• Question: what is a normal day for you being a scientist?

    Asked by 565anmh24 to Cedric, Rupert, Carrie, Ellen, Ines on 6 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by 268anmh33, sluglife, @Mari.
    • Photo: Cedric Tan

      Cedric Tan answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      Yoga or gym in the early morning

      Teach, teach, teach

      A little research

      Movie time haha

      If I’m in the forest, then we just trek with heavy loads the entire day!

    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      Breakfast
      Train to work – I’ll read scientific papers and write some of my own on the train and chat with other commuters – it’s a friendly train
      Prepare for my lecture/class (check it is up todate and available online)
      Give the lecture, answer questions
      Answer student questions via email or online – I look after our international exchange students so there’s usually lots to do
      Write a reference or two for ex-students who have applied for jobs
      Have at least one coffee. Have lunch if there”s time
      Mark student coursework online.
      Meet with my research students/assistants to see how they are getting on
      Plan new experiments & write up recent ones
      Head back to the station and home for dinner

    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      Depends on the morning, i have zoo days and office days. I like to keep fit and do running, swimming and occasional gym sessions so I fit these in either before or after each day 🙂

      Zoo day:
      Wake up and head to the zoo – check all my cameras are still in place and say hi to the ele’s
      Catch up with the keepers
      Change batteries if they need doing
      Start my live observations for that day (I usually fit breakfast and lunch in around these)
      Head home and either watch videos, start inputting data into Excel or do some other work related to my project
      Answer emails and catch up on bits and bobs that are outside of my main project work
      Give up when I am bleary eyed, grab some dinner and head to bed!

      Office day:
      Roll out of bed and walk up to uni
      Make a large coffee (I cannot function in the office without coffee)
      Check emails
      Stare at my ongoing to-do list (this takes up a lot of my time!) – try and fathom out a plan of attack for the day
      Get on with whatever my area of focus is for that day – it might be video analysis, trying to write chapters or papers, or doing other things to do with my data. The day is usually also interspersed with meetings or other work commitments too.
      Finish around 6pm and head home – where i again catch up on any other bits and pieces, catch up with my house mates and sometimes just head straight to the pub!

    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      Get into work quite early and respond to emails (which goes on ALL DAY LONG!). Then I’ll probably have teaching and meetings to go to. Could be marking some student’s work or helping them run their dissertation research. After work I go and do the horse, so work her, groom, feed etc. Then I get home late and have a good dinner cooked from scratch. Got to admit I’ll eat that in front of the TV because I have zombie brain at that point. Then if I have any energy at all I’ll do 30 minutes of yoga (air high 5 to cedric) and fall into bed exhausted. Hopefully sleep really well and do it all again!

    • Photo: Ines Goncalves

      Ines Goncalves answered on 11 Mar 2017:

      A typical work day for me looks more or less like this:
      Check/reply to emails as soon as I get to work. Then, read a few articles, think about my research, what information I lack and search for article that may have the answers I need, try to figure you what are the interesting questions that haven’t been asked and how I can answer them. Around lunchtime I usually have seminars, followed by 1-2 meetings. Then I go back to my desk to do some more reading and writing. When I get hungry I head home for dinner and then, if I’m not too tired, I’l read a couple more articles.

      2-3 time week I also try to go to the gym, because exercising helps me think. And recently I’ve been spending a lot of time in the lab because I’m still setting things up, testing equipment, cleaning old equipment, ordering new one, and getting it all together so I can start running experiments soon.

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