St. George and the two body problem

So this is a post I wrote just before going out of town so that I could upload it in case of limited internet access. However, looking it over, there really isn't anything I feel should be changed and it's what's going on in my life right now. So having figured out the issue with blogger dating posts, this should come up as being posted today instead of yet another Wednesday post.

Most folks don't realize that something like 90% of all female PhDs chose people with PhDs as their life partners. This number is much lower for male PhDs (this implies that there must be many more male PhDs than I ever met but the pattern does seem to hold true based on my own experience). This makes finding tenure-track positions that much harder because you have to find two in the same geographic area when finding one can often be difficult enough. To some extent I'm fortunate as Marius has no interest in a position that requires research. While those jobs are not necessarily any easier to come by, it is much easier to find a position that requires research and a position that doesn't in the same town compared to trying to find two research positions.

Last weekend Marius and I made a frantic drive out to southern Utah so that he would be on time for a job interview he had out there at Dixie State College (yes, that's really their name and no, they don't think it's funny -the area used to grow cotton, badly which is why they don't any more but they kept the name).

I was completely freaked out to be honest. I have heard stories about how Utah Mormons can be a rather exclusive group out of fear that their children might grow up to marry non-Mormons. When I posted to some of my list groups about it, I heard more of the same. We have no problems with Mormons but we don't enjoy the thought of being ostracized from the community we live in because of our faith (or lack thereof). Of course the whole reason he applied for the job is because St. George (where Dixie State is located) is less than an hour from Zion and Bryce.

He rocked his interview and I fully expect him to get a phone call on November 10th with a job offer. Fortunately he also asked the hr guy he had to interact with some pointed questions about the community and got really great reassuring answers. In addition, the pay isn't bad, the benefits are unusually excellent and the cost of living is much lower than any place we've ever lived. Plus, they will happily offer me a job the next time they get funding for one.

BUT (and you knew that was coming didn't you?) they have no money to facilitate research. I don't need much since my research is funded externally but I do need a greenhouse and grants don't generally cover construction of buildings.

Ugh. So if I went out there I'd have to give up my research program. I don't talk about it much here on the blog but I derive a great deal of satisfaction from my research and feel that I am making a significant contribution to the field of plant ecology every time I design a new experiment. Most plant ecologists don't consider the fact that plants can interact directly with each other (i.e. plants communicate with each other using chemicals instead of sounds) and so there are big gaps in our understanding of plants that I am working to fill. There are only two other people remotely interested in the topic in the U.S. and three labs working on the topic outside of this country. To give it all up would create some hard core regrets sadly.

So, if Marius is offered the job, we've agreed he can accept it (assuming they pay him enough and all that) and I can spend the next 18 months looking for a job that will allow me to continue with my research. If I get one and there are opportunities for Marius to teach in the same area, we will both move out to where ever the new job is. If I don't get one in the next 18 months, I will have tried my best and I will move out to St. George and teach. This isn't giving up lightly. If I don't get a job that I want in the next 18 months, it's unlikely that I ever will. And it isn't that I dislike teaching, I love it. I just also love my research. Even if I ultimately move out to Utah, it isn't all bad. It's hard to complain when the view outside of your windows looks like this:

and there are five-ten state and national parks within a 30 minute drive. Yes, there are much worse things in life.