“There is no room for shy in combat sports. There is no room for not being comfortable in your own skin. It’s not a natural state for most people at first. Violence and aggression isn’t a natural state for many at first. You need to be able to move past that limitation. Shed that which is forced on you day by day in modern society and learn to feel comfortable in an environment and sport where aggression and violence is the order of the day.”

Words of wisdom from my friend Lucas, graphic artist and martial artist living in Hong Kong.

Sometimes we can get caught in our comfort zone. It’s easy to coast and put your dreams on the backburner. Fear of failure can prevent even the most confident of us from really trying to succeed. If you want to succeed and move on you have to throw yourself into your adventures.

I’m at the end of my contract, here in Memphis. My PI has asked me stay on for another year or so to finish up some projects; his current grant has funds until next May. But for me it’s time to move on. I knew when I moved here that I probably didn’t want a full time academic career. When I was a grad student I dreamed of having my own lab, but experience has shown me otherwise.

So, while I’ll hang around and tie up some loose ends and help the old man out, I’m really looking around at new opportunities. And just like buses, they certainly seem to all come at once.

Nature Neuroscience is advertising an editors postion and I’ve been recommended to apply by some senior faculty acquantances (and their ex-editor, but I won’t mention that…that would would be name dropping).

It would mean moving to New York though (on the assumption I get an interview and don’t totally duff it up). I’ve wanted to work for Nature for years, but now my girlfriend has moved down from Washington DC and has a great job here in Memphis… so do I make her move back north? Indeed, can I expect her to move again?

So what other opportunities are there?

Well, I think I’m a talented administrator and a good “people person”, so I’ve been looking for opportunities here at UT. I’d like to run our postdoc office (PDO) and do my best to improve the training experience, working conditions and daily life of postdocs. I’m quite surpised by the strength of feeling I have for this.

I’m chairman of our postdoc association (PhDA) and recently got to represent UT at the National Postdoc Association annual meeting in Boston. It was an inspirational conference and really finalised the lurking motivation I have to work on something like this full time. It’s a cause I believe in, you might say. So, to this end I have been talking to the current head of our PDO (our very overworked Associate Vice-Chancellor) about internship opportunities in the UT administration.

Last week I submitted a grant to the NPA for funds to help set up a research ethics training program for the postdocs (hence this post coming in on Sunday, not Friday). Hopefully this will be funded and will be a metaphorpical feather in my allegorical cap. It was a hell of a lot of work, but I refused assistance from my colleagues on the PhDA because I needed to see if I could do it and more importantly if I enjoyed doing it.

I loved it. I’ve got a great team of lawyers, faculty and even a management consultant lined up to teach. I prepared a course outline, planned the workshop, sourced other funding…

This could be a very interesting career move. It’s certainly dangerous, as most of us know. Walking away from the bench is usually a one way journey. I think I’ll miss experimental science a bit, but if I’m honest I won’t miss it that much. I’ve been doing this for ten years now, but I’m not a technical whizz kid. I don’t think the field of neuroscience will stagger to recover from my moving on from the lab!

But, if I really want to know then I have to throw myself into this. So, cross your fingers and wish me luck. One day soon I might be changing the information on my Profile Page…