Mark meeting April 8

Had a good long talk about some things that have been on my mind.

1. Advisory Committee:
This needs to be decided by six weeks into the semester. After having a talk with Ben about the whole committee-choosing thing, I think maybe we should ask Dan Meegan to be the internal committee member. As for external, I've been having a look. There is that guy who came to give the talk on emotions being adaptive for NACS. His lab does some attention/emotion stuff. Beyond that I'm not really sure - suggestions welcome.

2. Qualifying Exam
Don't need to worry about this so much until the committee is selected. However, it is worth checking with Robin when exactly the thing has to be done.

3. Switching to PSYC + NEURO
I think this is kind of a given. I think it might be quite challenging for me, but I think the knowledge will definitely come in handy. Plus, as Mark points out, it definitely doesn't look bad to have something with "Neuroscience" written on it on your degree...

4. Atmosphere in the lab
- chatted about getting more collaborations going on
- Asma seems to have taken this to heart, and we're starting a reading group (which means Asma, Alex and I) Mondays at noon. I think I might start bringing cookies. We will take turns choosing 2-3 journal articles in our area of interest and we'll all discuss 'em.

5. Stonehenge - have pinned Ben down to bringing me the Friday after next (April 17), although he is testing before the meeting so he is worried about what to do with me during that time. So awkward not to have a car.
- once I'm in, can hopefully test some females and get that inhib deval stuff out the door
- Ben reminded me once again that this is a very hard population to work with, etc. etc. As if I'd forgotten...

6. Review Paper
- feel MUCH BETTER about this now. Agreed to make a wiki for it, and Alex just showed me how this morning. That wiki is up and running (as is my PhD-related wiki for keeping track of everything to do with my research - far too cool a tool not to use for myself!)
- subsequently met with Ben, who has agreed to do it. He will take the "attentional deficits in SD" bit, and I will look at "cognitive consequences". We agreed that the brain areas will become apparent through both of our reading, so probably not necessary to specifically assign that to someone.
- furthermore agreed to meet every week, starting the Tuesday after next at 2pm. Then I will be fully up to date for the Wednesday Mark meeting :)
- Ben has also agreed to mention this to Francisco, just in case Mark hasn't already

So that about covers it. I feel 100% better for having a specific idea of what I need to accomplish and when, plus a shiny new tool for keeping track of it all! Even if I just use the wiki for a dumping ground of documents, that's still progress. Here's to a productive summer...