It has been a long time since I’ve posted to the blog, and I’ve been heartened by the plaintive cries of those of my readers who have been deprived of their near weekly taste of what one of my foreign readers has described as “radotage inutile.” My french is a little rusty, so I’ll just say “thanks.”
I have been out of the loop for the past couple of weeks due to a grant submission deadline. I am pleased to say that I was able to mail off the tome (six copies of all 211 pages) earlier this afternoon without sustaining any paper cuts or other visible injuries. This is our last attempt at securing funding for one of our projects—NIH allows you to submit a proposal once and then resubmit two additional times. While we are hopeful that we will successfully convince the review panel of the merit of the proposal, I am not above asking for good thoughts to be thrown our way by my faithful readers.
For those of you who have never had the pleasure of writing a proposal to NIH, the process basically involves convincing a group of your peers that 1) the experiments that you are proposing are cutting edge and have a high likelihood of success, and 2) you are the guy to do the work. With regard to the latter, you submit a truncated CV that lists your positions, awards, publications, and current funding that is meant to give the reader a sense of your productivity and reputation. I have worked hard over the nearly 3 decades I have been in the business to establish a reputation as a careful, and, dare I say, notable scientist. Coincidently, just this morning I received the following email, which clearly demonstrates the international level of esteem that I have earned.
I hope this isn’t an omen.
