Keith Bradnam 1/4/16 Keith Bradnam 1/4/16

My new job: Imaginatively Communicating Research

When I arrived at the UC Davis Genome Center in January 2005, I started a job as a postdoctoral researcher. Over time, I became an Assistant– and then an Associate Project Scientist. Throughout my 11 years at UC Davis, my primary focus was on research science: using bioinformatics approaches to investigate a variety of genomics projects.

However, my job titles became a poor reflection of what I actually ended up spending my most of my time doing. Increasingly I spent time managing & organising projects, training & mentoring people, and communicating about science. As I detailed in my exit seminar, there were many different hats that I ended up wearing:

Helping develop undergraduate and postgraduate courses
Mentoring students (including high-school students as part of the annual UC Davis Young Scholar Program)
Assisting with development of training workshops
Teaching at training workshops
Organising Assemblathons
Running the lab website
Organising departmental foosball tournaments!
Writing a book on Unix & Perl
Revamping, maintaining, and writing content for the Genome Center website
Setting up twitter accounts for the Assemblathon, Genome Center, and our Unix & Perl training
Revamping the websites of the UC Davis Bioinformatics Core Facility (note, this is still not quite live)

Science communication came to dominate my activities at UC Davis and I also realised that a) I really enjoy this (more than research science!) and b) it's something that I am good at. Away from work, I decided to write more about science on my ACGT blog (333 posts since June 2012), I helped create a web comic devoted to science outreach (The Take-Home Message), and I found some time to teach courses on using Twitter for a local non-profit.

We have known that we were going to leave Davis and return to the UK for quite a while and so I made the decision that it was time to make all of these secondary activities the primary focus of my new job. For the last few months I focused on looking for work in the fields of science outreach and communication. This also involved switching my computer's spell checker back to British English as 11 years is long enough to 'go native'.

So today I can (finally) reveal my new job which — at the time of writing — I will be starting in about one hour's time! My new role will see me become the Digital Strategy Manager for the Institute of Cancer Research. The ICR is one of the world's leading cancer research organisations and was ranked first in the Times Higher Education league table of university research quality.

The ICR has been driving forward cancer research for over 100 years. Aside from the varied research programs, the ICR trains several hundred PhD students, works with industry to develop new drugs, and — as a charitable organisation — has a variety of fund-raising programs and campaigns. This multifaceted nature is something that presents many challenges for how the ICR has to communicate their work to all of the different stakeholders. This challenge was one of the reasons why I was attracted to this role.

There's an irony that my wife has just left a cancer research institute in Davis and now I am starting work at one in London. I'm sure I'll have many questions for her in the coming weeks! I look forward to learning a new vocabulary of cancer related terminology, and will try my best to learn how to pronounce names like 'abiraterone'.

My new role puts my science research career behind me and formalises my new journey into the world of science communication. I look forward to helping bring you news about the great research, training, and other activities that occurs at the ICR. I plan to continue blogging about science in my free time, and will continue my 101 questions with a bioinformatician series on my ACGT blog. I imagine that the blog content will evolve somewhat and maybe I will find myself writing about the challenges (and rewards) of being a science communicator!

Keith Bradnam 1/3/16 Keith Bradnam 1/3/16

Goodbye Davis, Hello London!

It's been an incredibly hectic couple of months as we have made a big transition in our lives and have left Davis, California to return back to the UK to take up new jobs in London. For almost 11 years we have enjoyed our jobs at UC Davis and the reason we ended up staying so long was partly due to all of the great friends that we made there (the sunshine and opportunities for travel also helped).

Selling our home, our cars, and most of our worldly possessions was not exactly what I would call a relaxing way to end our time in America. Especially when this came on top of saying so many goodbyes to our Davis friends, finishing up our work-related projects, and making plans for everything else that needed to be done.

We just managed to finish everything before we headed to SFO for our flight home (many thanks to my friend, and former boss Ian Korf for driving us to the airport). Our last week in Davis was spent in a hotel living out of our suitcases and we will be living in somewhat of a spartan manner until the possessions that we didn't sell arrive via a container ship.

Arriving in London has also been a busy and frantic time. Arriving on Christmas Eve, our 2.5 year old took most of a week until he adjusted to his new time zone (on Christmas Day he woke up at 2:00 am and was very much awake for the next 7 hours). I'm glad that I've kept one active bank account in the UK…this has helped things somewhat. However, it turns out that it is hard to sort many things out unless you have a printed utility bill that confirms that you live at a specific address. In any case we have sorted out the essentials: internet, mobile phones, and a doctor (I think I have those in the right order).

We've visited the UK for most of the years we lived in Davis, but it is very different to be back here again as residents. We admittedly have become somewhat Americanised. Not just in our tendencies to use American words, phrases, and spellings…but also in our perception of various things. Just as everything in America seemed so much BIGGER when we first moved there, now everything in the UK seems so much smaller. Washing machines — to pick one example — seem impossibly tiny and toy-like.

A few other thoughts on life in the UK after 11 years away:

Byron Burger restaurants seem to be everywhere (at least in London)
Supermarkets here have a pitiful selection of peanut butter…
…but they have sausage rolls, biscuits, and crisps, not to mention many more items that we have missed
British beer and pubs are wonderful
Tea consumption has been greatly increased, coffee consumption has been greatly reduced
Supermarkets don't open for 24 hours a day, 364.5 days of the year (USA grocery stores sometimes take half a day off for Thanksgiving)
Sunday trading hours seem particularly strange
Davis is a lot smaller than London…I am walking a lot more!
Lots of high street shops here now offer WiFi for their customers…this seems odd
There is a lot more choice in certain sectors compared to California/USA, e.g. energy and mobile phone providers
Brown sauce! Only in the UK would we name a condiment based on its colour.
I have missed buildings made out of stone!
I have missed really old buildings!
No refill on sodas…this just seems so wrong now.
I like the ease of using Oyster cards to get around everywhere in London
London Underground stations are not very buggy/pram friendly
Property prices in London seem crazy (rents listed by the week rather than month)
The EU law about websites notifying you about cookies gets tedious really quickly
Prices in shops reflect the actual price you will pay…no city + state sales taxes to be added on
Chip and PIN everywhere seems so unusual when you are used to signing for things (with no-one ever checking your signature)
It seems so wrong that I have to wait until the evening to listen to the Archers!

I start my new job tomorrow…more on that in another post!

Keith Bradnam 11/20/15 Keith Bradnam 11/20/15

Slides and video from my exit seminar [Link]

Over on my ACGT blog, I've included slides and videos from my exit seminar today at UC Davis. I enjoyed the opportunity to say goodbye in an informal and (hopefully) entertaining presentation.

Keith Bradnam 11/13/15 Keith Bradnam 11/13/15

Keith Bradnam is leaving the building: come to my informal 'exit seminar' on 20th November

The UC Davis Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility, home to the Genome Center.

Next week is my last week at the UC Davis Genome Center. After almost 11 years, I will be saying goodbye as our family makes plans to return to the UK at the end of December. I will be giving a highly informal, and hopefully entertaining, exit seminar…the title is as follows:

Assemblathon to Zykovich: an A-Z that reflects a decade at the UC Davis Genome Center

All are welcome. There will be cakes!

Friday 20th November, 10:00 am in the GBSF auditorium (room 1005)

Keith Bradnam 10/30/15 Keith Bradnam 10/30/15

Announcing a new Presidential-themed age metric: the POTUS Number Number (PNN)

This week I turned 44. It struck me that this number is the same as the total number of American presidents, and this got me thinking about a few things:

How many people have ever celebrated a birthday where their age matches the current POTUS number?
What is the maximum number of times that someone has been able to match their age with the POTUS number?
Has there ever been a sitting president who matched their POTUS number in this way?

I will define this metric — the number of times that your age matches the number of the current president as the POTUS Number Number (PNN). Here are some observations about PNNs that try to answer the above questions:

PNN = 1

The first people to ever achieve a PNN of 1 would have been those who turned 1 year old at any time beween April 30th, 1789 and March 4, 1797.

PNN = 2

People who turned one year old at any point in the last year of George Washington's presidency would — assuming they continued to live — have then been two years old during some stage of the presidency of POTUS #2. These people would therefore be the first to experience matching their POTUS number twice, i.e. gaining a PNN of 2. More generally, anyone who celebrates gaining their first PNN point in the last year of a presidency, has a good chance of gaining a second PNN point. For example, barring any bizarre gardening accidents, I will be 45 when POTUS #45 takes office on January 20, 2017. This will increment my PNN from 1 to 2.

Inaugurations: a bonus day for PNN seekers

Presidential inaugurations mark the handover of power between two presidents on a single day. Over the course of history, presidential inaugurations have happened on five different calendar dates. Before the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution, inaugurations mostly took place on March 4, but since then they mostly take place on January 20. Some exceptions have been when the inauguration would fall on a Sunday, in which case it is pushed back one day.

This means, that March 4 and January 20 have probably been the days on which the most PNN points have been awarded. For example, the 2009 inauguration (on January 20) meant that that people who were turning 43 or 44 on that day could both gain a PNN point.

PNN > 2?

For a chance of advancing beyond a PNN of 2, someone would need a sitting president to serve a shorter than usual term. The president in question would also have to depart office within a year of assuming the presidency.

POTUS #9 died in office after just one month. This means that someone who turned 8 years old between March 4 and April 4, 1840 (PNN = 1) would have turned 9 during POTUS #9's ill-fated tenure in 1841 (PNN = 2), and would then have turned 10 while POTUS #10 was still in office (PNN = 3).

POTUS #20 is the only other president to serve for less than a year, and as he passed away in 1881, it means that there is no-one alive today who can still be a member of the very exclusive 'PNN = 3' club.

FDR: the scourge of PNN 2 seekers

Since the passing of the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution, presidents can only serve two terms in office, limiting a president to four or eight years in office (the latter occurring when a president seeks, and secures, re-election).

This amendment was introduced after the death of POTUS #32 who served as president for over 12 years. As you have the best chance of securing a 2nd PNN point if you achieve your first PNN point in the penultimate year of a presidency, FDR's long rule meant that it decreased the options for 32 year olds seeking an additional PNN point.

POTUS PNN?

Now we can turn to the important question of whether any sitting president ever achieved a PNN. As we are currently at POTUS #44, you might think this would be unlikely…and you would be correct. There have only been two presidents who took office when they were younger than 44. POTUS #26 was 42 and POTUS #35 was 43.

The closest we have come to this situation is with the current POTUS (#44), who was 47 when he took office, giving us a PNN differential of 3. POTUS #42 was the next closest with a PNN differential of 4 (he took office at the age of 46).

However, as the POTUS number continues to increase, we will surely see a sitting president gain a PNN in the near future. It could happen as soon as 2017 as there are three candidates seeking to secure the Republican Party nomination who are all aged 44 (Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Bobby Jindal). However, Ted Cruz will be 45 on December 22, 2015; this means that — should he be elected President — he will miss the chance of gaining a POTUS PNN by just under a month. Given Bobby Jindal's recent polling numbers, only Marco Rubio has any sort of realistic chance of becoming POTUS #45 at age 45 (with the added benefit of joining the PNN=2 club).

No end to PNNs?

Obviously there were no PNNs to be gained before America elected their first president. This made me wonder whether one day the POTUS number will get so high that no-one will be able to gain any new PNN points, i.e. when POTUS number > average life expectancy.

The average term of office since the inauguration of POTUS #34 in 1953 is about 6 years. So we can forecast that by the year 2100, we may see the election of POTUS #59 (assuming that term limits do not change and that America, and its presidential system of government, endures).

Life expectancy will surely increase over that period as well. The average American born today has a life expectancy of about 79 years. This is just a little higher than the age of POTUS #40 when he became the oldest president to leave office at the age of 77. The UN's World Population Prospects report predicts that by 2100, average life expectancy of Americans might rise to about 88 or 91 (male and female respectively).

Based on these numbers it seens that there will be plenty of PNNs to be gained in the foreseeable future. My two-year old son may have to wait until the year 2064 or so though before he can gain his first PNN, when POTUS #53 will be in office.

Keith Bradnam 9/15/15 Keith Bradnam 9/15/15

That's no moon…but it is one of my favorite places to visit in Davis

Some may know it as the UC Davis Social Sciences and Humanities Building, but for me it will always be the Death Star. It's an amazing building…well technically it is a collection of many interconncted buildings, all packed with awkward, imposing angles. It is very easy to get lost in the innards and courtyards of this building, and this (intentional) design feature is part of the charm.

No two corners (or windows) appear to be the same and there are many steps that lead you to dark nooks and crannies. Perfect spots for plotting the destruction of those Rebel scum.

If you have never visited the Death Star, then you should give yourself to the Dark Side (at least once!). Here are some black and white photos that depict the Death Star in all of its raw and powerful beauty.

Click on the pictures to enlarge…