Things Ravi Pratap Is Up To

I awake from my blogging slumber to record a very significant achievement in the life of my better half.

Just this past week, on the 26th of July, 2007, Vidya successfully defended her Ph.D thesis at Washington University in St. Louis. After 6 long, arduous years of a life dedicated to a single research problem in Chemical Engineering, she now rightly carries the right to be addressed as Dr. Vidya for the rest of her life. Dr. Vidya, if you’re reading this, let me just say - congratulations on getting done and reaching the very pinnacle of academic education!

I have to admit that I really didn’t know much about what it really took to get a Ph.D before I came to know Vidya, and didn’t give it much thought either. But when you think about it, can you imagine dedicating 6 years of your life working on solving a single research problem that has probably not been tackled before? Never giving up in spite of all the dead ends that seem to crop up every now and then? Finding ways to stay enthused and energetic about it even after frustrating moments that nearly killed the resolve and drive in you to do research? Having all kinds of people lecture you about doing a Ph.D when clearly you’re the one actually doing it and they are the ones hypothesizing?

I’ve realized that it takes an extraordinary amount of courage, grit, and determination to earn a doctorate and I’ve seen it all in Vidya as she went through the toughest of times in getting to where she is today.

Congratulations on earning your doctoral degree, Dr. Vidya. You have truly earned the 2 letters in front of your name.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Everything. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.