It’s quiet here today - a little too quiet. The perky smiling young face that greets me at work in the morning isn’t here. Today there are no jokes, no burning questions, not even a form to sign. Though I have a pile of things to attend to, I am finding myself at a loss for what to do. You see, my senior graduate student left over the weekend for the big city of Chicago to make his fame and fortune as a post-doc.
Being a thesis advisor can be uncannily similar to being a parent. Or, at least it’s as close to being a parent as I’ve gotten so far. Responsibility is involved as the thesis advisor is in charge of the student’s career (well, the student has to hold up their share too), and that can be a large fraction of their future well-being. A parental-like care seems to naturally develop over the course of working closely together for a few years. How bad can it get? I asked my student to email me when he arrived in Chi-town, and I admit to having checked the weather for his driving route. Man, I would have killed my Mother if she had done that to me!
Just like kids, each student is different and you to learn to interact with and care for each one in their way. You watch over them and worry about them and sometimes get upset with them and are proud of them when they do well. And this doesn’t stop after they leave. My first student graduated two years ago and I’ve since watched the arXiv for his papers, am happy to see him invited for talks, etc. He starts a tenure-track faculty position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this Fall and I couldn’t be prouder!
So, Ben, good luck to you! I will miss you, but I’ll be watching from a distance, and will smile from ear to ear when you do well, as I know you will do.
August 29th, 2005 at 7:21 pm
It’s good for kids to be kicked out of the nest into the harsh and unforgiving world, especially when the nest is the cushy climate of California and the unforgiving world is the robust atmosphere of the Midwest. Congratulations to Ben, I’m sure he’ll flourish here.
But JoAnne, you have to promise — no worried phone calls to see if he’s okay every time the temperature dips below freezing.
August 29th, 2005 at 9:21 pm
Congratulations and best wishes for the future to Ben.
August 29th, 2005 at 9:31 pm
I am curious, is the feeling the same for the male supervisor or is the relationship more akin to friendship, or perhaps, a fraternal relationship of sorts?
August 29th, 2005 at 9:42 pm
Ben is now… Big Ben
August 29th, 2005 at 9:59 pm
If Ben is coming to the UofC, tell him to bring a good bottle of scotch…
August 30th, 2005 at 12:24 am
Perky? Morning?
Thanks everyone, this was a nice thing to find.
Ben
(p.s. collin, a good student of JoAnne’s learns about wine, not scotch. But, yes I did bring a case of good wine.)
August 30th, 2005 at 12:50 am
Ben — then I guess an education on good scotch should commence ASAP. Fortunately, once the quarter starts, I think I know where that can be found (courses are somewhat erratic during the summer).
And since you mentioned wine — let me suggest Howard’s Wine Cellar on Belmont as the best wine shop in the city. My quality of life improved tremendously once I was told about it. Of course, my quality of life then dropped precipitously after shopping there a bit too frequently. But as a wealthy post-doc, you shouldn’t have that problem. =)
August 30th, 2005 at 12:32 pm
X: I can insure you that JoA’s feelings are well-matched to my own..
August 30th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
Don’t forget to check out Sam’s Wine Warehouse!
Ben, forgot to ask, you do have a warm coat and gloves, right?
August 30th, 2005 at 2:34 pm
X, I think that every advisor-student relationship is different. But, for most advisors and most students, the advisors certainly feel a connection to their students’ later successes and failures. I suspect that great students will succeed regardless of what their advisors do, but we like to claim credit anyway.
August 30th, 2005 at 3:18 pm
As Sean said, great students will most likely succeed regardless of (or in spite of!) their advisors. And, I would like to be clear on the following: my post was not about claiming credit for a student’s success. I was serious about the parental-type feelings that can develop and the worries/concerns/pride one feels as a result.
August 30th, 2005 at 3:39 pm
JoAnne — Sam’s has it’s place (though I like it better for beer, liquor, and cheese). Sam’s, of course, is enormous, and if you know exactly what wine you want, they might be the best place to look. And yeah, Sam’s is a lot of fun to browse, just to marvel at the selection. But I tend to think there’s very little value to be found there.
Howard’s on the other hand, is the place to go when you’re willing to rely on the wine merchant to reccomend wines. Give him whatever parameters you want (price, region, age, ageability, stlye, aromas, flavors, etc.) and he’ll go into his tiny shop packed to the gills and come back with the best wine he can. For a novice like me, this is fantastic. For an expert like you, I’d imagine this would be even better (if only b/c sometimes I don’t give quite enough info for what I want).
Anyway, I could go on, but I think I’ll just stop and apologize for this little attempt to proselytize (sometimes I just can’t help myself).
August 30th, 2005 at 5:45 pm
Collin,
Ah - that’s the scoop. One of my favorite things is nosing through a totally packed wine shop (with bottles still in boxes, not laid out fancifully on shelves), without the meddling interference of the merchant intent on recommending overpriced wines that I don’t want. But for one who is learning the wine world, it is a different story - in that case, recommendations (from all sorts of different sources, never rely on just one!) are very useful.
Sam’s is (or at least used to be) the king for Claret or Burgundy and had the best prices in Chicago-land. They sucked on CA wines. Of course, that was 12 years ago, back in the dark ages, when I lived there.
August 30th, 2005 at 6:46 pm
JoAnne — 12 years ago, Howard Silverman, of Howard’s Wine Cellar was still the head wine buyer at Sam’s (as, I believe, he had been since it’s inception). He left shortly thereafter and opened his own store in ‘97. Howard certainly has plenty of wine still in boxes and from what I can tell is more than happy for you to nose around. His store is far too crammed for anything to be layed out fancifully. It is somewhat charming, even if I find it a bit daunting.
But the key to why I like Howard’s so much is that unlike many other smaller shops I’ve been in, I’ve never felt like he was unloading overpriced wines on me simply because I didn’t know any better. When I go in and ask for a $15 wine, he’ll sell me a $13-15 bottle instead of trying to push a $18-20 bottle on me. And the only wines I haven’t liked were wines from mixed cases I asked him to make for me. Even those, I don’t think were bad wines; I usually just didn’t care for the style.
Now, his store is certainly geared more towards French (especially Burgundy), Italian (especially Piedmont) and German whites. His Californian selection might suck. I wouldn’t know; I’m still exploring French and Italian wines.
As for prices, I seem to remember comparing prices of wines I got at Howard’s with prices I could find online for Binny’s or Sam’s and finding that they all had identical prices. As far as I can tell, Howard doesn’t seem to charge any larger markup than the big stores. It was hardly an exhaustive comparison though. But I’ve never felt ripped off (for whatever that’s worth).
Anyway, next time you’re in Chicago, I’d humbly suggest you take a couple of hours and poke around Howard’s. It might be fun as an expert to engage a fellow expert in conversation about the mertis of Californian wines or whatever else happens to be on your mind (at least as far as wine goes; I don’t think he’d be much help with models of 40 extra dimensions). If nothing else, it’s a new wine shop. Then, revisit Sam’s and blog about a comparison of the two: size, quality, and value of the selection, prices, etc. That would certainly be my favorite non-physics post here…
August 31st, 2005 at 4:42 pm
Okay, Collin. You’ve swayed me. The ex-buyer for Sam’s must be a good guy. I will visit Howard’s next time I’m in the area! Especially since I have trouble finding good reasonably priced Italians in the Bay Area…
August 31st, 2005 at 11:42 pm
Warm hat and gloves, check. Reliable internet connetion, not check. Moving is fun.
Ben
September 1st, 2005 at 12:06 am
Welcome to Chicago, Ben!