Astronomers and Deadlines
Sometimes I have the impression that most of my professional life (and I am sure that many other astronomers feel the same) is organized around deadlines, which means around specific dates until I have to finish, deliver, or present something.
When I was young, there was a deadline until when I had to finish my thesis. Later, there were deadlines for job or grant applications. And in general, there are always deadlines for submitting observing proposals, abstracts for conference contributions and proceedings, and so on. In addition, there are dates which are not really fixed as deadline, but they exist, for example a date until which you want to send a revised version of a manuscript to a colleague.
My current deadline is the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union. If you follow the Cosmic Diary, like the posts from Heidi, Alberto, o Shashikiran, you know that this conference is already running, so why am I not there? The answer is simply my work: While I am writing this, I am still at the APEX observatory on a duty shift, and it’s kind of interesting to imagine that many of my colleagues are already in Rio de Janeiro, listening to interesting talks, but also having already their first Caipirinhas with other astronomers from all over the world. For big conferences, it is not so unusual that people travel only for a few days, may it be because they are tired of traveling, or busy with other duties.
In my case, the second week of the GA is also more interesting scientifically. I will participate in a so-called Joint Discussion about FIR and sub-mm astronomy, where I also will present some of my current research results. And this is where my “personal deadline” comes from, I am still working on a poster that I will put up during this Joint Discussion. The latest moment when it has to be ready is Friday morning, so that it can be printed in the ESO offices in Santiago, even if my plane to Rio doesn’t leave before next Monday.
As Heidi says, one of the interesting things at this conference is to meet old friends you have not seen for years, and to make new ones which work on the same topic. And I am really looking forward to it.
Tags: Conference, Deadline, IAU, Rio de Janeiro
