I went "home" over winter break to spend some time with family and friends in Tennessee. I always promise myself I will get loads of work done over break. And I usually end up being very disappointed with myself at the end of break. I did get lots of reading done...just not as much writing as I had hoped. But it was nice to catch up with everyone and enjoy views like this:
View from my Grandmother's house in eastern TN
I love the open spaces and breathtaking mountains of the western US, but I think the rolling hills of the southeastern US will always feel like "home."
So...it's back to school, back to the lab, back to work. I'm only taking one course this semester: the final required class for the Program in Ecology ("ecology as a profession"). I'm hoping this means I will conquer most of the lab work, data analyses and writing on my "to do" list as well as the dreaded preliminary exams.
This past week I've been busy planning the schedule for our first visiting ecology speaker of 2010: Dr. Peter Groffman from the Institute of Ecosystem Studies. I met Peter while taking the Fundamentals of Ecosystem Ecology course at IES several years ago (an amazing course that I would recommend to any graduate student studying ecology), and I'm thrilled to be hosting his visit to Wyoming.
One of my favorite privileges of being a PiE student is that we get to nominate, vote, invite and host several visiting speakers each year for the Ecology Speaker Series. This series is run entirely by grad students, and I think we've done an excellent job of selecting and hosting speakers.
Hopefully the weather cooperates - sometimes that's the trickiest part of hosting a visiting speaker in Laramie!
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READING: Groffman et al. (2004). Exotic earthworm invasion and microbial biomass in temperate forest soils. Ecosystems.
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