Thursday, April 28, 2005

Woo-hoo!

I just got an e-mail from the NSF program director on whose panel I serve. She said that she had finished assigning proposals, and given my already extensive past service, I was excused from the panel for this round. She said she hoped I wasn't offended.

Offended? For those of you who have not performed this service, reviewing proposals takes a solid five weeks (or more) out of your life, wherein you do nothing else but read proposals, most of them outside your area of expertise. Trust me, this is not fun.

I feel like I just got my life back.
Posted by Angry Professor at 10:00 AM

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How can you review proposals for funding if most of them are outside your area of expertise?

12:01 PM, April 28, 2005
Angry Professor said...

I suppose I should clarify that a bit. Recall that a Ph.D defines one's expertise in a ridiculously small area within one's discipline. For example, I know biologists who believe that systems at the cellular level are too complex for study. So these proposals that one gets for review are all within one's discipline, but not necessarily in an area that you could claim to be an expert in.

One mark of an excellent (fundable) proposal is that it is clear even to people who are not intimately familiar with the area that the work is interesting and important.

1:00 PM, April 28, 2005
Anonymous said...

Okay. Thanks for clearing it up.

1:16 PM, April 28, 2005

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