networking

What has turned out to be extremely important in this phase of my research has been talking with people - a lot of people: immunologists, mathematicians, microbiologists... Being out of the science loop for a while, I've found that I've become kind of shy again to talk with scientists, especially if they are supposed to be very prominent in their fields.  But I've been pretty fortunate in that everyone I've talked to has been pretty nice and fairly supportive.  Knowing that I'm going to encounter a lot of skepticism regarding any kind of mathematical modeling from experimentalists, I've decided to pre-empt it by talking to them from the beginning and hopefully addressing their questions from the start.  And even more importantly, trying to develop the connections so that if the results do look promising, that I or someone can run an experiment to verify predictions. 

As badly as I want to work on immunology, I do realize that it's something of a risky project.  It seems prudent to cultivate a side project that seems pretty safe and straightforward (bacterial competition), both experimentally and mathematically.  I am willing to put in the time on a project, but I would like to graduate when all is said and done!  Picking the right question, as it turns out, is a substantial and important problem.  One wants something that is interesting, has a high probability of success (or at least is possible/probable), and that will stretch and challenge yet still be within one's capabilities.  I haven't done more than a few days worth of mathematical modeling or programming yet, as it will all be a waste if I don't ask a reasonably good question to start with (or have a good conceptual understanding of what I'm doing).

I think I have the right immunological, biological, and mathematical mentors now... so it's time to begin.