It was the year that was (2017 edition)

This year flew by at ludicrous speed, in particular the second half. In trying to chase the preset goals, and deviating from them more often than I probably should have, much fun and frustration was found. Let’s see what was and should have been in this year’s listicle:

Looking at the wishlist from the start of the year, the plan was (sort of) clear:

1. Publications: Yes, we managed to publish a bit here and there. Not the amount I had hoped for, but it’s a sufficient amount, and there’s more in the pipeline. With the new instrument pretty much ready for action, and a future instrument scientist to increase our project capacity, we hope to multiply that significantly!
2. Funding: No luck there, I’m afraid. Lots of plans, but very little plans that made it to paper, and about only one EMPIR proposal that was submitted and rejected. I did join another EMPIR project that might be successful. On internal funding I’m a bit more successful, with some projects being accepted there.
3. Collaborations: yes, there were a few. We collaborated on data corrections with Diamond staff, met with canSAS-ians, but did not manage the USAXS experiments yet (they’re slated for February). It also surprised me also how much effort it takes to find and hire candidates for positions, a process which will have to be continued for a while still.
4. The secret (managerial) project is also taking up an extraordinary amount of my time. This is probably due to my inexperience, in particular in translating plans to action. Time will tell if I can keep my head above the waterline on this…
5. Travels: Not as many as I had originally thought I would manage, but still a few. France, England and America were stopped by.
6. Holidays: There was a whopping week and a half of holidays, spent sailing in the blue waters of the Mediterranean. A time which seems ages ago and much too short, but it demonstrated that holidays can be had!

There were some other points of interest in the year. Firstly, and most importantly, I’ve halved the post frequency on this weblog, to leave a little more time for my non-outreach work, and to try to keep posting interesting posts and not just fillers.

Secondly, we’ve had a wide range of posts, discussing some interesting articles, scattering simulation software, nomograms, electronic logbooks part 1 and part 2, a discussion on Q binning methods, and a move to ScienceOpen for my literature list.

In all, I don’t feel 2017 has been amazingly productive, but the steps have been taken to do good stuff in 2018. Here’s hoping it will pay off. Happy year’s end, everyone!