IAS2011 — Day #8

Eighth day of the 'I'm a Scientist – Get me out of here!' event, and...

EVICTED!

This week, the students have been kicking us out one-by-one. Dalya went yesterday, but today I was voted out.

Wow! I can't believe it's over. It has been VERY intense and we have answered so many questions (according to Tom, it has now been c. 450), some of them have been challenging, some of them easy. Others have been superficial, but some were most profound.

For me, it has been a fantastic experience. It has also been a chance to look at my work, and the projects I've been involved in, in a different way. It has given me a chance to see things from a student's point of view again and, in a way, ask questions of my career, as if I was considering embarking on it all over again.

It has also been a great chance to improve my communication skills, reach out to a pretty non-standard audience and engage with scientists who are not in your regular cross-discipline fields (which often means a different office in the same department), but who are in completely different scientific universes. If you've ever seen one of those movies where the team are really diverse, and rely on each other's skills to get through, then this was exactly the same!

So, best of luck to Tom, Tim and Sarah. It has been great to be part of Team Chromium!

And thanks to the organisers, support team and moderators of the event. It is a wonderful and innovative project and you should rightly be very proud of that.

Now... get me out of here!