Stories of my world #10

I had heard of her long before we met personally. She is well known among the scientific community all over the world, as she was the first woman to become Institute Professor and professor emerita of physics and electrical engineering at MIT. Among many other firsts. She was so popular that every conference in the field wanted to have her as a speaker. It was in one of those that I met her for the first time. It was the year 2008 and she couldn't care less about another young researcher that seemed fascinated just to be in her presence. I'm not going to lie, I didn't like her then. Our paths crossed again a few other times and I started seeing what her life was like. She loved her work more than anything, many times refusing to rest to just keep working. She met hundreds of people in each conference and everybody wanted to publish articles, chapters or entire books with her. Her name in the list of authors meant really a lot. She was a star and she loved it. But I also saw the other side. Or rather I feared there was another side, in which people, some people, were pursuing more their own interests than honoured by having her help and kindness. And she was kind.

Three years ago me and Johan visited her group at MIT for a couple of weeks. It was December and the weather was awful. We were staying in some old apartment that started flooding in the middle of a rain storm. We were supposed to leave to give a presentation to her and her group. There and then we had to chose between leaving and letting the apartment flood or staying to squeeze the towels and change the bucket that were holding the water drops. We chose to stay missing our presentation (and a 20 minute walk under the rain and wind). She was so sorry that to make up for it she proposed us a collaboration on a book chapter she wanted to do. We missed the presentation and SHE was sorry. That was the turning point.

After that I also started to see her off-work side, hard to spot since she was always working. She told me about her family and showed me pictures of her grandchildren, like any other 80 year old. She fell asleep sometimes during the talks in conferences. She could get tired. She was human after all! 

The last time we met was in another conference, in 2015. She was 84. Her mind had started to show signs of weakness and her speech during the opening ceremony was confused. Suddenly, all the attention she usually had in conferences vanished and I saw her alone on a few occasions, when before she wouldn't be let alone for a single second. One of the evenings she was looking for someone and asked me for help. She was supposed to meet a German guy, whose name she couldn't spell and who was not attending the conference. We went into her room (the conference was at a hotel), and tried to find clues about his contact details. She had work papers all over, on the bed, the desk, the floor. Her room showed well who she was and it was as I had imagined. We finally managed to get hold of the person, who said he was stuck in traffic. We spent a couple of hours together, waiting and talking about life, science and other things. I made jokes at the situation saying we would form a great team of detectives. She laughed. It was lovely. That's how I want to remember her: laughing and talking with a warm smile on her face. Wearing her red coat.

She passed away a week ago. I bet she worked until the very last day. She was the Queen of the nanocarbon. She was Professor Mildred Dresselhaus. But for all of us, she was Millie.

PS. A few weeks ago was released an ad featuring Millie, who supported women in science. Don't miss it, it's brilliant! Watch below.

Nobel prize ceremony 2016

I was there and I want to tell you all about it! 

I wish that was completely true. I was there but through the TV only. 

The ceremony is shown on Swedish TV and for the first time I watched almost the entire thing. It all starts with the handling of the prizes, with speeches from the head of each committee. The prizes are handed by the Swedish king himself, who is a relaxed funny person. Protocol exists, but it's not a big thing if one of the laureates forgets in which order to nod (king, Swedish academy and then the audience). After the ceremony comes the long awaited banquet, which lasts for about 4h and counts with music moments in between dishes, and ends with the laureates speeches. The whole day ends with the ball where everybody is finally able to relax and enjoy themselves.

Photo from nobelprize.org

I don't know if it's because of my scientific background, but for me this is the best ceremony in the world, beating even the Oscars. Why is it so special? Because "normal" random people get to sit and talk with the king, queen, princesses and princes, living their own fairy tale for one day. Surely the laureates are incredible people as well, that's also why they are there, but I also know that most academics live a simple life, among books, students and scientific discussions. The, suddenly one day, they get to seat among two members of the royal family and have a long discussion with them about who knows what. That is all visible when you watch the dinner on TV. The laureates, yesterday all men, entered the room with one of the princesses or the queen hanging on their arm, while their wives entered the room holding the arm of a prince or the king. One of the wives was in fact Swedish, although her husband was not, and they have lived in US for years. For her it was even more special, as she had never dreamed of sharing time with the royal family, that she grew up hearing all about. A moment I particularly liked was the exit of the banquet. The wife that was paired with the king stood up, grabbed her purse, the dinner menu, her seat card and all she could take to remember that moment forever, and then happily grabbed the kings arm with a very big smile. That's the spirit of the Nobel Prize. The simplicity of the people that for one night get to live in a fairy tale. 

Photo from http://www.svenskdam.se/

Closest are the king Karl Gustav, and the wife of the laureate Bernard Feringa, that is just behind, with the queen Sylvia. Behind them is the crown princess Victoria and the laureate 

Most of all... I wish I could be there. Not necessary on the kings side, but behind a column of the magnificent blue room in the city hall in Stockholm, watching all this live. 

Motivation

Has anyone seen my motivation?
When we get to the level showed in the image it means it's time to move on, isn't it?

To work in Science is not the wonderful thing a lot of people think it is. Low salaries, long non-paid extra hours and it gets worse when your superiors seem to not recognise or acknowledge your effort.
Tomorrow is a national holiday and I will spend 13h, alone, in a dark lab, hitting buttons every 5min, and I will do it again for 8h on Friday. I have done this once before, and it's not fun. And my boss thinks this is a normal thing to do. After all, I'm a scientist!

Maratona de trabalho / Working marathon

(in english after the image)

Há maratonas e maratonas, e preferia ter corrido 42 km do que ter passado pelos 3 dias que passei antes de viajar para a conferência.

Não se vai a uma conferência por ir. É preciso ir e apresentar-se trabalho, mostrarem-se resultados, que quanto mais inovadores melhor. Meses antes envia-se um resumo do que se vai apresentar, o que implica alguma organização. Claro que muitas vezes se mandam resumos de coisas que ainda não temos completas, mas que sabemos que vamos ter até lá. Esta foi uma dessas vezes. Quatro semanas antes da conferência houve uma reviravolta na teoria por detrás dos meus resultados (coisas que acontecem), mas tudo parecia bem encaminhado e precisava apenas de mais uns dados para confirmar tudo. Esses dados seriam obtidos numa determinada máquina, onde um dos componentes é um laser. Quatro semanas antes a parte eléctrica decidiu queimar e teve que ser reparada e isso demorou... três semanas e meia!!

Assim, a minha última semana foi como uma maratona. 

Na segunda-feira acordei adoentada mas fui trabalhar. 

Na terça-feira estava pior e fiquei em casa. 

Na quarta-feira o laser estava finalmente a funcionar e iniciei uma maratona de 30h de medidas! Não precisava de estar lá sempre, apenas a cada 3 ou 4h, mas fui à meia-noite, às 4h da manhã e às 8h da manhã.

Na quinta-feira tinha uma tonelada de dados para analisar, seleccionar, interpretar e escolher. O chefe apareceu a pedir para ver o poster da apresentação que não tinha mais que um fundo giro, copiado de um poster que fiz há muito tempo. Ri-me para não chorar.

Na sexta-feira foi uma corrida contra o tempo para terminar tudo até às 4h da tarde, a hora limite para imprimir.

Tudo isto com uma gripe em cima e dores de cabeça constantes!

No final ficou óptimo, possivelmente um dos meus melhores trabalhos (como é que é possivel!!) e foi um sucesso na conferência. Não sei como consegui, mas não quero voltar a repetir! Maratonas, só a correr se faz favor...

Eu diverti-me a escrever este post, principalmente por estar no passado! E vocês, gostaram de saber um pouco mais sobre a vida glamourosa de um cientista? ;)

image from here

There's marathons and there's Marathons! I would rather run 42 km than to have to go through those last 3 days before the conference again. 

We can't just go to a conference, we need to present results, and the more innovative the better. Months before we have to submit a summary of our work to the organisers, describing what we will show. Of course, many times we sent something that is not ready yet, but we know we will manage it until the time of the conference. This time I had one of those. Four weeks before the conference there was a small breakthrough in my results, and we figured that our initial theory was wrong. That was ok, we figured it out the right way afterwards, but we would need some more data to prove it. That data would be acquired in a certain machine, that works through a laser. Four weeks before, the electrical source of the laser broke and it was sent to be repaired. Obviously, that took exactly... three weeks and half!! 

That left me a few days free in an absolute crazy week!

On monday I felt I was getting a cold, but I went to work anyway. 

On tuesday I felt worse and I stayed home to recover.

On Wednesday the laser was finally working an I started a marathon of 30h of measurements! I didn't have to be there all the time, only once every 3 or 4h, but I went there at midnight, 4 a.m., and 8 a.m. 

On thursday I had a ton of data to process, select, analyse and interpret. The boss showed up wanting to see the poster where I would show my results. At the time my poster was composed of a colourful background that I had quickly copied from a poster I made 4 years ago. I laugh to avoid crying (a portuguese expression).

On friday I made a race against time to finish everything before 4 p.m., the latest possible time I could print my poster. 

All this with a bad cold and constant headaches!

It turned out to be a great poster, possibly one of my best works (how this is possible I will never understand!) and it was quite a success at the conference. I don't know how I made it, but I don't want to do it this way again. Marathons only for running from now on...

I had fun writing this post, mainly because it's in the past and I made it. How about you? Did you enjoy learning more about the glamourous life of a scientist? ;)