工程師媽媽的生活雜記

Enoch 啊今天終於看到你了, 你真是太可愛了, 長長的睫毛, 圓圓的頭和臉, 我說你像小饅頭, mimi阿姨說你像小沙彌, 我今天忍不住親了你好幾下, 以後你變大帥哥, 就不會給我親了, :P
你遺傳了你爸媽的帥和美...真是個超可愛的baby.你媽媽懷你時候被你整慘了, 不過看到你這麼可愛一切都很值得.

已經都畢業了還這麼忙, 真是莫名奇妙, 什麼時候我才可以躺在家懶懶的什麼都不做, 睡覺睡到自然醒,唉…..

老板們還是常常凹我參加這個參加那個, 或許是我這summer 還有拿RA的關係, 加上他們還沒有新進來的學生可以接這個因為我initiate而拿到funding的new project, 所以材料系和物理系老板們還是很倚賴我, 不管怎麼樣, 我8/3 就officially graduated, 小事就不要再來找我了嘛, 大事找我也沒用…這樣我走了, 你們怎麼活的下去, 會不會常打電話騷擾我, 雖然老板們都很客氣的”凹”我, 也是因為這樣, 我真的很難拒絕……因為又不想當個翅膀長硬就不理恩師們的人, 我真的覺得 as long as I am in Seattle, I am not off the hook. 這點真的會讓我覺得好想趕快逃離Seattle. (在blog抒發心情, 老板們看不到, 真爽, 就算看到也看不懂 )

在美國看到很多讀PhD已婚的男同學或學長, 都可以在讀PhD的時候就生小孩, 所以出來工作個1-2年就已經是好幾個小孩的爸爸了, 反正又不是他生¸是他老婆生, 對他的學業和實驗研究上當然是不會有多大的影響, 所以對男生來說讀PhD生個小孩是不會對他讀PhD進度是有任何影響, 相較之下, 讀PhD的女生就很可年, 要生小孩和學業, 實驗研究一起兼顧, 是mission impossible. 我相信還是有, 但是覺得是少之又少, 更別說要在大大儀器上爬上爬下的女生 like me
(用腦力就算了, 常常也要用粗活的勞力), 大肚子絕對影響做實驗, 很多工作是無法完成的,

為什麼說這個呢? 因為昨天看到和我一起在2003年進來材料系讀PhD的美國女同學, 他在去年就消失一陣子, 回來後, 就已經是4個多月大的肚子了, 大家都很訝異她竟然懷孕了, 當然過不久她又消失了, (想必是準備去生了). 大家都很久沒看到她了, 一直到昨天我去學校附近的越南餐廳吃晚飯, 看到她已經抱了一個2個月多的baby, 她的baby是真的很可愛, 因為她老公也長得很帥, 加上外國baby本來就比一般黃種人的baby可愛很多, (當然這些小時候可愛的外國baby長大就變醜了),

學校規定只要在畢業典禮前考過defense, 就可以參加畢業典禮, 但是對PhD來說不是參加畢業典禮就是officially graduate, (跟修修課就可以畢業的學位是不一樣), 雖然在defense後大家都叫我doctor, 但是其實還沒真正畢業呢. (大家習慣在defense 後叫doctor是因為其實defense過後就沒有什麼”人”和”因素”能夠阻止你畢業了).

因為在defense前把論文交給口試委員們看過後, 要officially graduate必需在defense後60天內把口試委員們要求論文應該要改的地方改完, 然後按照graduate school的方式format 好, 交出去才是真正的畢業, 所以雖然我 6/6 就論文defense 過了, 6/9也參加了畢業典禮, 論文一直到7/31號才改好, (期間去旅行了二個多禮拜, 回來後白天又密集的開始train 新來的學弟們) 所以只有晚上可以改論文, 當然白天教學弟們做實驗做給他門看還要一直說話一天下來很累, 所以晚上改論文的量也很有限, 反正這個summer quarter老闆還是付我RA, 所以我就慢慢改囉, 只要在60天內搞定即可¸ .我的Physics co-adviser (in my committee) 要求很多要我改的地方. 原本schedule在8/1 officially graduate, 沒想到論文被graduate school hold住了, 因為一些有圖的pages上 format不對, 所以又回去繼續改, 終於在8/3那天(口試後57天) 終於交出了論文給graduate school. 在graduate school檢查論文format 的 lady, 臉一直都看起來很嚴肅,在最後檢查完後, 終於給我一個大smile, 跟我握手說恭喜, 之後graduate school的front desk 的representative也給了我二顆Huskies 顏色的Hershey’s chocolate跟我握手說恭喜, 走出graduate school 真是覺得四年來的重擔和憂愁(常常擔心不能畢業) 終於卸下來了. 在八月剩下的日子裡, 把研究成果再去申請幾個publication, 就可以安心的搬家去了

A personal vita is particularly required for the PhD dissertation. I am thus obligated to make one. It is always entertaining to read other doctors' vitas (like my學長們的) cccc....
Below is the VITA in my dissertation.

Chih-Yuan (Claire) Lu was born in Pingtung, Taiwan. She moved north to Tainan with her family and grew up in Tainan city where Taiwanese culture has its earliest origins. Her studies first started in Tainan. Her course since leaving Tainan in pursuit of higher education has been an ever-expanding outward spiral, or, in the parlance of materials science, a screw dislocation. She later moved further north to National Tsing Hua University where she completed her Bachelor degree in Chemistry in 2000. She stayed there to pursue a Masters degree in Materials Science and Engineering and received her Master of Science in 2002. In 2003, she continued along the great spiral arm to the University of Washington, in Seattle, for an advanced graduate career in Materials Science and Engineering. There, she received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering in 2007. From there, she is undergoing the phase change from academia to industry. Her spin is taking her to Intel Corporation in Hillsboro, Oregon where she hopes to contribute her knowledge of interfacial physics and surface science to the semiconductor industry. She will develop first generation processing technology making possible the 32nm node. Next in the spiral, we’ll see to what state her career entropy drives.

As I described in the acknowledgement of my dissertation, God has granted me comfort, courage, and strength when times are tough.

I saw this prayer today and had so much feeling about it as it exactly reflects how God has put me to be trained and disciplined by challenges. It was cited from "Prayer for People Like Me". Share it with you.

自從去年Thanksgiving後, 好久沒去Tim家吃喝玩樂了, 掐指一算竟然有九個月, 終於看到傳說中的小呆女朋友"妹妹",不過還是小呆長得比較goofy , 比較可愛,
我比較喜歡長的goofy 的狗, 感謝Tim BBQ招待, 讓我們真的很把Tim家當自己家,
大家在玩Wii 的高潮時, Leon 夫婦帶著他們兒子(Franco)出現了, 上次看到Leon夫婦是一年前的時候, 那時他們小孩還在媽媽肚子裡, 我們抓了他們小孩來照相, Franco被我抱著, 一心想回到自己爸爸身邊, 臉看起來一點 都不happy, 很開心在要離開Seattle之前看到了Leon 的小孩.

最近發現, 周圍美國和加拿大朋友都有facebook, 他們就叫我也去註冊一個, 學弟還說 everyone uses the facebook. 是怎樣, 嫌我老嗎...
加入後, 才發現我們系上一堆graduate students and undergraduates 都已經早早在上面結黨營私了,
原來facebook真的在北美年輕人裡還挺流行的, 比my space還popular, facebook一開始只允許學生加入, 後來就擴大到一般public都可以加入, 所以越來越紅,
比較好玩的是真的network功能很強,收尋朋友功能也很強, networking with the people in your group. 挺好玩的, 我自己是在Seattle,Washington和Washington graduate student這二個group 裡,

Acknowledgements

I would especially like to thank my advisors Professors Fumio Ohuchi and Marjorie Olmstead for being great mentors on my research, for shaping me to be professional, and for providing constant support through my graduate study.

http://www.seafair.com/events/mcd/
學弟他們贏了The first place of Grand Showboat in Milk Carton Derby at Seafair...贏了四張來回機票(地點沒限制只要是美國境內及可)
UW 窮PhD學生 花了一個月收集milk cartons 用五天晚上組成鴨鴨, Duck Amuck dominated the whole competition. Hooray~
Sunday's Seattle Times with this caption "Noah Oblath paddles next to "Duck Amuck" during the Milk Carton Derby. The duck, made out of 1,500 milk cartons, was created by a group of University of Washington graduate students." Photo from Seattle Times is attached.