State of the scientist.

[rivka]

It's time for my first ever performance review as a faculty member. (I was promoted to the faculty in July, as you may or may not recall.) I just filled out the self-review questionnaire, which happily skips over all the things I got evaluated for as a staff member, like "work habits," and cuts to the chase: publications, grant funding, teaching, mentoring, service.

At the end, there's a section titled "Summary of major accomplishments during the current academic year," followed by a section where you list your goals for the upcoming year. And hey, when I write my accomplishments out? I look like I had a damn good year. It's kind of funny, because I don't feel as professionally successful as the summary makes me look... and yet, there isn't anything there that isn't true.

Here's what I wrote:

My major accomplishment this year was to secure an R21 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research, with total grant funds of $337,500 over two years. This represents my first independent research funding, and is a notable achievement in this era of diminished federal support for research.

My project, “Cognitive Biases and Interpretive Schemas in Antiretroviral Therapy Decision-Making,” will examine the evaluative processes by which patients decide whether to accept or reject their medical provider’s recommendation to begin ART, particularly the extent to which these processes are marked by distorted or biased perceptions of risks, benefits, outcome probabilities, and the credibility of health information sources. Study section peer reviewers stated that the project is “highly significant and has clear public health relevance,” and noted that “the project is innovative [and] will help fill a definite hole in the extant literature.”

I have also had an extremely successful publication record this year. I was a strongly involved co-author on three manuscripts which have all been accepted for publication, and was the first author on two published abstracts and a co-author on three additional abstracts. Each of these articles and abstracts has appeared in a top-tier Behavioral Medicine journal.

In March of 2008 I gave an oral presentation at the 29th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. This is the premier conference in my field; having a paper accepted for oral presentation is a significant achievement.

In conclusion: Damn. *I'd* hire me.

Comments

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Just think what you'll do this year!