Biocurious

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Posted 26 April 2007 by PhilipJ under &

Master.

I’ve been busy. Really busy. Writing, editing, rewriting, fixing figures, fixing figures again, and today, defending. That which is my Master’s thesis has been given the okay, though there are a few requisite corrections to finish off over the next few days. The defense went well, except when trying to recall the functional form of the Reynolds number (it wasn’t pretty).

Now that I’m almost in the clear, it should mean I’ll get back to much more regular blogging. I think I’ll start, partly as a way to teach myself the relevant background information, on the science behind the new direction I’m taking for my PhD.

  

  1. Alex    26 April 07    #

    Congratulations, Master !


  2. mitokondrion    27 April 07    #

    Hey, congrats Philip!

    Thanks for dropping by… I’ve finally chosen to go to Kellogg-Northwestern. My partner will be doing his PhD at McGill so Toronto is likely to be a meeting point for us more than once! So hope to meet you sometime then!
    Which field/topic are you doing your PhD in?


  3. Mark James Adams    27 April 07    #

    Congrats!


  4. Rosie Redfield    27 April 07    #

    Congratulations!

    Your thesis is very well done, and I’m using its explanations as a mini-textbook on the DNA anaysis we’re going to do (following up on your work).


  5. Andre    27 April 07    #

    Congratulations Phil. From Toronto, you’ll have no excuse for not visiting!


  6. another Alex    27 April 07    #

    Congratulations!

    Now do yourself a big favor and slack off for at least a month. No, make that two months. When I advanced to candidacy (my department’s main milestone on the way to a Ph.D.) I made the mistake of stressing myself out way too much, then going right back to work. Really did a number on my health.


  7. RPM    28 April 07    #

    Good job. Master of your own domain, dare I ask?


  8. TheBrummell    30 April 07    #

    Congratulations!

    As a fellow M.Sc. graduate of SFU, I should mention the thesis-submission (to the library) arcanities, and of course money.

    1. Many have refered to her unpleasantly; you’ve likely heard of her. The thesis librarian. She’s probably been over-villified, but in essence you must complete thine sacred quest perfectly to graduate. Book an appointment to talk to her, and as long as you’re polite she’ll probably not breathe fire on you. I heartily recommend booking this appointment as soon as possible, and taking notes during it.

    2. Tuition return. You officially stop being a SFU grad student the moment the thesis librarian accepts your thesis. Not before. SFU pays back tuition based on when in a semester you officially stop being enrolled, on a month-by-month cutoff system. In other words, if you hand in your thesis by May 31, you’ll probably get about 75% of tuition (not fees!) returned. By June 30, 50%; by July 31, 25%. I defended my thesis at the end of January, 2006, and gave it to the library on March 30, so they sent me a cheque for about $200.


  9. PhilipJ    2 May 07    #

    Thanks all!

    Rosie – I’ll send you a PDF of the final final copy in a day or two, but it is quite similar to the version you have.

    Brummell – I’ve gone the much scarier route of not visiting the thesis librarian at all before handing it in, and just assuming there will be no problem. The assistant I spoke to today when handing it in seemed to think it was fine (after pulling out the trusty ruler to measure margins, etc), but we’ll see. He did warn me that if there were problems they would be getting in touch. I’m staying in Vancouver for another month and a bit, so if anything comes up that needs fixing it isn’t so big a problem.


  10. TheBrummell    2 May 07    #

    “I’ve gone the much scarier route of not visiting the thesis librarian at all before handing it in”

    That’s exactly what I did. There was a problem with my table of contents the first time through, which I was able to fix at minimal cost (no reprinting except that one page), though it was annoying.

    A friend who recently completed his PhD in biology at SFU said that screwing around with all the super-exacting thesis requirements (margins, page numbers, etc) was “the worst time of [his] life”.

    It sounds like you’re in the clear, since they tell everyone about the we’ll-be-in-touch-if-there-are-problems thing.


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