Today I made a Shackleton-expedition-worthy trek to the U of S dairy barn on campus for a field trip with the Environmental Public Health class. Simultaneously, the U of S media relations office made a public announcement and press release about my Canada Research Chair in Ergonomics and Musculoskeletal Health.  It’s official!  The gang in Ottawa made their own set of announcements here and here.
By the time I got back to my office, there were 3 phone messages and 4 emails worth of media requests.  I never expected farm ergonomics would seem so interesting to folks, but in Saskatchewan interest in agriculture is VERY high.  I did a Friday afternoon radio interview that will be aired on the Agri-program on Wednesday, and scheduled two television interviews on Monday morning: one in studio downtown (I guess the Saskatoon equivalent of Kathie-Lee and Hoda will be there?), and one on campus in the dairy barn (the cows all know me now).  I have responded to email requests form the print media folks but have not spoken to them yet.  Hopefully I can get a hold of the end results and link them here.
There is always a mortifying aspect to seeing oneself quoted saying something not QUITE right or looking goofy on TV, but overall it is a small price to pay. Â Canadian taxpayers have invested quite a lot of money in this research, so they deserve to hear about it, goofiness and all. Â Also, I’m sure the attention will be pretty short-lived so I won’t have a chance for the novelty to wear off and get blase about it. Â 😉
Congrats!!! And well deserved.