Christmas in New York

Melissa and I spent Christmas 2010 in Baldwinsville with her family.  Our trip got off to a rocky start and we left a day later than we planned due to some awesome planning on the part of Sky West (United Express) and one lady that was angrier than we wanted to be, but that's not a story for this happy blog.  Nevertheless we made it to Syracuse in time for Christmas Eve Services at St. Mary's.  After opening presents Christmas morning, we went over to the Grandparents Dubois' house for the day.  I think I even had the biggest wins with the scratch off tickets.  The day after Christmas we went to the Grandparents Luke's house for sledding and hanging out with the family.  Later on in the week we took care of some wedding planning stuff and met with Father Abe at St. Mary's.  We also had a chance to take out Will's snowmobiles for a ride around the field, and we finally remembered to pull out the camera so here are some pictures from that. 

 Also we went cross country skiing.  It's hard work (at least for me) as you can see from the picture. 

 This is the field across from Melissa's parent's house.  We rode around it and down towards the river that is west of the fields. 

 Melissa really knows how to tear it up riding the 'biles around the fields. 

 This is down by the river. 

 Here is Will streaking across the field.  I couldn't keep up. 

Yea! Christmas Tree.

Jason's NCSU PhD Graduation

So we've been seemingly very busy and have gotten quite far behind on blog updates with my Graduation from NC State, the holidays, and just getting back to work.  Over the next couple of days I'll try to get us caught up.  Right now I'll start with my graduation. 
 After 5 and a half years working with Dr. Hawari, I finally completed my graduate work.  I had succesfully defended my dissertation in October titled "Examination of Nobel fission Gas Diffusion in Uranium Dioxide Using Atomistic Simulations," and now it was time for the Pomp and Circumstance.

  

NC State splits their graduation ceremonies into two parts.  The "big" part is held at the RBC Center.  This part of the ceremony is where all the commencement speeches are given and the Ph.D. Candidates are officially conferred their degrees individually. 

Here is me on the RBC screen receiving my diploma from one of the graduate school deans.  He played a master of ceremonies part in the ceremony, and I remember him being both British and quite unimpressed with any levity that was inserted into the event.  

Here is me coming off the stage.  Mom and Dad had quite the prime seats, and Melissa was able to really get a good shot of me right after receiving my degree.  

My diploma, thankfully everything is spelled correct.

Dad, Mom and Haley were all able to make it to Raleigh for the big event.  

 The second part of the NC State graduation is the departmental ceremony.  Here the Masters and Undergrad students are given their diplomas.  Here is Dr. Azmy the Nuclear Engineering department head speaking during the NE departmental ceremony. 

My adviser Dr. Hawari spoke on behalf of Dr. Murty to introduce the graduate degrees.  This was a big graduation for Dr. Hawari.  Not only did I graduate, but my colleague from Dr Hawari's group Brian Hehr also finished with his Ph.D. and my colleague Zoe Xiao received her MS. 

 Here are the graduates from the department of Nuclear Engineering that attended the ceremony along with the faculty of the department. 

It was great for Melissa and I to get a quick trip back to NC for graduation.  It was also great for us to see all our friends in Raleigh for the weekend.  For now I'm glad to be done with my graduate work and look forward to being a researcher at INL.