王 应 宽 2009-10-20 UTC-6 CST UMN, St Paul 本人在 UMN 发起组织的一次 Retreat 活动 我原本打算组织两次活动,一次是给研究组的同志们做一次关于科技论文写作与发表方面的讲座交流,另外组织一次联欢活动。因为有几位同志很快结束访学计划回国,当然也包括俺自己,加之大家整天搞试验做研究很累的,也希望借此活动让大家放松身心,畅叙友情。联欢活动的主要内容是邀请大家一起聚聚,我联系了华夏中心的场所(原本租用场地和设备每小时 25 刀,但因本人是那里的志愿者和常客,负责人认为我是他们的好朋友就免费借给我了,看来美国人也讲关系 J ! ),可以唱卡拉 OK ,可以打乒乓球,爱打扑克的也没问题,但就是三四十人的团队吃饭问题我个人不好解决。关于搞写作交流,一是缘于最近与大家合作撰写论文过程中感觉很有必要进行一些交流探讨;同时,与大家一直都相处得很好,他们对我也很关照,自己十多年来积累的关于科技论文写作、评审、编辑和发表方面的经验,如果不能与大家分享,不能为他们多出文章和多出好文章做点其力所能及的工作,感觉对不住朋友们。因而发起组织这次活动也是希望表达我感恩的心! 给老板 Roger 汇报后,立即得到欢迎和支持,时间就确定在2009年10月23日下午。因为美国对科研经费的管理很严格,不能公款吃喝是肯定的。为了解决吃饭问题,老板建议把两个活动合并在一起,搞成一个 Retreat 活动,上半程在系里讲座报告,下半程转移到华夏中心讨论交流(因为给官方报告的活动安排,不能出现 K 歌、打球、打牌等活动,即使打算边交流边搞点这些副业!)。其实,我对 Retreat 这个词理解的不是很好。美国佬们经常组织 Retreat 活动,我也参加过几次,大致内容就是一帮人结伴到野外如公园、湖边、风景名胜去消夏避暑、野餐、走进大自然休闲度假等,也可能有些游艺活动、教会活动等。一年一般可以组织多次,典型的就是 Summer Retreat , Autumn Retreat 和 Winter Retreat 。夏秋时节外出野餐活动尚可,冬天那么冷的,还出去 Retreat ,太冷!按照我的理解, Retreat 就是撤退, Winter Retreat 就是尽快从冰天雪地里撤退回房间了御寒取暖! 计划已经得到系里批准,我们正在积极筹备这次活动。期待周五的活动精彩和 Party 快乐尽兴! Preliminary Agenda(Oct. 23, 2009) 3:00 3:15pm: Opening remark, Roger Ruan 3:15 4:15pm: How to Write and Publish Effective Research Papers, Dr. Wang Yingkuan, Visiting Scholar, Editors of Several Intl Scholarly Journals 4:15 5:00pm: Conducting critical review of technical manuscripts, Dr. Paul Chen 5:00 6:30pm: Dinner 6:30 9:30pm: Discussion, moderated by Roger Ruan We will start the retreat in Room 225, and move to Hospitality Center for Chinese, 1407 Cleveland Ave. N., St. Paul, MN 55108 after the presentations.
Every year our group will go to a small town named Oberwiesenthal in the south Germany for a group holiday. It is a yearly opportunity for people to chat with each other and give informal talks about their own research. It is also the time to have fun: going ski, hanging around in the bar, hiking in the mountains etc. Science is not necessary to be dull and researchers do not necessarily live a dull life. Instead, it can be full of interesting stuff. You can find people reading physics book on the bus trip. people are thinking during the seminar. people are explain why bees can fly and how the fruit fly's wing can grow. People are chatting in the bar. People are playing table tennis called Chinese game, which I have never played before as a Chinese. Here you can have a glimpse what some young researchers' holiday could be. :-) or address: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/t3TUVQivD08/