Leaving the Lab

All good things must end, and that includes everyone's time in the Eddy lab. To help make sure that all your work is preserved after you leave, and to help keep us out of trouble with Harvard and our funding agencies, please follow the following checklist as you get ready to leave:

  1. Copy any relevant data/code/results from your RC home directory, laptop, or other computing devices into your directory under /n/eddy_lab/users.

  2. Work with your mentor/supervisor to determine what of your work/data needs to stay accessible after you leave and copy/transfer that data somewhere group-accessible, such as /n/eddy_lab/data.

  3. If you have a lab laptop or other computing device, back it up to an external hard disk.

  4. The last thing you should do on the research computing machines is to cd to /n/eddy_lab/users and run /n/eddy_lab/software/prep_for_archive.py . This will go through your home directory and mark everything in it accessible to the entire lab. It will then move your home directory under /n/eddy_lab/Lab and create a tarfile of your data there. Doing this will make it easy for us to archive your data to tape so that it costs less to maintain but is still accessible if we need it.

  5. Return any lab "loaner" laptops to Nick. Turn in lab-owned computing equipment, including any backup disks, to Ariane or her successor. Turn in any notebooks to Ariane as well so that they can be scanned to satisfy Harvard's research retention rules.

  6. Enjoy the rest of your life, and come back to visit!