Conference Time: ASM 2010 Days 1 & 2

Although I have no statistical information regarding the current readership demographics of my blog, I'm planning on writing these entries concerning my attendance at the American Society of Mammalogist's 90th annual meeting in a format that will (hopefully) allow future readers, particularly those interested in mammals/ecology who have never experienced a large meeting before, a sort of "inside look" at what it's like to attend and present at a national conference. 

Phew!

That's pretty much all I have to say about the first two days of the conference, and the second day isn't even over yet! In some respects, I'm now glad that I'm at ASM instead of ESA, because if ASM is this big, I can't even begin to imagine how crazy and chaotic ESA will be!

I made it to the University of Wyoming campus late yesterday evening, registered, and checked into the dorms. I'd missed dinner, but there was a social gathering taking place in the student union building complete with veggies, crackers, and cheese, so I made do. At first I was completely overwhelmed. (To be perfectly honest, I'm still a little overwhelmed.) I found myself in a room packed with hundreds of people I didn't know.

And it turns out that ASM is a highly social event. A highly social, highly cliquey event. It seems as if every single person here knows every single other person, or at least knows someone who knows every single other person. Instead of people milling around and introducing themselves, there were tightly packed groups of obvious acquaintances, people catching up with old friends, groups of grad students from the same university sitting around tables talking. And then there's me, not knowing a soul and having no idea where to start.

If it had seemed like people were getting to know one another, as opposed to getting caught up on the latest gossip from some friend they hadn't seen in a few months, I'd have been much less reluctant to walk up to someone and ask to join in, or inquire about their studies. As it was, I couldn't see a good segue from, "How're your kids doing? Did that tendon heal up nicely?" to "Er... Excuse me? Hi, there. You have no idea who I am, but my name is Jax."

Oh well...

My strategy then shifted to me standing as awkwardly as possible against the wall of the room, making eye contact with everyone that walked past me. This eventually worked, as a guy finally walked past and made some comment about my eating alone. I introduced myself and we eventually got around to the topic of graduate adviser "fishing" and he started naming a bunch of people who he thought were really great advisers.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of them were professors I'd applied to work with earlier this year. When I finally admitted to the guy I'd been turned down at all of the schools to which I applied, including several he had named, he automatically assumed that 1.) I had a bad undergraduate background (poor GPA, irrelevant classes, no research experience, etc.) and 2.) my applications were flawed. That bothered me a lot, because no amount of explaining I did seemed to convince him otherwise-- that I had a really good undergraduate background and that there wasn't anything wrong with my applications, save for, perhaps, a lack of publishing experience.

I finally let the subject drop, but it really rubbed me the wrong way. He asked to whose labs I'd applied, and I listed all seven schools and their respective advisers. When I mentioned UC Somewhere Else and the adviser there, Dr. K, he said, "Oh, I know him. He's right over there." I asked him if he'd mind introducing me, and he agreed to do so. Thus, I found myself face-to-face with one of the advisers that had rejected me.

I had no intention of asking for justification as to why I wasn't accepted. I just wanted to meet him and talk to him a little, so that if I apply to his lab again in the fall he'll hopefully remember who I am. We chatted briefly, and when I told him I'd applied to his lab and been rejected this year, he said, surprised, "Oh, you did?"

"Yeah."

"Just to the school, or to my lab in particular?"

"I put your name down."

"Did you contact me by email before you applied?"

"Yes. We communicated via email for a few months. We sent several emails back and forth discussing your research on Cool Animals in Foreign Country, and how we are both interested in These Types of Questions."

"Huh. I never saw your application. How far did you get? I mean, when were you rejected?"

"Mid- to late-March."

"Well, you made it past the first couple cuts, anyway. But UC Somewhere Else is usually done admitting candidates by the last week in February. Anyway, I don't remember seeing your application. Sorry," he finished somewhat lamely.

I chatted with him for a few more minutes and took my leave. The social wasn't doing anything to alleviate my fears about meeting people at the conference. In less than an hour, I'd managed to meet two new people (good), one of which was convinced I'm a crappy student (bad), and the other I communicated with via email for months and yet, one way or another, had no idea I'd applied to his lab (really bad). One step forward, two steps back. It's things like that that make me feel like I'll never get into a PhD program.

I went to bed early, briefly meeting my roommate (who seemed like a cool person, although as of right now I've only talked to her for about fifteen minutes, total). This morning I attended a few really boring plenary addresses before the technical sessions began. The earlier technical sessions didn't do much for me, and despite really encouraging myself to try and sit with other people, I ended up eating lunch alone.

This afternoon was much better, though, and I really enjoyed some of the talks, and even got a few really promising ideas for possible future research topics. I also might try to talk to some of the presenters a little later, and ask some questions about their studies (an easy and effective ice-breaker). Later this evening is the first poster session, and I've gone through the list and highlighted quite a few neat-sounding presentations to visit. Maybe if I can meet some people this evening, in the context of discussing research during poster presentations, I'll find someone I can chat with later on during breaks and meals.

I'm already tired, and there are still three entire days left of this! Being in such large groups of people wears me out. Hopefully, though, I'll sleep well tonight!