Good bye New Orleans

I’ve have known that this deal was in the works for several months, but it now appears to be coming to fruition. At the end of the year the lab will be moving to the University of Colorado. A few months ago, one of the preeminent Pseudomonas researchers in the country asked my PI to apply for a position opening. My PI once described this scientist as being his personal hero in the field, so of course he obliged. None of us, including my PI, thought that they would make him an offer, being that they already had one of the top minds in the field in their department. No doubt they would like him, but surely they would decide to go a different direction. First interview, second interview, third interview…What do you mean Tulane did not counter?… Now they counter?… Wait, they call that a counter? Bam. William is now collecting card board boxes to pack his things. I can’t complain. Colorado made him a really good offer and the facilities are top-notch (NMR, Mass Spec. BioCore, Spinning disc confocal microscopes, EM… the list goes on, and that is just in our building.) I have been instructed not to say anything negative about the current state of our facilities at Tulane… so I will just say that I am positive my PI would have taken this offer even before the hurricane.

How does this affect William? I am taking the qualifiers this summer (delayed due to the transfer from Cornell and hurricane Katrina) and that means that I will get my PhD from Tulane regardless of the move. The move also means a lot of down time. Tack on at least three months to that mysterious date known as graduation (Actually, that would be my dissertation defense. Graduation will just be a ceremony that takes place some time after I receive the degree).

I’ve been in this city a long time. After 4 years at Xavier and the two years I’ve been at Tulane, it really did feel like a second home. DID. This city is not the same and I am not convinced that it ever will be. 2/3 of the city looks like it did the first time I returned after the hurricane. The boats and abandoned cars haven’t even been moved out of the medians (we call them neutral grounds in New Orleans). Every single person I knew from undergrad has left the city. Phone, cable, internet? It may work, it may not. Restaurants? good luck finding one open. Grocery store? Good luck finding more than a fruit roll-up. Rent? It went up? Hole in the roof? Still there… blah, blah, blah. And I am in better shape than most. Still, I think it is time to leave.

The new lab will be in Aurora, just outside of Denver, on a former Army base (Fitzsimmons, named after the first American casualty of WWI). It was closed during the last round of BRAC in 1995 and then was brought by the University of Colorado. We will have more space in the new lab and it will be in a brand new $500 million dollar building. The university is the midst moving the medical school and research from the down town campus to the Fitzsimmons campus in Aurora. In total they plan to spend $1.5 billion over the next 5 years. Our current plans are to move during November or December of this year. The two post-docs plan to stay. The MD/PhD student who was going to join the lab this summer, is no longer joining and the other student is undecided.

In other news, we just got our official Tulane Hurricane evacuation plan today, which includes full evacuation of the facilities 48hrs before a Cat1 makes landfall in the gulf. I think it is safe to assume that if New Orleans receives a major hit this season, we will pack everything up and move immediately.