The end of the year is near, and so here goes my selective review. This time, good and bad all mixed together.
This year I…
- started my Veni project
- finally, finally, finally published the last empirical paper from my PhD
- welcomed the lab’s first PhD student, Fenying Zang
- recruited a postdoc for the first time: looking forward to having Philippa Johnson join us in February
- supervised several excellent Masters students, and enjoyed teaching courses about cognitive modelling
- took a proper summer holiday
- hosted an in-person ‘hublet’ for the NMC5 conference
- left work early to pick up a feverish toddler from daycare far too often
- won an award for my own work, and one with NeuroMatch
- first post-pandemic work trips, by train to Austria, Paris and London – including the logistics of childcare (not to be underestimated)
- my first podcasts, and radio appearance
- pledged to fly less, and to stop submitting & reviewing for Elsevier
- moved into new home, simultaneously wonderful and frustrating (as things immediately require fixing and improving, which I’ve heard never ends)
- applied for the Leiden Young Academy and was rejected
- gave 16 virtual and 5 in-person talks
- realised that it’ll be quite some time before I’ll have new empirical work out, and trying to make peace with that
- felt more empowered in developing my climate action in teaching (gave a few first lectures), research (the very beginnings of a potential research line begin to crystallise after much talking, reading and doubting) and activism. I should specifically thank Scientists4FutureNL, Clare Kelly, Adam Aron, Kate Jeffery, Charlotte Rae, and Ruth Krebs for inspiration and support.
CoCoSys lab 