Many young scientist are interested in knowing their progress in their careers. By use of statistical methods researchers made it possible to have an idea on the future success of the scientists.  Research was based on 3085 neuroscientists. This study revealed that the future h-index or success in science can be predicted by a statistical method based on the h-index of the scientist and common CV features.

"The typical research CV contains information on the number of publications, those in high-profile journals, the h-index and collaborators. One can also infer interdisciplinary breadth, the length and quality of training, the amount of funding received and even the standing of the scientist's PhD adviser. Such factors are taken into account for hiring decisions, but how should they be weighted? Fortunately, obtaining data on the scientific activities of individual researchers has never been easier. Using all of these features, we can begin to probe the scientific enterprise statistically." Acuna, D. E., Allesina, S. & Kording, K. P. Future impact: Predicting scientific success. Nature 489, 201–202 (2012).

The work was published in Nature and the data sources were Scopus and Academictree. To estimate your future success follow the link!

It is also interesting to mention one of the articles cited in the above work, in the article a sentence highlights the importance of the h-index:

"Based on typical h and m values found, I suggest (with large error bars) that for faculty at major research universities, h ≈ 12 might be a typical value for advancement to tenure (associate professor) and that h ≈ 18 might be a typical value for advancement to full professor. " Hirsch, J. E. An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. PNAS 102, 16569–16572 (2005).

For more information on the statistical study follow the links below:
http://tr.scribd.com/doc/109612801/Predicting-scientific-success
http://klab.smpp.northwestern.edu/wiki/index.php5/Media

I am really curious about the simple techniques that are  reproducible and that can make life easier. Transparent conductive oxide coatings, especially ITO (indium tin oxide), are being used in many application areas such as solar cells, electrochromic windows and display devices. A grand majority requires micron sized patterned electrodes. Since I am working on a project that needs ITO electrodes in the micron range we applied for a Canadian Microelectronics Corporation Microsystems Micro-Nano Technology (CMC-MNT) financial assistance and got a good amount of support for the developement of a procedure by wet chemical etching. I prefered wet chemical etching instead of reactive ion etching because of the simplicity of the technique and the availability of the materials in every chemistry laboratory.

Lucikly, after making some litearture review on the subject I found some information on the etching process. Most results were not comparable although they claim to use the same etchants, but this is not very surprising to me because the deposition technique and the post-treatment processes of diferent ITO manufacturers are not the same. We will be publisihing the results as a part of a bigger project on electrolyte gating very soon.