14 March 2009

Rocket Scientista

Posted by Ryan Anderson

A friend of mine from undergrad, who is an honest-to-goodness rocket scientist had started a new blog about astronomy and grad school and what it’s like to be a crazy rocket scientist. She just put up a nice post about grad students looking ahead to faculty positions and how we need to take time to appreciate how cool our current jobs are. Here’s an excerpt:

While everyone talks about how they want dream job X, I realize that in a way, I’m already there.  Granted, I don’t have the job security or authority or creative freedom that come with tenure, but I’m a scientist.  I’m an honest to goodness scientist.  I’m doing what I’ve wanted to do since I was five.  I get to build a telescope, launch a rocket, and look at galaxies light-years away.  I get to bury my nose in a textbook  about cosmic plasmas or cosmology.  I get to tinker in the lab and dream of finding answers to questions.