Ah yes, there's several classic things she's said, but I'll go for one of the latest.

She was speaking at our centre retreat about the wealth of patient cell lines our centre has collected over the past years and the importance of these cell lines for resaerch.

She then said it was important that there were so many scientist from foreign countries working at the centre and that it is important to keep up good contacts. She finished the talk by saying that the foreign student should keep in contact when they are back in their countries, as inbreeding and intermarriages were more commen in some countries (such as India), and that good relationships could lead to new cell lines and collaborations working on these cell lines for the centre.

Err, I forgot to mention that I would like to hear about other supervisor's comments.

So, you inbred foreigners & UK students ... let's hear from the worst!

mine isn't quite the same although it was rude to me:

Just come back from an international conference where I presented a paper - my supervisor saw me present. In the supervision meeting back in England: "Oh, were you at that conference?" Answer: "Yes, you saw me present". Reply: "Oh yes, sorry I had you confused with my other student" - of course you did!

One of mine once made a very in appropriate comment about a pair of knee highs I was wearing in a meeting, or my 'sex boots' as they called them

Our lab was having a lab outing at a Thai restaurant. My supervisor was talking to Liandi, our Chinese technician. She kept on calling her Limei (name of the tissue culture technician, not at the restaurant) and asking her if the restaurant was serving typical dishes for her home town. Poor Liandi didn't quite know how to politely point out that she's from China, not Thailand

This wasn't my supervisor, but someone else's, but was to me. I have one of those banana guard holders, and he said what is that...it reminds me of one of my sex toys! The girl he supervises didn't know where to look, and everyone else just stared at him (he is normally very quiet and timid)!

that banana comment is similar to something somebody said to me about the microphone I was using to interview them with - he said "does that have different speeds" - dirty old perve!

We were talking about the evils of e-mail spam and he blurted out 'Yes, I get about 50 emails a day from people who want to enlarge my penis'. I didn't know quite what to say after that.

In my panel meeting, he told the other members of my panel that I am 'a perfectionist to the point of being anal'. Which is true but that's not the way I would have liked him to put it.

He's French and has a bit of a brusque personality, so I'm not even sure he knows what he's saying sometimes. He's still great though.

I'm going to regret this: Anyway- what is a banana guard holder?

Is this a typical British thing, or am I too tired to think at the moment?? Banana guard holder, hmmmm ....

http://www.lakelandlimited.co.uk/product.aspx/freshcool/containers!10380

Cheers Ann, I was going to put a link up for those that didn't know what one was.

Mooncups & banana guard holders.... the world remains full of mysteries. And there was me thinking a banana guard holder was something er, different. If you know what I mean.

Just to mention, there is more inbreeding and intermarriages in the pakistani community than there is within the indian. I think of all my cousin brothers as real brothers so marrying one would be like incest...yuk!

More embarrassing than rude...I am not a very girly girl and never wear make-up in the lab. One day felt like being a bit girly so had my eyelashes tinted and my eyebrows done. Sitting in the crowded tea room back at the lab and my supervisor says "What have you done to your eyes? Are you wearing eyeshadow?". I was so humiliated.

Wrote a very stern email to him pointing out that as a woman in my late 20's it was perfectly acceptable for me to wear cosmetics occassionally, would he kindly not make a scene about it, and outlined the differences between mascara, eyelash tinting, and eyeshadow for him.

My supervisor once bought a girl in our lab a pink fluffy heavily padded bra for a secret santa present as she was flat-chested. She complained to the head of department about him!