Design, Build & Commission

These are good words, active words, words that say I am a bad-ass, so step off. It's because of those words that I took this job, since I will be expected to design, build and commission a polarimeter for a project at Brookhaven. Unfortunately, up till now, I have only known the glory of commissioning, since most of the infrastructure was already in place for my graduate project. I never got the full trifecta of goodness. So now I am intending to fill those gaps in my physics education and, provided I do it well, successfully enter the pantheon of bad-asses.

Part of me, the engineer and the anal-retentive micro-manager, is loving the design aspect. Figuring out the details, writing up the report, thinking about the plan. Then the other half of me, the worrier racked with insecurities, is thinking about how much this would suck if I f**k something up, so please, please, please don't f**k up.

Comments

[xoxo]

Good Luck! So do you get a staff?

[Anon.]

Never sell yourself short, for this is pretty much the job of everyone else.

[Sean]

"bad-ass" with all due respect; all of this hard work.. all of this insecurity, and anticipation.. what do you really intend on accomplishing? I am curious Caolionn.. do you actually think that you can better the world that we live in? What are your true intentions?

[Caolionn]

As for staff, I might be getting a grad student. But I think that might count for slave labor rather than staff.

And as for bettering the world, if I have a small part in helping scientists better understand the universe we live in, then, yes, I would think that would be an amazing accomplishment. I am not curing cancer, but I think that working to gain a greater knowledge, in general, does better the world we live in.

[Alessandro Artini]

Sorry, but I didn't understand. And also, may I suggest to add a sort of button in the Post a Comment. So that comments can stay private. Thanks.

[Caolionn]

Alessandro: I'm sorry, but the bloggers here have no control over the website format, instead it is the people that run the site. You'll have to take you recommendations to them. What part did you not understand?

[Richard]

So, is this a polarimeter for RHIC? Someone commented that your STAR photo had colors reminiscent of 70’s playground equipment – have you given any thought to the important color scheme issues that your detector will face? You know, “design, build, spray paint awesome 70’s colors, and commission”?

[Caolionn]

Ohhh, the color scheme. I totally forgot about that. Since the Caltech color is that delightful 1970's orange, I am sure I can do something with that; a color so ugly, it begs to be loved.