Tuesday, September 27

Thermoelectric and Heat Flow Phenomena in Mesoscopic Systems...DONE.

Super duper crazy happy news!

JASON FINISHED WRITING HIS DISSERTATION. His thesis. His PhD paper. His ultimate Physics final.

Five years of post-grad schooling; countless nights stuck in his windowless laboratory; 215 pages of cold, hard physics.



So maybe this is a bit of preemptive celebration, because there are a few more hoops he has to jump through before he gets to call himself "Dr. Matthews." He has to have a Board of Really Smart People with Foreign Accents and Beards read it over this week, and then he has his "Doctoral Defense" next Thursday. Whoo!

Although he's been working his tail off on writing it all summer, these past two weeks were especially insaneinthemembrane. At first, he was averaging about 5 hours of sleep per night.

At that point he was completely nocturnal. He'd go lay down on the couch in the afternoon, and turn to me with pleading, bloodshot eyes. He'd beg, "April, no matter what I say, I want you to wake me up in THREE HOURS. No 'fifteen more minutes.' Do whatever you have to do... even ice-water. Get me up."
Sorry, buddy, there's no way I could throw ice-water on that.

I'd dutifully wake him up, and he'd open one sleepy eye with a look of desperate anguish. Then he'd lay down the Kryptonite in a cute, sleepy voice:
"Cuddle?"
"Sweetheart, you're supposed to get---"
"Just five minutes?"
"But--"
"I miss sleeping next to you."
aaaaaaand BAM I was in his arms, and he was instantly making happy little snoring sounds.

Oh, MERCY, our future offspring will get away with anything if they inherit those puppy eyes.

Soon, the five-hour sleep average turned into just two hours a night. I'd try to wake him up, and he'd sleep talk something about "anisotropic thermoelectrics in four-terminal ballistic junctions."

The last three days (or should I say day-nights), he really got in a crunch and enlisted me to proofread every. last. page. So I got to dig through THIS for missed apostrophe's and little typos.

(Bahaha I just had to torment all you grammar OCD-ers out there-- apostrophes!!^^ I feel like I need to go wash my hands or something now.)

Anyway, I got to dig through every last page--twice--for little things like this:
I wish you could've seen the look on his poor, sleep-deprived face while he tried to figure out why I was "writing in Russian."

For now, he sleeps all he wants. I no longer have to stress about my failings as a sleep Nazi. Then once he's caught up, it's Power-Point time! Go Jason, Go!


Want to read more about his research? I tried to sum it up in English-for-humans here.

16 comments:

Emma @ She Got Married said...

Oh physics, I can't say that we've ever formally met.

Congratulations to Jason, though- that is so exciting...he deserves this mug that I plan on getting for my brother once he's done with his PhD:
http://store.startrek.com/products/95961-i-don-t-need-a-doctor-damn-it-i-am-a-doctor-quote-mug

April said...

Oh my wow, that is so perfect... have I mentioned what a trekkie he is? : )

Markie said...

Yaayy!!! What determination! I'm super impressed by the mad physics skills. I'm pickin' up what you are puttin' down about being a sucker for the puppy eyes. I don't make a good Nazi, either.
Also, even after reading the "normal human terms" blog about what your huzbin does... I'm pretty sure I still don't understand. And That's pretty awesome.

Sam said...

Go, man go!

Markie said...

Dang... I accidentally capitalized "that's" in the last sentence.

Caitlin said...

My head hurts after just reading the title. Physics goes farrrr over my head. But I'm so happy for him and for the two of you, how exciting!

April said...

Aghh sorry I didn't make it more understandable, Markie! Thanks for trying, anyway : )

Thanks Caitlin & Sam!

Lozzz123 said...

Hooray to your husband for finishing! That's awesome and sounds very complicated and impressive! I also read the english-for-humans version and sort of understood it (I think?).

Hopefully I'll be finished this time next year and on my way to the US! Haven't fully decided where we're going, but thanks for offering to show me around your area - I'll let you know for sure :D

The Woven Moments said...

YAY for hubster!!

Or shall we call him Dr. Hubster now?

April said...

Thanks Loz! I'm super proud of him : )

& Ryan, he's not quite Dr. Hubster yet; he still has to defend his dissertation in front of the Board of Really Smart People with Beards and Foreign Accents. But once that's over you will definitely hear about it!

Kelley @ Kelley Maria said...

Holy crap! I feel anxious just looking at that huge stack of papers...not to mention reading it would be a whole new level of anxiety / confusion. GO Jason!!!

Lilly said...

Arpil, you are blog is awesomely fun to read. I am glad the marathon writing sesh is over, and I am glad you wrote an awesome post on it. ^^

Anonymous said...

Congrats to him! Grad school is a lot of work. One of my professors once told me that medical school is actually less work than a typical graduate program. So, I personally believe that all who finish grad programs have definitely earned the right to call themselves "Dr."

Also, congratulations to you, too! I doubt it was easy making it 5 years and basically never seeing your husband.

Unknown said...

Wow congrats! My good friend was writing her thesis, she quoted Tupac which made me believe she needs an a! YOU know Russian? That's bad A!

BTW I've given you an award. http://shewhowillbetamed.blogspot.com/2011/10/random-thoughts.h

Kajal (KJ) said...

You know April you wrote that 'b' in 'backwards forward only? :D

April said...

oh gosh! I guess I wrote 'dackwards' backwards!! : )