Biological Anthropology at the AAA meeting!

I can't believe it's nearly time to head to the 2012 AAA meeting in San Francisco! The Biological Anthropology Section of AAA is organizing many sessions and activities at the meeting, including a few of particular interest to me: 

BIOCULTURAL INSIGHTS INTO LIFE HISTORY AND HUMAN SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Chair: Michaela Howells

CROSSING SAFELY INTO TODDLERHOOD: AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON RISKS TO INFANT CARE
Chair: Sera Young

BRAINS IN THE WILD: THE CHALLENGES OF NEUROANTHROPOLOGY

Chair: Greg Downey

2012 W.W. HOWELLS BOOK AWARD: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, "Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding"

2012 BAS DISTINGUISHED LECTURE: Darna Dufour, "Anthropological Perspectives on Nutrition Transitions"  

Other sessions of interest to bio-folks include the following (can you tell which ones I'm super excited about and have you noticed the suspicious Marksist pattern?):

EVOLUTIONARY UNDERSTANDINGS OF CULTURAL PRACTICES
Thursday, November 15, 2012: 10:15 AM-12:00 PM
Chair:  Douglas M Jones

EVOLUTIONARY INSIGHTS INTO CHILDHOOD, PARENTING, AND COOPERATION
Thursday, November 15, 2012: 1:45 PM-3:30 PM
Organizer & Chair:  Lee Cronk

****BORDERING ON FACT: WHEN ANTHROPOLOGISTS HAVE TO TAKE SCIENCE TO TASK**** 
Thursday, November 15, 2012: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM
Organizers:  Clare L Boulanger; Chairs:  Chelsea Blackmore
Jonathan M Marks (University of North Carolina-Charlotte)
CURRENT ISSUES IN BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
Thursday, November 15, 2012: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM
Chair:  Kristin Snopkowski

****INTEGRATING OUR SCIENCES:  CROSSING THE BORDERS OF THE DISCIPLINES****
Friday, November 16, 2012: 1:45 PM-3:30 PM
Organizers:  Alice B Kehoe; Chairs:  Leslea Hlusko
Participants:  Jonathan M Marks, Montgomery Slatkin, Carole L Crumley, Rasmus Nielsen, and John H Moore

A SUM GREATER THAN ITS PARTS: MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON LATER HUMAN EVOLUTION
Saturday, November 17, 2012: 1:45 PM-5:30 PM
Organizers & Chairs:  Jamie L Clark and Adam P Van Arsdale;
Discussants:  Milford H Wolpoff and Julien Riel-Salvatore

CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY AND ANTHROPOLOGY: CROSSING MULTIPLE BORDERS AND SCALES
Saturday, November 17, 2012: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM
Organizers:  Shirley J Fiske; Chairs: Carole L Crumley and Shirley J Fiske

CURRENT THEMES IN EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY: DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION, COOPERATION, AND CULTURAL TRANSMISSION
Saturday, November 17, 2012: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM
Organizers:  Eric A Smith; Chairs:  Adam H Boyette

NIH Paylines

What's a payline, you ask? At NIH, your grant is ranked as a percentile (based on what is known as the priority score which I won't discuss in this post but you can wonk out here). What is considered a good percentile may deviate from a FUNDABLE percentile, and at the individual institute level there's a great deal of variation. However, generally speaking a good percentile these days is around a 10 (i.e. 10th percentile, meaning your proposal is in the top 10 percent of all grants reviewed by that study section that cycle. Bask in its awesomeness.) You should feel good about that score. However, it's the payline that determines whether you get funded, and this keeps dropping. In some institutes, the payline is set at the 6th percentile so even though you might have a super-awesome score, you are not going to hit the NIH jackpot this time around.

Or maybe you will: my R03 placed in the 10th percentile on first submission and we were told by many folks in the know to be cautiously optimistic. And we were until they set the payline that year at the *9th* percentile. I'm not even kidding. So imagine our delight and relief when several months later we learned that the payline had been reset to the 13th percentile and we were in! That's not very common, but it can happen, and sometimes you can speak to your program officer about the likelihood of this (after you receive your score and do some homework on recent paylines.)

This site compiles recent data on percentiles and paylines across the institutes. Most institutes have reported their Fiscal Year 2012 funding strategies and paylines, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has already reported its FY13 payline (6th percentile! eeeek). For you early career people, there is a teensy weensy silver lining, and that is you are scored more generously than more established researchers (e.g. already a PI on an NIH grant) so you might get funded at a slightly higher percentile. For example, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) set its regular 2012 payline at the 10th percentile and at the 13th for New and Early Stage Investigators, a potentially game-changing differential. (Do you qualify?) Typically, you need to be within 10 years of your terminal degree and not have been a PI on an R01 (R03s and R21s are fine). So if you've been contemplating developing an R01, keep an eye on the clock so that you don't lose those extra points.

AAPA Professional Development Awards!

Since 2009 the American Association of Physical Anthropologists has been recognizing early career researchers with a small but mighty professional development grant ($5000). I received one of these in 2010 which launched a project for which I otherwise had no funding, leading to one publication and several conference presentations so far. The 2013 competition was announced in the call-for-papers for the Knoxville meeting.

• Applicants must have completed the Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree in physical anthropology or an allied discipline. 
• Applicants must be conducting applied or academic research that is within the disciplinary boundaries of physical anthropology. 
• Applicants must be junior faculty members (including postdoctoral scholars, lecturers, and assistant professors) and must be non-tenured at the time of the award.

Membership in the AAPA is NOT a requirement. An applicant may receive only one Professional Development Grant during their career. The program is directed toward the career progress of individuals, therefore co-authored/multi-authored applications will not be considered. Completed applications must be received on or before January 15, 2013 (This person's birthday!).

Job wiki: like Crackbook but more demoralizing

I assume most of you on the job market already know about the Physical Anthropology Job Wiki, no? It's a place where OCD is stoked into a frenzy, hope goes to die, and envy reigns supreme. In other words, it is AWESOME.

I am posting this not only for the job seekers but also for senior faculty and search committees. You need to know how the process is perceived, and perhaps offer your (anonymous) insight to calm down the people who are freaking out. The vague job descriptions, maddening online application systems, the bazillion documents all saying sort of the same thing but not quite, the mystery of the name of the person "to whom it may concern" - all these things freak people out and they give vent to it in the Wiki (and perhaps more constructively here and here).  And perhaps most nerve-wracking of all, consider how it makes job seekers feel to never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever hear from you. Especially if they were invited for an interview. Because shockingly often, it does come to pass that some lucky applicant makes it to the short list and pours their heart and soul, and countless cups of coffee, into prepping their talk and their answers to whatever questions you might ask them - and then NEVER HEARS ANOTHER WORD (except on the Wiki where they learn someone else got the job). Maybe the interview went well, maybe it sucked, but in either case, it's been an enormous investment and a little thank you for showing up helps soften the blow of not getting the job. The lesson for search committees is that news travels ever faster in this hyper-connected world which has some impact on shaping new cultural norms of engagement.

Loan Repayment from NIH

I've written about this before, but it bears constant repeating that you can get the NIH to repay up to $70,000 in student loans. How? By doing research that fits within the following categories:

Pediatric Research
Health Disparities Research
Contraception and Infertility Research

As a graduate of a state school that offered me little in the way of funding (the long term consequences of which I was too naive to consider when I started my graduate studies), I owe a LOT of money. But lucky for me as a comparative primatologist who is interested in pregnancy and developmental programming, I can make a case for one of these awards. This time around I will be drawing on my research on the developmental origins of pregnancy loss in adult female marmosets to apply for funds from the Contraception and Infertility Research division. These are competitive awards but the relatively good news is that funding rates are decent, hovering around 35%.

Applications are due November 15. Get cracking.

Job at University of Alaska Fairbanks

The University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Anthropology Department invites applications for a tenure track biological anthropologist at the Assistant or Associate Professor level to begin August 2013. Research and geographic areas open, but should complement current faculty. Specializations in human biology or biomedical anthropology are a plus, as is research with applications to the circumpolar North. Candidates should have a record of external funding, be able to teach established courses in biological anthropology (including quantitative methods), and show evidence of research mentorship at the undergraduate and graduate levels.  Ph.D. must be in hand at the time of application.

 The responsibilities of this position support the University of Alaska Fairbanks' tripartite mission of teaching, research and service. Teaching responsibilities include undergraduate and graduate courses in the successful candidate's area of expertise; maintenance of an active research program leading to refereed publications; and university and community service. Our department is a four-field department, supporting BA, BS, MA, and PhD programs in Anthropology; teaching responsibilities include 2 courses per semester and graduate and undergraduate supervision and advising. 

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is the flagship campus and principal research center of the University of Alaska System, and is the nation's northernmost Land, Sea, and Space Grant institution, with over 1,000 teaching and research faculty serving over 11,000 students. UAF has a Carnegie classification of RU/H, and is an international hub for northern research. Fairbanks is the state's second largest city with over 90,000 residents in the greater Fairbanks area. In addition to offering unparalleled opportunities for outdoor recreation, Fairbanks is home to a lively arts and culture scene.

 View a detailed job description and apply on-line at www.uakjobs.com. Position closes December 1, 2012. Posting #0065167. The direct link to the job posting is: www.uakjobs.com/applicants/Central?quickFind=78845. Questions regarding this specific position may be directed to Dr. Ben A. Potter, search committee chair, bapotter@alaska.edu.

 The University of Alaska is an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer and educational institution.