AWIS Cal Tech Science Writer's Panel

Last night Jenny and I attended a Science Writer's Panel held at Cal Tech in Pasadena, CA. It was co-sponsered by AWIS and the Cal Tech Post-Doc Association. The speakers were fantastic. We had Greg Critser, Dave Zobel, and Jorge Cham. For those of you who do not recognize the name, Jorge Cham writes the Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD) comic strip.
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php
Everyone I know of in graduate school and post-doc positions loves these comics. He really manages to capture life in academia, and all the ensuing chaos. It was really a lot of fun to meet Dr. Cham, who is a very nice and funny guy in person. I immediately managed to wrangle the position of assistant for the night, helping him out with selling his books before and after the panel talk. I ran the credit card machine and took money, while he signed books and chatted with his fans. Afterwards, he posed for a picture with me and gave me two autographed books. In one he drew a sketch of Jay, and dedicated it to my "sugardaddy" and in the second he gave me a reference for future job searches: Swipes really well. He has a really good sense of humor, and I had so much fun!The above photograph was taken by Sophia Tsai, another AWIS member, of Jorge Cham and me with his latest volume of PhD comics. Thanks so much, Sophia! The entire panel at CalTech was a lot of fun. I have to say, the AWIS events just seem to get better and better.