I have mentioned my daughter, Jessie, more than a few times, and those of you who have been visiting here for a while will recall (and others will learn now) that she skipped high school, graduated from Bryn Mawr at 17, and is now early in her sixth year of graduate work in applied physics at Caltech.
I mention all this, again, because yesterday, with her successful dissertation defense (her committee was not only enthusiastic about her work, but effusive), she became Caltech’s newest applied physics PhD! And in a double whammy, she learned just before her defense that her latest article submission had been accepted by Nature Photonics, a major journal in her field and her second article there within several months (this was the first). And a few days earlier she learned that one of her articles published recently in Applied Physics Letters was selected in the current (December 2009) issue of Nature Photonics as one of 7 or 8 noteworthy recent articles.
All in all, a very successful few days.
Apparently it is a tradition at Caltech — and other places as well, though I was unaware of it — to post notices around campus of scheduled dissertation defenses because parts of them are open to other students and faculty to observe. In any event some of Jessie’s friends, who remain anonymous, created and distributed this rather dramatic poster. The pictures of and references to “rings” refer to the “double-disk” gizmo [non-scientific term] Jessie and her postdoc colleague, Qiang Lin, have developed to some acclaim, and the “spider” and “spiderweb” references refer to its design, which resembles a spiderweb. (In real life the gizmo is quite small, about two microns in diameter).
I better watch myself, or pretty soon I’ll begin to sound like a proud father.
Congratulations on your daughter’s success, John–Jim
Congratulations to Jessie and kudos to her parents, the Rosenbergs. You must be so proud, and rightfully so for your role as parents in her upbringing! It is absolutely amazing to get a PhD in Applied Physics from Cal Tech at the early age of 23. Also, her her postdoc colleague, Qiang Lin, deserves honorable mention for his/her role, as well.
Mr. Rosenberg,
Congratulations to you and your very talented daughter. You must be very proud.
Warmest regards,
Paul
Shameless bragging rights granted.
Well, to HER anyway;-)
Congrat’s seem to be in order.
Thanks for all your congrats, but, alas, my wife and I don’t deserve any. Along the way many people, including more than a few friends, used to give us a hard time for driving Jessie too hard. We didn’t deserve that criticism any more than we deserve any congratulations now. The truth was, we didn’t drive her; we tried as hard as we could to hold on, much in the manner of a very small person trying valiantly to hold on to the leash of a very large, strong, hard-charging dog. (Not that Jessie’s a dog.) Other, also including many friends, when hearing of Jessie’s exploits, would look at Helene and me and ask in all seriousness, “So, where did she come from?” Where, indeed. Her talents obviously skipped generations, since Helene and I both dropped out of math before arithmetic got hard.
Heartiest congrats, John!
WOW! As a father of two girls, I am truly impressed. It sounds like the credit, in whatever proportion, should be given to all three of you. Congratulations.
P.S., I look forward to reading your next blog on how to raise a daughter. You obviously have insight.