The article you shared is missing important details. How do those cost estimates get made? Are they going off of current insurance rates, where pharmaceutical middlemen and insurance companies inflate costs? Are they having single payer pay $600 for insulin when it costs $2?

Reviewed a journal article today! First time doing so not at the behest of an advisor, which makes it feel special. Peer review is how we keep each other honest and find mistakes, and I'm glad to participate.

Somehow my X feed has been entirely replaced by the rightwing propaganda machine. This isn't the first time it's happened, but it's the first time I've been unable to escape it by blocking the accounts in a reasonable amount of time. Anyone else notice this?

It's refreshing how I feel somewhat competent now at the start of my postdoc. A long PhD was spent feeling very incompetent haha. To those in the process, there's a light at the end of the tunnel if you stay dedicated!

I might have had a longer PhD than most people, but I'm grateful I was able to mature enough as a researcher to feel competent before I began my first postdoc.

I love path integrals. Even though I'm a condensed matter physicist, I cannot pass up a chance today to attend a lecture using them even if it's about black hole physics.

Just got the chance to reuse my PhD defense slides for a presentation. Glad all that work isn't just one-and-done!

First month on the job and I've already found two bugs in the code I'm supposed to use for my first project. Can't tell if this means I'm doing good at not 😅

Shout-out to my department in the Oden Institute for getting me a new office chair.

The little things really do matter!

I'm slowly but surely convincing myself that the path integral approach to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory is in fact the most natural formulation.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the compliance training at UT Austin. It felt modernized!

My postdoc requires proof of graduation from my PhD to start. It is scheduled to start September 1st. I got emailed my diploma yesterday. Cutting it a little close folks!

While people claim there is no evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life, they also agree that 90% of the matter in the universe is invisible for an unexplained reason.

The Dark Forest hypothesis implies dark matter could be hidden alien infrastructure. it's an entertaining and scary thought.

Today I successfully defended my PhD! I am now a full fledged Dr. D

I didn't realize just how much X is actively preventing people from challenging rightwing misinformation. Tried sending the last message a few times, verified I could send other messages.

I have about two months to write my dissertation. Normally that would be intimidating, but I absolutely love writing about the scientific work I do.

Just made a scientific poster in a day. It looks pretty great too! A new record for me on both fronts.

I wonder how much hydrogen impurities there have been in studies of "pure" metals over the last century

Looks like I'll be moving to Austin, TX for my postdoc!

Got food poisoning on Christmas. Last Christmas our car broke down on the way home. Next Christmas will the house burn down? Stay tuned.

Good luck!

Trying to work my hobby (competitive Smash Bros Ultimate) over the winter, the game is incredibly hard!

While I really respect version control, and it would be very good to have for all of my files, if my desktop bricks again, that would take like a whole 30 minutes for me to reorganize my version control to include my recent work.

"And?"

Thanks to Todd Munson from Argonne for giving me chances to work on projects in the Math and Computer Science Division. That nonlinear optimization work still influences my perspective on physics!

I'm learning that doped rare earth hydrides are interesting even at low or ambient pressures. Unfortunately Scandium seems like it's a problem child that refuses to cooperate until around 30 GPa.

Oh I had plenty of friends. They just didn't want to talk about their passions (or I guess weren't as passionate as I was).

Same. It may be culture at my universities - when I visited U Chicago every hallway had folks talking about their work or whatnot casually

I wish I had that experience. I think every friend and acquaintance I made in college and since simply never wanted to talk about their interests, or I guess didn't have any despite getting a degree. Even in graduate school, PhD students I was with didn't like talking about their work

Excited for the next step of my academic journey, wherever it takes me! Three interviews so far.