Conference Time: ASM 2010 Days 4 & 5

The conference is officially over! And my immune system is officially shot-- after five days packed in small rooms with hundreds of people and the stress of trying to meet new people, my lymphocytes just couldn't take the pressure and I brought a nice head cold home with me. Thanks, ASM. I was hoping for a job offer or a grad adviser (or even better, a graduate assistantship) but instead, I got a cold.

Figures.

Really, though, the meeting went well. Monday at lunchtime I ran into one of the students I'd met at the first poster session on Saturday night, and I had lunch with her and a couple professors from a small university in the Southeast. She and I were both sniffing around for potential advisers at the conference, and were joking about just posting our CVs on the bulletin board with a big, scribbled heading advertising something like, "Looking for grad adviser. Slave-drivers and jerks need not apply. Please contact me to discuss research interests," or, perhaps, grabbing the mic at one of the social events and announcing to the crowd that you'd love to talk to anyone looking for grad students.

I seriously thought about doing the latter on several occasions. If only I'd been brash enough... *sigh*

Monday afternoon I suffered through some extremely slow technical sessions, then joined a group of about eighty people for the Alternative Dining Experience. More on the history of the ADE: The ADE (formally called the "anti-banquet," until the board members of ASM became concerned about potential negativity associated with the event) was founded in the early 70's by a few professors who noticed groups of students hanging around in a hotel lobby on the night of the banquet. Students couldn't afford the high price of tickets to attend the banquet, and many didn't own or want to rent the formal evening dresses or tuxedos required for the event. Since then they've held an "alternative" dinner every year, typically somewhere that serves pizza. They give out fake awards to complement the banquet's actual awards, and everyone chips in as much as they can to foot the bill.

The ADE was fun. I met a group of students going to school at Texas Tech and a few people working in the vertebrate zoology branches of various natural history museums, including one individual who is considered a leader in his field and is doing some really interesting (and depressing) research concerning biodiversity and global warming. Plus, the pizza was fantastic. That always helps.

Afterward I decided to go to the auction (held every year following the banquet) to watch crazy people bid hundreds of dollars for (typically) weird and ugly stuff worth less than an eighth of what they end up paying for it. This included $500 for an 8x10 photo I could have taken on accident on one of my worst days out, $50 for a plastic bag filled with beer bottle caps, and $75 for a small, squeaky dog toy shaped like a taco. Um... yeah. I suppose these people know what they're doing, though, and all the money goes into funds to be awarded for student research.

At the auction I was introduced to two people who work at Yet Another UC, one of my top-choice schools. I talked with them both about the school's various ecology-related programs, and they both had great things to say about the adviser I want to work with and his students. I found out that the adviser had selected both a master's and a PhD student this year, which really bummed me out (because I'd been hoping the reason I was rejected was because he didn't have any funding for students this year).

They both said it sounded like I'd been doing everything right (application-wise) and they both sounded surprised at, after hearing my credentials and the steps I'd taken towards applying this year, the fact that I'd been rejected across the board. Both encouraged me to visit campus, however, sometime between late August and early September, to try and gain that little extra bit of notoriety for the coming application season, and they told me that if I did come they'd be happy to show me around. In the end, when I left off talking to them I felt like it was a huge shame that our research interests were so dissimilar. Both seemed like they would make fantastic advisers, and were really nice people.

Tuesday morning I got up early and had breakfast with a student I met at the auction. Her adviser had introduced us, noticing that, later in the evening, we were both sitting alone. We had similar interests, and my undergraduate research and her master's research dealt with similar taxa, so we got on well. We went to the morning technical sessions together, and we both left the meeting just before lunch to travel home. I would have loved to have stayed for the afternoon sessions and the keynote speaker (who was going to talk about prairie dogs), but I had to work early Wednesday morning and had to make my travel arrangements for Tuesday afternoon.

All in all, if things had gone ideally I'd have come back with a list of contacts for potential field jobs, graduate advisers, and a name or two for people with grant money just come in looking for students to start a master's or PhD program in the fall. Of course, none of that happened. I really didn't manage to meet anyone who is doing the type of research in which I'm really interested and was also looking for graduate students. And I didn't meet anyone or hear about anyone scouting for field assistants. But I did get the opportunity to showcase my research and discuss it with other, working scientists. I met some neat students from universities across the country. I met professors working at some of the schools in which I have the highest interest. And I listened to some presentations that really excited me, and started me thinking about potential research/dissertation topics.

I'd say that ASM was a good "first" national conference to attend. Most of the people I met were very friendly, and from what I saw at the technical and poster sessions, no one was too aggressive with their questioning (i.e. attacking another person's work or commenting on the validity of their methods) without just cause. I think if I were to have the money to go to a conference again, I'd likely choose ESA or SCB, though, as they seem to draw broader audiences and those students and professors working at top-tier schools. I suppose I'll just have to try and make it to one of the bigger conferences next year, though, to compare!