First day in Denver! I was glad enough to meet a friend from Pomona (everyone say hello to Tom) on the plane as we buddy-system-ed our way to the convention center. In my raid of the conference tables, I was able to procure both a ThorLabs hat and my APS Mallard!
Throughout the rest of the conference, I gained something of an ability to gain a sense of how to sniff out the culture of a lab through small interactions with various people at a conference. Something that rubbed me the wrong way was when a PI was “unable to make it” and rather sent their Postdoc to do the presentation for them, while I knew in reality, by knowing people in his lab, that the PI just didn’t get enough results to warrant him traveling the 40 minutes from Boulder. Given such, I was truly amazed by some of the professionals I was able to talk to in the positive work culture they seemed to cultivate in their lab.
I gave my poster on Thursday, and I was bestowed by the physics gods with a spot on the edge of the row, meaning I was able to showcase my research to a ton of passerbys, decently holding my own in the process.
Additionally, after I presented on Thursday, I was able to visit my friend who is working at CU Boulder, and went on a hike in the Flatirons that was truly incredible.
Overall it was a great experience being at the conference!