What is a typical day like?


  1. Get up...get dressed...eat
  2. Get my daughters dressed, ready for school, and walk them to school
  3. Drive to the lab
  4. Check my email, phone messages
  5. Answer questions at Ask the Space Scientist
  6. Work on writing a grant proposal to get money for next-years research, or write observing proposals to get new data at a telescope
  7. Have lunch...usually at my desk or outside in the sun
  8. Work on a current research project. Usually this means working on one of several hundred different steps in going from raw data, to something my colleagues and I can interpret
  9. and/or...consult with collaborators on the current research
  10. and/or...Attend meetings and lab-sponsored colloquia where I get to hear about other people's research projects
  11. and/or...write or edit an article or paper
  12. and/or...respond to a Referee's comments about a paper my colleagues and I had submitted to a professional journal
  13. Thinking or daydreaming about research I would much rather be doing than what I am actually doing
  14. Drive home
  15. Help with dinner, homework, clean up the house
  16. Get my daughters ready for bed
  17. Sleep
  18. Dream