Scientist Welfare (aka I am now an NSF supported scientist)

A proposal that a few colleagues and I submitted to the National Science Foundation (NSF) has been recommended for funding by the Division of Materials Research. One of the PIs on the grant is my former dissertation adviser and some of the proposed work involves using a novel combination of techniques that I developed in my dissertation.

I would be doing the work during the summer months anyway, but it sure is nice to be getting paid for it. Plus, I’ll have money to pay undergrads to work in my lab and travel to conferences.

My former adviser is getting concerned about my recent charmed professional life: I apply for tenure-track jobs straight out of grad school (no post-doc experience, which is unusual) and I get three offers the first year. Now, the first NSF proposal I submit gets funded. Maybe I should go ahead and submit a CAREER proposal. CAREER grants are highly competitive NSF grants for young scientists. After the almost certain failure to get past the referees for that program, then I can come back down to Earth.