Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Why Boston

Excerpt from the ridiculously long NIH postdoc fellowship application I'm writing (this is a case where government has definitely gotten too large):
The _________ lab is the perfect environment for me, for several reasons. Translating basic research knowledge into societal well-being and progress is important to me. Having gained much already from the ivory tower, I now seek a lab that will expose me to medical doctors and clinical environments and human patients. I am very interested in stem cells and regenerative medicine, and the _________ lab is leading the fore in this field and part of the __________ Stem Cell Institute, the top regenerative medicine body in the field. I am interested in kidney tissue biology as it relates to several fields – polycystic kidney disease, epithelial-mesenchymal transitions, aging, differentiation, etc. – and the ________ Unit at ______________ has a tremendously high concentration of high-caliber nephrology researchers. The surrounding city of Boston will be a completely new academic network to connect to and learn from, and features powerful potential collaborators within a few blocks of our lab. These reasons convinced me to pull up stakes from my very comfortable and congenial surroundings in Berkeley and move to what I see as the most exciting place to be in research today.
I know, I know. Can't end a phrase with a preposition. I know.

1 comment:

therapydoc said...

Ha, ha. Delete that comment from anonymous, Samurai.