Tedious but at least I have an impact sometimes.

[missdiane]

My job can drive me nuts but sometimes there are some super cool things about what I do. I spotted this recent article about a deadly flower species discovered in amber - over 15 million years old. It caught my eye because I saw it the day before posted to the door to the Exec Dean and my Boss's office. The reason why I find it personally super cool is because Lena Struwe, the woman that identified and named the flower is one of our NJAES researchers and I submitted her project report (along with the 170+ other ones) this month.

Another neat thing is that one of the researchers in our vector biology department were called by Congress to give a statement about their expertise when it comes to the spread of the Zika virus. It's possible that we could end up gathering researchers nationwide to do USDA funded research on the virus and I'd be helping coordinate the projects. Whoa.

Comments

[threecee.livejournal.com]

Very cool, and they couldn't do it without you making sure the funding part is all together.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

The funding part is supposed to be the useless business guy's responsibility though a lot of it does fall to me. I have the cooler job of reviewing their proposals and sending them for peer review and helping them submit the research to USDA to get approved and then picking through the yearly reports for publications and presentations to track AND the most important part is pulling out bits from the accomplishments section to list as "impact statements" which get highlighted in our station report to USDA. This part is especially important since it's what the senators on Capitol Hill read to determine whether to fund things like the Farm Bill.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Wow I remember reading about the flower in the amber. So cool.

Hey FYI I have a real 'gig' at Pino's on the 17th, Will be performing with a piper and a fiddler. Will fill you in on the details as the date approaches, if you feel like stopping by.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

You did? How neat is that? I actually pull reports out of research like hers to make our big Annual Report! I don't think this particular study is in the research she does for us but there are a ton of interesting research projects that I'm interested in seeing what the results are. It makes up a little bit for all the tedium. Today was a doozy with that.

Oh COOL! I would love to stop by! I don't know if/when my family from Texas is coming up so I'm hoping it's not around then.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

How cool is that? Rock on!