Good news comes in high profile packages sometimes

About this time last year, my advisor told me that he thought I would be a good candidate for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. The program provides stipend funding and tuition waivers for it's recipients.

In early April, I was notified that I had received the fellowship.

What's more, with the stimulus package that the NSF received from President Obama, they were able to award ~200 more fellowships than their usual ~900. In the second round, another from the School of Earth Sciences at OSU was chosen as well. The picture (above) shows Annette and I with the president of the university, Gordon Gee, at an undergraduate research forum earlier this year. Gee appears to have a photographic memory: I have seen him since and he remembers both my name and the fact that I received "the NSF."

Back in Action

It's been a while!

School hit me hard with full-to-bursting class loads and working on the research I'm here to do, but I have created a bit of time and have a few updates. Starting with this one!

On Monday, August 3rd, Thompson Library opened it's doors for the first time since I have been a student at Ohio State. This building is one of the major presences on the south oval (the major greenspace on campus), but has been being renovated. The inside is now six floors of quiet, bookish heaven. I'm looking forward to making ample use of it once classes start up in the fall!