Dissertation Defended!

For the past 62 months, I've been able to check the "student" box on all those demographic questionnaires. At 34 years old, I've kind of felt like a perpetual graduate student and often wondered if I would ever finish! (and really, did I want to finish? or was being a grad student what I wanted to be forever? Difficult questions to answer!) About a year or so ago, I decided I'd had enough. Grad school was fun, but I was ready to move on. So last spring and summer I made a big effort to finish my research, and over the summer I started writing my dissertation.

And then life intervened, in the form of two beautiful babies. After Estella and Cordelia were born, I put the research and dissertation on hold for a while as I nursed, changed diapers, nursed, read books to Adelaida, nursed, took the kids to the zoo, nursed, and nursed some more.


As much as I enjoyed spending time with my girls, it was also nice to go back to work at the beginning of January, to interact with adults and challenge myself intellectually instead of just physically and emotionally. Since the beginning of January, all three kids have been in school four days a week and I made a big push to finish my research; write, revise, and finalize my dissertation; and prepare and practice my defense presentation.

I had a dissertation defense date set: February 29th, 2012. Life in general was on hold while all of my available energy was directed toward the dissertation. For the past several months, whenever I have heard about things I'd like to try, books I'd like to read, and places I'd like to go, my standard response has been "I'll think about that again in March."

Yesterday was D-day. I defended my dissertation yesterday morning at 10:30am, with a forty-five minute public presentation followed by a short question-and-answer session from the public. Fourteen people attended my defense: a good-sized crowd that included my dissertation committee, several members of the Kemp group, two coworkers from Sandia, a couple of members of the UNM chemistry department, and Dale. I'm so grateful they were all there, as it was nice to have some friendly faces to focus on during the presentation! (The title is "A Proposed Palladium-Catalyzed Cycle for the Epoxidation of Alkenes.")


Following the presentation and audience questions, the public dispersed and I was left alone with my dissertation committee -- literally me on one side of a long table and the four committee members facing me across the table. They asked questions about my research and I responded -- some questions I simply didn't know the answer to, some questions I knew confidently how to answer, and some I muddled my way through a response that may or may not have been appropriate.

Eventually (a little over an hour after starting), their questions were exhausted and I was asked to leave the room while they "deliberated." Now, it seems to me that it might take as long as forty-five seconds for Rick to say "I think we should pass her" and the other three to say "I agree," "I agree too," "I also agree" and open the door to let me back in the room. But they must have been talking in extreme slow motion -- or perhaps discussing other topics just to let me have the heart-pounding experience of wondering what was happening inside that closed room in which my fate was being decided -- because I was out in the hall for more than 20 minutes. But at last, the door opened, I was ushered back into the room and was shaking hands with my committee members and receiving their congratulations for graduating with distinction.

Granted, I need to make some minor editorial changes to my dissertation, but I am essentially done. Sixty-two months of grad school and I'm about to put that phase of my life behind me and start something new. It still feels a little surreal.