Hello everybody,
I started reading this newsgroup about a month ago and I find it very
interesting . Since I'd like to exchange opinions concerning scientific
issues and everyday life, here I introduce myself.
I'm a PhD student at Oslo University, Institute of Neurophysiology. I
graduated (MD) in Italy (university of Pavia), but I worked out my MD
thesis work in Heidelberg (MPI fur Medizinische Forschung) in B. Sakmann's
department, working on the characterization of cloned K+ channels in
expression systems. I'm presently working in Per Andersen's group, under
the supervision of J.F.Storm, on regulation of K+ currents by second
messengers in hippocampal pyramidal neurons in brain slices. The technique
I use is patch clamp; during my first year I worked mainly in the whole
cell configuration, now I've started with single channel recordings in
inside-out patches.
I love my work, I think I've been very lucky meeting marvellous coworkers
and supervisors until now and I feel very comfortable here in Norway: life
is easy and relaxed both in and out of the lab.
I guess some of the persons writing in this newsgroup will attend the
Neuroscience Society Meeting in Washington DC next November: why don't we
exchange information about our poster or oral communication sessions so
that we can meet?
As for the criteria for tenure and the children issue, here in Oslo two
collegues of mine have had children during their PhD course; to help them,
the director allowed them to keep the children in the department and have
totally elastic working timetables. In general his attitude is to try to
facilitate our private life as much as possible, so that we can be relaxed
and fully productive during our working hours. A suggestion we made
(which could possibly work out some time in the future if we get more room)
was to have a kind of "nursery" room where one of the parents could stay
with a group of children at least half a day; switching in the
children care would allow everybody to work nicely and to feel that the
kids are safe and enjoying. An alternative could be to share the expenses
for a baby sitter. As far as I can remember, Marie and Pierre Curie adopted
such a system to raise their daughters together with a group of colleagues;
it worked so nicely that they kept loooking after their kids and even
teaching them all the different subjects up to the secondary school level!
Looking forward to hear about more of you
All the best
Paola
Paola Pedarzani - The Patcher - Institute of Neurophysiology
University of Oslo - P.B.1104 Blindern - 0317 Oslo Norway
Tel.: (+47) 22851252 - priv. (+47) 22920707 ***********
