A change in tone

Since I started my position the chair of my department has been very good in saying that I should discover what I want to do, who I want to do it with and ease into this new position. Two weeks ago there was a change in his tone. Suddenly he was saying I should apply for my first grant now. The grant is for infrastructure but the application requires that I describe what projects that infrastructure will allow me to accomplish. Thus I have to describe in detail what I will be doing fo the next five years by the end of this month.

I should not be surprised. The two months of relative freedom to explore have allowed me to settle in while trying to work on the CIHR grant I am a co-investigator on. However, most academics must hit the ground running and I will need infrastructure. Given the pace of beaurocracy I won't see a dime of these funds until at least a year from April. Well such is life.

This means I am busy, trying to initialize a collaboration with NRC's Institute of Biodiagnostics, wherein I will be a guest worker there. They are going to write a letter of support for the project and possibly dedicate magnet time (aka MRI time). I am also establishing a dialogue with Monteris Medical who do MRI-guided laser surgery on brain tumours to discuss possible collaboration. Finally I am discussing collaboration with University of Manitoba's Joint Replacement Group who do x-ray stereography to evaluate post surgical status of hip and knee replacements.

All of these projects are exciting and involve alot of applied computational geometry, measurement, optimization and imaging. I believe this is exciting work and the opportunity for innovation is great but I have to convince experts through the written word. Not always my strength :-)