Career Opportunities for Me?

Abstract

Each year, usually in early October, a few of us in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State University organize a meeting of what we call the “Rocky Mountain Virology Club.” The intent of this meeting is to bring together graduate students and faculty, simply to get together on an informal basis, present 10-minute summaries of our current work, and have one or many more beers and some pretzels. The meeting is held at Colorado State University’s mountain campus, which is in a beautiful place, with moose, bear, deer, rodents of all sorts, wild flowers, trees, and plenty of food. The weather usually is beautiful at that time of year and the aspen trees are turning a golden shade. Couldn’t be better. We arrive on a Friday afternoon and leave by Sunday noon, having had enough socializing by then. Besides, fall is football season here and there are games to be watched. This meeting has become so popular that we have had to limit the number of attendees, who come from university microbiology departments and federal laboratories from throughout this area of the western United States. Sometimes we are honored to have as additional entertainment a musician (we can always find a microbiologist who plays piano, violin, or other instrument) and the beer makes it all the better. If anyone wears a necktie, we carry them into the woods, in the dark, and leave them there.