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11 January 2012
Graduate School Advice: Part 2 – Qualifying Exams
You’ve probably heard of the dreaded Qualifying Exam, but what is it like? Well, it varies a lot from school to school and between disciplines, but I can tell you what ours was like in Astronomy at Cornell. The qualifying exam (or “Q-exam”) was split into two parts for us. The first part is a written test at the end of the first year, taken along with the other first …
6 January 2012
Graduate School Advice: Part 1 – Classes and Teaching
To follow up on my last post about my science resolutions for the new year, based on lessons learned during grad school, I thought it might be worth posting more generally some advice based on my graduate school experience. As I jotted down notes on what bits of advice I might want to share, it rapidly became clear that it was too much for a single post. So, consider this …
4 January 2012
Science Resolutions -or- Grad School Lessons Learned
Now that I have finished graduate school and am an older, wiser “post-doctoral fellow”, I was planning to put together a post containing advice on grad school. But then as I thought about it, I realized that the bulk of my advice fell into the “do as I say, not as I do” category. That, combined with the new year and accompanying new job, led me to re-tool my advice …
20 December 2011
Carl Sagan is my Homeboy
I am happy to report that my office mate Melissa Rice and I are both now PhDs! My defense was on Friday, and Melissa presented me with this awesome shirt: After Melissa’s defense yesterday, we thought it would only be fitting to pose in front of the portrait of the man who inspired us to become planetary scientists. We are proud to call Carl Sagan our homeboy: Today is …
16 December 2011
Thesis Defense!
Today is my PhD thesis defense! Let me just note how weird it is to write that. In any case, once I have recovered from all of the snake fighting, I am planning to get back into the habit of posting more often, beginning with some thoughts on grad school and advice for those still muddling through or just starting. Stay tuned!
4 December 2011
Lost Cosmos Episode: The Meat Planet
I’m on my way to San Francisco later today, along with 20,000 of my closest friends. I’m not sure how much I will be able to blog about it, since I am still editing my dissertation and putting the final touches on my presentation for Wednesday, and AGU evenings are often spent catching up with friends and colleagues. For example, my adviser has started a tradition in which a large …
2 December 2011
Scale Solar System Posters!
Emily over at the Planetary Society blog has put together a very nice montage of all the objects in the solar system >400 km in diameter to scale (excluding the sun!).
1 December 2011
Fly over Vesta in 3d!
Alright folks, time to bust out your 3D glasses! JPL just released this cool 3D flyover of Vesta, as seen by the Dawn spacecraft:
30 November 2011
MSL Launch
We got up before dawn, tired but buzzing with anticipation. To get to the VIP viewing area for the launch, we had to drive to a nearby stadium, park, and then show our bus passes to get on one of the dozens of buses waiting to drive to NASA. As the bus filled up, I started to see other faces that I recognized. Scientists involved in the mission, grinning to hide their nerves.
27 November 2011
MSL Launch Videos
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be in the VIP viewing area at Kennedy Space Center to watch Mars Science Laboratory launch to Mars! I’ll put up a proper post about the whole experience, but in the meantime enjoy these videos. The first is the one that I took, the second was taken by my friend Casey Dreier, and finally I’m posting the official NASA video of the launch. I find that the “home video” versions are more exciting because you get to hear the crowd’s reaction.
