Unfortunately I came across this *after* the talks. Maybe next year.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
These are the people at your seminar...
Our departmental student seminar day just passed and what a perfect opportunity to play seminar bingo. How many of those caricatures have you identified at a talk? Which one are you?
Unfortunately I came across this *after* the talks. Maybe next year.
Unfortunately I came across this *after* the talks. Maybe next year.
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3 comments:
That was pretty funny! Me? I'm the napper. As in... the lights go down, the speaker drones on in a monotone... and the fact that I haven't slept more than 4 hours a night since I graduated college hits me like a tidal wave and I'm down for the count.
The department I came from had an old bugger who used to walk in late, wander to the front row, shuffle as much as possible then sit with a notebook originally printed in 1743 and scribble away.
At the end of the seminar, we'd all play a game called "Question, Comment, Reminiscence". Which was Ol' Rob going to pull out today?
A good example would be, during a talk about, say, spectroscopy of sunlight:
"Back when I started here as Professor of Alchemy in 1306, there was a fellah here trying to synthesis gold from lead. I seem to recall he used Aqua Regina in this..."
Then it would end. No question... not quite a comment... but also not a complete recall of memory either. It was normally bizarre, and very confusing for the speaker, who didn't know if they should nod, try to connect the synthesis of penicillin to the talk on group theory, or just move on to the next speaker.
We all found it hugely amusing.
The boss of our cancer group is an imposing 6"7 graying man who is known for speaking his mind and making grad student shake in their boots. He always starts his question saying that he is dumb and doesn't understand something from the talk, only to follow it with the most precise and smart question that you didn't even think of. He also invariably links the research to something that's been done 50 years ago and concludes that we know nothing new. He also likes to throw God in there sometimes, like "why would god have made this useless protein" leaving us to guess whether he's serious or not.
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