No two days are really the same. In 1995 I would typically get up at 8:00 AM and have breakfast, and by 9:30 I am at my office at the laboratory. I turn on the computer and check my email. I then work for the next 8 hours on one or usually more of the following tasks:
1...Writing a new research paper describing what I have just discovered.
2...Reviewing and editing a previous paper based on comments I got from
a referee assigned by the journal I submitted a paper to a month ago.
3...Continue with the manipulation of some data to put it in a form that I
need to advance my analysis of it. This can involve an accurate
measurement of the intensity of portions of an image; the identification
of 'point sources'; the calculation of temperatures by fitting various
forms of a so-called black body curve to the spectrum of the object.
4...Writing and debugging software to perform the calculations I mentioned
above.
5...Writing grant proposal requests to try to get money from NASA or other
agencies to support my research next year.
6...If I work at a college, there are various teaching responsibilities
such as planning the next lecture, reviewing student homework, consulting
with students and so on.
All of these things get done to various degrees each day. By the end of the day, usually 8-9 hours long, I am pretty tired and am anxious to get home and re-charge with the family. Because all of this work gets done in my head, it is very hard not to be thinking about various aspects of my work all the time, even when I am at home, washing dishes, mowing lawns or changing diapers.
In 2001 my schedule has changed dramatically because I am now doing education and public outreach work nearly full time, and my research work has shrunk to less than one day a week because of the size of my research grant support. I don't do diapers anymore because my children are now ages 7 and 9.
1...I get up at 5:00AM and do my writing for various book and magazine articles I always have going.
2...I wake up my children at 8:00AM and get them ready for school at 8:30AM. I drive to NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center by 9:00AM
3...I read my e-mail and answer about 10-20 questions from the Ask the Space Scientist service I operate on the web. This all takes about 2 hours.
4...I attend various meetings that are usually scheduled for 11:00 - 12:00 and have lunch at the Goddard Cafeteria at 12:00 noon
5... I usually multiplex my time between my research work, which runs on a separate computer in my office and usually consists of 'batch jobs' that run by themselves, and my education work.
6...My education work consists of maintaining the IMAGE-POETRY web site, doing workshops for teachers at Goddard to train them in teaching space science, developing new classroom activities, working with K12 textbook publishers to check their science accuracy, help the National Science teachers Association, or attend national conventions, work with the NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum.
7...By 5:00PM I am back on the road headed home. I spend the rest of the day doing family things and no astronomy.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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