As of March 2015, I am halfway through my first year at UNL. This month opened with a trip to Iowa State University in Ames. I gave an invited seminar entitled “Quantitative Genetics in the Functional Genomics era” covering topics ranging from functional characterization of whole-genome regression to MeSH enrichment analysis. The main thrust of my talk was to highlight that this is opportune time to conduct quantitative genetic analysis of omic data. I wish I had more time to mingle with the Animal Breeding and Genetics group. My tight schedule did not allow enough time following the talk; however, overall I had a pleasant and productive time in Ames.
I have been learning a lot about funding opportunities and grantmanship along the way. I am pleased to announce that my Layman proposal has been funded from the Layman Fund held at the University of Nebraska Foundation. A one-month long effort on writing the internal grant proposal has converged to my first funding stream. The process of writing the grant proposal reminded me of the struggle I had with composing a non-research paper a few months ago. Without helpful support from my colleagues, I would not be able to share the good news on this monthly report. The project start date is June 1, 2015 and it continues until May 31, 2016. I intend to use this funding as a stepping stone to secure external fundings.
I am at the point in the writing of a guide to quantitative genetics papers. I have jotted down a few things regarding the The Origin of BLUP and MME during the spring break. Stay tuned for more posts.
Lastly, I had my first faculty annual evaluation meeting with our department chair. This evaluation was based on my performance between August and December 2014. This was a great opportunity for me to ask a couple of questions that I had in mind. The chair kindly expressed his willingness to support me in a wide range of issues.