The lives of group leaders

I sometimes wonder what it must be like to have a small army of students and postdocs around you. I've got a small number of students working for me now, but even then I can't imagine what it must be like to have so many that I might need a PA just to keep on top of my appointments.

About six weeks ago I invited a US academic who obviously has a large group to speak at this conference I keep banging on about. I've emailed him three times, spoken by phone to his PA, sent him all the details of the conference and the expenses he can claim back. I'm a bit taken aback that this person has chosen to ignore all my communication completely. I can take "no" and even the unreasonable demands for extra expenses that some speakers have asked me for. But ignoring me? How rude.

How the other half live

Advances in nucleic acid detection and quantification

In a previous incarnation working for a well-known but now defunct government department, it was my misfortune to have to organise small meetings and conferences. Getting the right venue and more importantly coffee and tea to a number of people is difficult... Yesterday I went to see the proposed venue for the meeting (Hinxton Hall at the Sanger Centre, just outside Cambridge). Very impressive and it seems like a good place for a conference. More importantly, the catering is part of the package.
I'm a bit concerned that there might be a "Noordwijkerhout" effect*. The Sanger Centre is isolated, and although I have found conferences in London to be disappointing in that the delegates disappear into the city as soon as the talks are over, perhaps the hot-housing effect might be a bit much for some.
Anyway, a full page advert for the conference should appear in Nature soon, so we should get one or two people attending.

*The Netherlands Research Council, TNO, has/had a conference facility near the sea at Noordwijkerhoudt. While there have been many fine meetings there, most non-Dutch attendees find the isolation of the place disconcerting. On the map it doesn't look that far from Amsterdam, but once you are there it gives a very good impression of being on the edge of the world.

Back to it...

I seem to have spent nearly the whole day after a week of holiday catching up with email. I now see that I still have 712 items to get through on Google Reader. One day I shall go home feeling as though I've done some real work. On the plus side, I had a good meeting today with Dave from Electrolab, the only company in the UK who still believe fermenters should be modular... Plus I've had some interest from a cycling coach who may be able to sort my life out!

The scientific programme for a conference I'm organising (see the homepage here) is going well, with some prominent names such as Prof. Ed Southern and Prof. Roger Lasken taking part. I couldn't have done this without the help of ThermoFisher Scientific in Epsom, who are co-funding this with the Biochemical Society. Registration opens soon...

Infrequent posting

I was prompted by the controversy surrounding the gagging of an anonymous civil servant (Civil Serf, now sadly offline, see this link for details) to actually make use of my blog. I was further shamed by MicrobiologyBytes (Prof Alan McCann from the University of Leicester) with his excellent post on Bacillus subtilis... And of course Neil at What You're Doing is Rather Desperate continues to entertain me. Jeff Jones even manages to write quite well about training and crinking Belgian beer. It makes this infrequently read, poorly populated blog seem rather sad in comparison. So a new week's resolution. Except it's Wednesday. I'll try and write something on here once every couple of days, dividing it into Science or Cycling and possible Music. Starting today. Aim is to get a comment, one day, when I write something worth reading