Hi,

I agree with Dawn that the level of stress varies. My job can be stressful if I need to quickly finish data analysis and prepare a talk for an upcoming conference, or if I am writing a grant proposal that needs to be completed by a certain date. Teaching a large lecture course on top of doing research can also be a little stressful, depending upon the number of students in the course, the difficulty of the subject matter, and whether or not you have taught that specific course before. When I was testing sounding rocket instruments, I often needed to come to work on the weekend to check on the vacuum chamber and traveled a lot during the payload integration. However, schedules for scientists are often very flexible, and you do not always need to be in a laboratory to do your job. At the moment, my job mainly involves working on computers - writing computer programs, analyzing data, running simulations, reading & writing papers, and writing proposals. Much of this work can be done from home on a laptop and using the Internet - which is an enormous help if you need to wait for a plumber!

Kris