Profile

I am a life-long scholar. Anyone who knows me wasn't surprised when I enrolled in a second PhD project in 2018. After all, when I first enrolled in university I intended to “be a student forever and never graduate”. Six and one half years of full-time study later I found out that many graduate students in science are paid to study, so I selected a major (geology) and transferred to a uni which offered it.

When I finally completed my undergrad degree I’d accumulated 415 of the 175 credits required to graduate! I promptly enrolled in a Master of Science program and spent another four years of full time study (taking non-geology classes as well, once I’d completed the required geology classes), teaching laboratory classes, and research.

I then took a few years off from formal study (well, unless you count the certificate in massage therapy—vocational school is so easy when you’ve already done a Master’s degree!) and just studied on an informal basis before enrolling at the University of Tasmania for a PhD program. I finished up my thesis in June of 2009, and and started my first post-doc position in Italy in July. Months later I received the examiner's report, made the suggested changes, and the degree was finally complete on 16 December 2009. It brought me much joy to have been a student once again, and would not be surprised if the rest of my life will be spent with some involvement at one university or another.

I have been an active SCA participant for over 25 years, in five different Kingdoms. I enjoy camping events, dancing, "bardic circles", stitching, and flirting within the SCA. I enjoy hiking, yoga, and I used to read science fiction/fantasy books far more often than I should have (if I wanted to compete the degree on time). However, I didn't make time to read fiction as I worked on the final months of completing my PhD project/writing up the results. As a result of that major sacrifice, I managed to submit my thesis only four years after enrolling in the program. Oddly enough, while I am reading fiction again, I'm not reading as many books a month as I once did, as I've developed an addition to reading my friend's LiveJournal entries and FaceBook status updates in the meanwhile...

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