Sorry in advance about the shameless self-promotion. As mentioned, I'm hosting Grand Rounds next week (so be sure to get your entries in). Each week, the originator of the carnival, Dr. Nicolas Genes, posts a bit about the host on Medscape ("Pre-Rounds"); here's my interview for anyone interested.
Additionally, for those of you in the Iowa City area, I'll be speaking at this month's Cafe Scientifique (the final one of the year) on the topic "Avian Influenza: What's The Big Deal?" The details:
Time: Thursday, 11 May 2006 5:00 - 6:00 PM
Cottage Bakery and Cafe, 14 S. Linn St.
Stop by and say hello if you're in the neighborhood.
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I enjoyed your interview, as I do all of Nick's interviews with Grand Rounds' hosts. It's neat to learn a little more about you, your motivations for this particular career, and your dual interests in academia and popular science writing.
I look forward to blogging being recognized as a scholarly effort in the appt, promotion, and tenure process, but I encourage you to keep striving for that first big grant. Also, is there a med/sci journalism program at your univ? If so, an official alliance with them can serve to bolster the academic "authenticity" of your blogging efforts while univ APT committees try to make sense of the value of these contributions (which I value myself, but I no longer serve on an APT committee!).
Thanks for the compliment and encouragement. And believe me, there's no way for me to do anything *but* keep writing grants. I've received a few small ones, but I came here without a project already started, meaning I first had to work ~6 months to get enough data to submit an NIH grant, then it was reviewed, returned, revised, and now resubmitted...hopefully this summer will yield enough preliminary data for 2-3 more grants apps, so that's definitely the primary goal. (Well, that and "real" publishing, of course...2 journal manuscripts out in the last month, 2 more in draft).
As far as med journalism...good question. I'll have to check into that. Obviously Iowa has an excellent creative writing program, but I don't know how much is on the non-fiction end.