This year the Society for Neuroscience meeting will take place here in DC. And this year, there will be a reception for those who have ties with Mason Neuroscience (writ large). I’ve sent out the date to the relevant email servers, but I’ll include the details here:

Location: Washington Convention Center
Room: 301
Date: 11/14/05
Time: 6:30-7:30pm

For those of you who aren’t registered for the meeting, it is possible to attend as a guest. I believe the cost in advance is $20. For those with difficulties in registering, please see me in person. We’d sure like to see everyone attend what should be an excellent time.

Yesterday studying the navigation habits of the rainbow trout in the eastern-most stream that eventually feeds into the Mississippi.

Related to “Upstairs downstairs”, refer to the “The Great Room” blog and other new posts at http://krasnowconstruction.blogspot.com/

At lunch with one of the PI’s today, the topic came up of why there isn’t more communication between folks who do their work, or have their offices on different floors. It’s actually very interesting because the topic also came up fairly recently in quite a different context where several of us were discussing the design for the new Society for Neuroscience offices downtown–same deal, how to get around the obstacle of different floors acting to discourage collaborations.

Along these lines, another PI recently suggested the notion of more talk, journal clubs, a question of the month and brown bag lunches all as ways to address this issue. While I think those are good ideas, I also think that there needs to be something more.

Fundamentally, we are talking about climbing or descending the stairs (or taking the elevator) as a barrier. Ultimately individuals expend energy to get over barriers because, in doing so, they achieve something of value to themselves–although in many cases I hope we indentify beyond our individual selves and in doing so avoid the so called tragedy of the commons (for a good explanation see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons). The value added for the Institute of course is increased collaborative activity in addition to a greater sense of community. But I recognize that the value added for the individual may be a bit vague and consequently take a lower priority against the other priorities that make up a scientific life.

So the question is how to bump it up the priority scale. I’m not sure, but I’ve finally come to the realization that this is a necessary thing to do. And I’d welcome your input.

I was like one of Pavlov’s dogs this morning: I walked in the front door, looked at the mailroom in its new location on the mezzanine, and then promptly walked down the hall to collect my mail from the place where the mailroom used to be. Such is the power of the hippocampus (smile).

In all seriousness, the movement of the mailroom is really the first step in the series of “adjustments” we’re going to need to make during the construction period. I’d like to thank everyone in advance for their continued understanding. Don’t hesitate to drop by my office if you’re worried or have questions.

Jim

Here are some of the issues that I’ve been considering:

1) What would be a good size for the Institute to finally achieve after the expansion project and its follow-on (which I’ll call Phase III for right now). And should I think of that in terms of PI’s, or some other metric?

2)How do we balance the famed Venn Diagram so that we continue to have both interdisciplinary focus and depth?

3) Do we tweak the Venn diagram’s components? For example, I often use “behavioral biology” instead of cognitive psychology–prefering the broader scope.

4) Do we continue as a pure research unit of the university, or do we formalize the academic components that already co-habitate with us?

5) What is the right strategy so that our science gets published in the highest impact journals?

6) As we add faculty, what role does Krasnow (as a research unit) play in these academic searches? In the same vein, how do we get the right mix of criteria for the searches?

7) What is the appropriate role for Krasnow in Mason clinical research…and translational research?

8) How do we keep the scientific excitement and passion going as we become older and mature institutionally?

Jim

You know…it’s very easy, of course, to talk about the science that goes on here. I spend most of my time outside the Institute doing just that. But it’s worth noting that none of this would be possible without the outstanding support staff who help us (and I mean all of us) every day.

Recently my predecessor in this job mentioned to me the quite striking difference between Krasnow and another institute for advanced study that he is very familiar with–the number of support personnel. Krasnow manages to run efficiently with very few support staff. Approximately 50 science folks (faculty, postdocs, graduate students) are supported by just four support people. That wouldn’t be possible without some very dedicated and talented individuals–our support staff.

As we head into the 4th of July holiday, I’m thinking how grateful I am to these often unsung colleagues, and I know the rest of the scientific staff feels the same way.

Thank you,
Jim

A new post has been published on the Krasnow Neuro-architecting blog on “Virtual & Physical Environments”. You can access the blog at: http://krasnowconstruction.blogspot.com/

One of my projects for the next year is to have lunch, individually or in very small groups, with all Krasnow staff members and PI’s. Some of these will be brownbags in my office, some of them will be a bit nicer–Connaught’s Place comes to mind–but the goal is to get feedback from each and every one of you on how the Institute is doing, and even more importantly, what we can do better.

If you’re a PI, you’ll probably have a very broad perspective. If you’re in a classified position or are possibly a student or postdoc, that perspective may be more narrow–I’m interested in all of them.

Jim

I would like to announce that in the interest of keeping subject matter coherent, we have created a new blog: Neuro-architecting at Krasnow. A spin-off of the “krasnow director’s column”, this blog will be used exclusively to document insights on the krasnow expansion.

I will notify you of new posts to the neuro-architecting blog by announcing them here on the director’s column.

Access the blog, and read today’s post at: http://krasnowconstruction.blogspot.com/