It's The End of The Semester As We Know It

Wow.

Yesterday marked the end of my first semester as an academic.[*] Intense.

My mind still boggles at just how much we are expected to do. Undergraduate teaching, research, PhD supervision, obtaining grants, administration, public outreach. It sort of like holding down three jobs at once! Technically, my contract states that I work 35 hours per week. I'm certain that I was doing double that.

Many evenings, I came home to have dinner with cheshcat... then went right back to the office. (Out of hours working is often the most productive time, as there are no meetings, there is no teaching, there are no students knocking on the office door, and far fewer e-mails arrive.) At one point, I jokingly noted to cheshcat that if it weren't such an absurb idea, she should probably suspect me of having an affair!

That said, I really love the job! My department is a very friendly place to work, as is my research group. I get on with just about everybody -- other academics, students, the admin team, the cleaners. People know me and like me, and the feeling is mutual.

I just finished teaching the first half of my second year quantum mechanics course. After a brief introduction to the history and motivation for quantum mechanics, we covered the Schrödiner equation, the infinite potential well, and the finite potential well. We then moved on to operators and eignenfunctions, measurements in quantum mechanics, and quantum fluctuations. I wrapped up the semester with experimental tests of QM (especially the Stern-Gerlach experiment), the Dirac delta potential, and the Schrödiner equation in two and three dimensions. We are all ready to pick up in the Spring semester with simultanous measurements, and then move on to time-dependence.

I thought that my teaching has gone very well. To be honest, it plays nicely to my natural strengths. I'm told that the second year students normally hate quantum mechanics. This time, however, here is some of the feedback that I received via anonymous survey:

• I really enjoyed the course and can't wait for more quantum next semester!
  
• Overall, it has been a very clearly taught module, and you are a very accessible lecturer, if I ever had any questions.
  
• In general I loved the course and it is my favourite module overall this year! This is partially due to Matthew Malek just being absolutely awesome! I'm really excited to continue quantum next semester
  
• Quantum Mechanics is as superposition of a fun and not fun subject. I observed it as fun, and so it will always stay that way.

The last comment is a clever QM joke[**] that made me laugh. In fact, it was clever enough that I had to share it with my colleagues... who laughed, too. Nicely done!

Yes, definitely a very busy time, but also quite rewarding! I'm looking forward to a bit of a break now, yet also looking forward to the second half when Spring semester begins in February.

Off to the States tomorrow for seven weeks. Hope to see some of you whilst I am there!

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[*] I'll use the UK dialect, since I work in the UK higher education system. A brief translation to the US dialect: 'academic' = 'faculty'. Also, my job title 'lecturer' = 'tenure-track assistant professor' in US-speak.

(I know there are also positions called 'lecturer' in the United States but -- like 'pants', 'suspenders', and 'pavement' -- the word means something different there.)

[**] About the collapse of the wavefunction.