Hey

First to explain the title of my blog. I work in the Otolaryngolgy department (the cochlea part) at the University of Iowa (the corn part) where I study the cell physiology of hearing and hearing nerve-related tumors. Most Americans seem to confuse Iowa with Idaho or Ohio. Why? I am not sure. Maybe they are stupid or too self absorbed to realize that there are states in between New York and California. Those who know something about Iowa think of corn (which comes in ears) and hogs. And rightly so. Iowa is a huge agricultural state. What people don't realize is that Iowa is also home to one of the best public university's in the nation - at least from a biomedical standpoint. My department is actually ranked the second best in the nation behind Johns Hopkins University. In additon to having top notch clinical care, we also have great research efforts going on. In my job as a lab manager, I have what in my mind is the best of all worlds. I get to be involved in the day to day administration of the lab (which does have its drawbacks) as well as being involved in training new lab members and doing my own research at the bench. I am going to use this blog as a way to catalog some of the stuff that goes on around here - both the good and the frustrating. Anybody in research will tell you that being frustrated is one of the side effects of the job. Having said that, I really do love my job. I have an incredible boss and work with some very bright people.