From: Richard Wood (rwoodphd_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Jan 31 2007 - 18:01:46 CST
Hi all,
I want to thank those of you that have responded
off-list to my original post. I hope that more of you will respond and
we can continue this philosophical discussion discussion.
Most of you were very helpful, and I hope to continue to be in contact with those people in the days to come.
On
the outside of every silver lining, there is a cloud, however, and one
of you that responded to me was downright (I'll use the word of my
children) "rude". I won't say who you are, as I don't want to embarass
you in front of your peers. I sincerely wish this person well, as
he/she thinks he/she was helping me by offering "advice". One's
"advice" is another's vitriol, I guess.
Ask yourself if Mark Twain would have written something like
that.
Richard
Richard L. Wood, Ph. D.
Computational Chemist
Cockeysville, MD 21030
rwoodphd_at_yahoo.com
----- Original Message ----
From: Richard Wood <rwoodphd_at_yahoo.com>
To: namd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 2:35:25 PM
Subject: Re: namd-l: a philosophical question...
Hi all,
Ok, here it is.
I know that we are all using NAMD to solve various problems of one kind or another. For example, I am using NAMD to study the dynamics of various protein-carbohydrate complexes, using techniques such as MD, SMD and FEP.
That being said, I am doing this work as part of a larger project, the goal of which is to allow me one day to use my skills in the pharmaceutical industry as a computational chemist.
In the meantime, I've been wondering if all of the training that I've had up until this point has been worth it. I've done two post-docs after obtaining my Ph.D., and worked for seven months at a small biotech start-up, doing mostly grant proposal writing. Since being let go, I've been looking for a suitable position. I've turned down a third
post-doc in that time, because it was offered to me at a time when I felt that I was going to get hired by a pharma company. I've been lucky, for the person that offered me the post-doc is the person that I am now working on the above-mentioned project. Granted, he's not compensating me, but we have written a grant proposal together, and if and when it gets funded, he will compensate me.
All of this has me questioning whether or not I want to continue to try to become a computational chemist. On the surface I do, as I have invested all this time in training, yet I ask myself constantly if it's worth all the grief.
My question to all you using NAMD is this: what do you plan to do with the training you are getting once it is done (provided that you are not yet in a "permanent" position), and do you consider your time and effort spent worth the time? Is being a computational chemist worth it?
Richard
Richard L.
Wood, Ph. D.
Computational Chemist
Cockeysville, MD 21030
rwoodphd_at_yahoo.com
____________________________________________________________________________________
Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels
in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit.
http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.6 : Wed Feb 29 2012 - 15:44:20 CST