Trust Me, I'm A Doctor

So today I celebrate the 1st Ph.D.-versary of my dissertation.  That’s right folks, today marks the day when I brought my Ph.D. home from the university, after a very lengthy gestation period.  I can’t believe my little Ph.D. is officially 1-year-old.  For those of you that might not be aware or perhaps have forgotten, my Ph.D. dissertation goes by the name

Multivariate Spatial Poisson Mixtures With Applications In Disease Source Classification,¹

but I just call her Ms. P. Mix for short.   One year old already – how time flies.

The most expensive piece of paper I own. Amazingly, it looks the same today as it did the first day I brought it home.

In all seriousness, my Ph.D. never would have been a reality if not for the help and support of so many people.  I do have to mention one person in particular; a certain Dr. Stephanie Dixon, to whom I dedicated my work.

For Steph; my sounding board, my confidant, my support, and the best friend I could ever have asked for.  I have no idea what I did to deserve someone like you next to me during this process, but I’m eternally grateful to the Fates for bringing us together.  You are my academic soul mate, my awkward cousin.  You have made me a better person, and I can never ever thank you enough for all that you have done for me.²

I wrote the dedication ages ago, well before my Ph.D. was even finished.  Amazingly, the words mean more to me now than they did to me then.

But, you might be thinking, what have I done since then?  And that is a very valid question.  I wondered that myself.  And being the list-making kind of guy that I am, I sat down and started to make a list.  I’ve categorized the list (as I’m a categorized-list-making kind of guy too), mainly for my own entertainment and reflection.  I present it to you now (in chronological order), for your reading pleasure.

Family/Friends/Random

• My niece was hospitalized with flesh-eating disease (she’s fine now )
• Steph and I had a Ph.D. Prom
• I turned 35
• I got some more tattoos (12 greek letters remain)
• My first nephew (Ethan) was born
• Celebrated Lobster-fest
• I adopted Elliot

Travel

• Winnipeg (May, 2010)
• New York (May, 2010)
• Europe [Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria] (June/July, 2010)
• Calgary (September, 2010)
• Ottawa (November, 2010)
• Ottawa (January, 2011)
• Hawaii [Big Island, Oahu] (January, 2011)
• New York (February, 2011)
• Ottawa (March, 2011)

Academic/Professional

• Taught Statistics for the Engineering Students (Winter, 2010)
• Convocated (June, 2010)
• Taught Differential Equations (Summer, 2010)
• Published the Effect of Information Availability on Assessment and Designation of Species at Risk in the Journal of Conservation Biology, with James Lukey and Steve Crawford
• Statistician for the Public Health Agency of Canada‘s Public Health Assessment and Scenarios Team (2010-Present)
• Ecological Risk Analyst for the Saugeen Ojibway First Nations (Fall, 2010)
• Published the Effect of ecological uncertainty on species at risk decision-making: COSEWIC expert opinion as a case study in the Journal of Animal Conservation, with James Lukey, Steve Crawford, and Mitch Gillespie
• Taught Calculus II for the third time (Winter, 2011)
• Taught Advanced Methods for Population Modelling, my first full grad course (Winter, 2011)
• Became an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Sciences at the University of Guelph

Not-So-Bucket-List List Accomplishments

• Finished my Ph.D. (item #2)
• Taught my first Statistics course (item #7)
• Taught Differential Equations (item #6)
• Travelled to Manitoba (item #132)
• Travelled to New York with Steph, and Gerarda, again (item #135, and #147)
• Bought a new fitted suit (item #63)
• Determined my net worth (item #36)
• Went to Hillside (item #65)
• Had a Ph.D. Prom (item #67)
• Travelled with Matt (item #146)
• Saw a live sex show (item #72)
• Biked 30K, 40K and 50K (items #77, #78, and #79)
• Travelled to Prague and Vienna (item #126)
• Celebrated my 35th birthday in another country (item #119)
• Travelled to Alberta to visit Rick, Karen, and Adam (item #122, and #128)
• Walked the Athabasca Glacier (item #13)
• Climbed Mount Yamnuska (item #11)
• Ran 10k in 50 minutes (item #101)
• Ran 12k in 60 minutes (item #102)
• Ran another 10K (item #107)
• Ran another 1/2 marathon (item #106)
• Did a 30 day hot yoga challenge (item #98)
• Went on 3 dates in as many months (item #120)
• Went to visit Matt, Mark, and Jhona (item #137)
• Had a scotch tasting night (item #44)
• Had a wine tasting night (item #46)
• Saw Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert (item #31)
• Started a full time faculty position (item #1)
• Set up a budget (item #40)
• (Re-)Started a blog (item #121)
• Travelled with Rick (item #148)
• Hiked a lava field again (item #22)
• Went on a helicopter ride (item #21)
• Climbed an active volcano (item #23)
• Went snorkelling (item #18)
• Went skydiving (item #19)
• Invited to speak at a conference (item #9)
• Paid off over $15000 in debt (item #22)
• Saw my first Ballet (item #23)
• Managed to do 4 sets of 8 chin ups (item #38)
• Saw Sarah McLachlan in concert again (item #39)

So how am I going to celebrate my 1-year-old Ph.D., and all that I have accomplished since then?  I’m going to go home, have a beer, think about all the amazing things that have happened in my life over the past year, and contemplate where I want to go next.  Oh, and I’m also going to go for dinner with 2 very awesome friends.  And not just any friends.  I’m going to dinner with the 2 people who understand the trials and tribulations of my Ph.D. in Statistics best – my fellow Doctors of Statistics; Dr. Stephanie Dixon, and Dr. Gerarda Darlington.  I’m so freaking lucky, it’s ridiculous.

Happy Ph.D.-versary to me!

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¹ Sounds riveting, doesn’t it? I can say without a hint of a lie, that each of the 272 pages are better than the last. If ever there was a page-turner, this was it. Okay, in all seriousness, I’m probably the only one that reads it³ without falling asleep after the first sentence.

² P.S. No, it didn’t.

³ I probably could have just ended the sentence here, and it would have been just as true

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