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As part of their educational outreach, the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) hosts an “Ask a Scientist” column in the local paper, the Ithaca Journal. The columns are archived on the CCMR website.

I’ve now answered two relatively technical science questions posed by high school students while I’ve been at Cornell. The idea is to [...]

Naturally, one of the largest funding sources in the U.S. for academic chemistry and in nanoscience research is the National Science Foundation. As a prospective faculty member, I obviously have been thinking about grant funding opportunities.

One of my Ph.D. advisors, Mark Ratner, loves to say that science is about the people doing it and is best done in the company of good people. Of course this is partly because Mark is an extremely friendly, warm person.

Right now, I’m at the American Chemical Society meeting in San Diego and have met [...]

As many people have heard, 2005 is the “Year of Physics,” celebrating the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s three revolutionary papers.

I’ve been really enjoying the Quantum Diaries project, which recruited 28 particle physicists from around the world to write about working as physicists as well as their latest research.

(from site description)

Quantum Diaries aims to put a [...]

This fall, I applied for some 15 faculty openings in chemistry departments around the country. The number is, I think, perhaps on the higher side, but still fairly typical–to give you some idea, one professor I know claimed to have given 12 interviews when he applied for positions. I had a number of reasons to [...]

This December, as a postdoc, I’m not:

writing a dissertation teaching or grading taking classes and exams

But you can literally feel that strange combination of stress, caffeine, and procrastination just by walking around campus. It somehow permeates the atmosphere–and whammo, I have two papers to write by Friday! How did that happen?