I’d like to point out another NMR blogger to all my readers out there.
Glenn Facey, Facility Manager from the University of Ottawa has created a blog specifically for his NMR users. While he is doing this to provide a resource to the University’s students, I think there are some nice tips and tricks in there specifically for NMR data acquisition and processing. There are a couple of irrelevant housekeeping posts for those not attending the university, but other than that it is a very useful resource for beginner NMR users and students at other academic institutions.
Check it out here:
http://www.u-of-o-nmr-facility.blogspot.com/
I should point out that Glenn’s work is an EXCELLENT application of blogging. I think that all instrument facility managers at academic institutions should have a blog. While we are at it, the same can be said for industry (blogs can be internal as well). It’s a great place to talk about instrument maintenance and downtime (avoid the 2-3 emails a week you get from the facility manager) but more importantly to offer the NMR users tips and tricks over time. Students generally only get one in-depth training session with their NMR spectroscopist a blog offers the ability to provide students with a running commentary from the NMR expert. Contrary to popular belief, students probably aren’t going to read the instruction manual and while spectroscopists put some work in creating a cheat sheet for them, these generally get lost in the bottomless pile of data that graduate students are collecting. You leave one in the instrument room as a resource? Go check, I bet it isn’t there anymore :).
Here’s another NMR Facility Blog run by Tim Burrows at the University of Toronto:
http://www.chem.utoronto.ca/facilities/nmr/NMRBlog/
There’s no reason NOT to do this. It’s dead easy. If you can email, you can blog.
Glenn has provided a nice standard to build upon:
P.S. Glenn actually taught our very own application scientist, Arvin Moser, everything he knows 😉
If you are a facility manager for an academic institution and you blog. Please let me know, I will be sure to mention you on here at some point. I think you can provide a great resource for not only your students, but the entire academic community!