Preparing for the new instrument and more…

A brief post, just to let you know we’re still alive over here.

Stress levels are at a maximum right now, with about a dozen projects running through one another at various speeds. After donning the managerial sackcloth, I feel I’m running behind every task, but somehow still managing to do many of them just barely in the nick of time. Here are some of the things we’re working on at the moment:

1. My first Ph.D. student has arrived, and started working last week. Once he has settled in a bit, I’ll let him write a piece for the blog. I’m looking forward to see what he’ll bring to the table!
2. We’ve pretty much tied up the last comments on a data corrections paper with the team from the Diamond light source. It will be a short lab note, with a boatload of appendices, which we expect will be of interest to many. This one is a direct result of the CanSAS workshop last summer.
3. The arrival of our new amazing instrument is imminent. To my surprise, it is still very much on schedule, and it’s (very probably) going to blow the socks off anything out there right now. We’ve been leading up to its arrival by preparing the data management and correction suite using its little brother (see last week’s post). In addition to that, this will be the first big and heavy piece of kit that will arrive in our newly refurbished building, and it’s going to be a bit of a rush to get the room ready by then. Fortunately, I have colleagues who aren’t afraid to lend a helping hand…
4. We’ll get visits over the next weeks by a few VIPs, more to follow on that…
5. We’re trying to make sense of SAXS data on alloys in the mean time, also not the easiest of tasks.
6. Starting December, we’ll also be joined by a new team member who will help us organize and make more efficient sense of our data.

Interleaved with these, there are about 1000 small little things that just need to be done quickly. I know I have said this before, but I am hoping that the flurry will settle into a more laminar flow soon so that we may enjoy the fruits of our labours!