the floor.
We will need to replicate of course.
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There is nothing better than your team getting good news. In academia, people come and go. It is the whole point. And I am always super happy when someone leaves for bigger things. But still. A bit sad. But mostly happy.
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I am not ready to be middle aged. 38 today. Happy end of my "youth" to me. And yes, 37 is young. Still about 12 years old on the inside.
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At 5:11 AM this morning I received a request to review. At 5:34 AM this morning, the request was cancelled because they had not yet received a response.
Good. Good.
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It's been almost 6 years since I started at UWindsor.
What I'm proudest of are the individual success of the now 150 HQP that I have had as coworkers in the lab over that time.
No matter what comes next, thanks to each of you for choosing to work with me.
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