Today I successfully passed my comprehensive exam, in which I presented my Ph.D. thesis topic to the entire IfA and then answered questions from them and from my thesis committee. I got some excellent questions and had a really positive discussion with my committee. I am officially ABD, and my thesis topic, “Exploring the Environments of Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts”, is now approved! Hooray!

I’ll be giving a talk on my research with Lisa Kewley to the Friends of the IfA on January 28th at the IfA Manoa auditorium. At the IfA we complete two masters-level research projects as part of qualifying as Ph.D. candidates, and Friends of the IfA periodically gives awards for these projects. I’ll be presenting with two other recent award winners, and covering the intriguing world of gamma-ray bursts and galaxy environments for a general audience! A website giving details of the event can be found here.

Now that this semester’s over, I’ve completed the University of Hawaii and Institute for Astronomy requirements for my M.S. Woohoo! Work on my Ph.D. thesis proposal has been going great, so I’m planning on proposing for it this February – at the IfA we call this the comprehensive exam. I’ve still got some work to do on it, but I’m really excited and am looking forward to proposing and then getting to work on it. Happy holidays!

Mabel Armstrong has written a book called “Women Astronomers: Reaching for the Stars” that will be published by Beagle Bay press in January of 2008. She very nicely contacted me early in 2007 about being included in the “Rising Stars” section of the book! There’s now a nice website on the book now that includes my blurb, and it looks like I’m in some pretty excellent company! You can preorder the book from Amazon.com.

I passed the IfA’s qualifying exam today, along with the five other students that took the exam. Congrats to everyone, and here’s to passing a major milestone in the Ph.D. program! For the rest of the term I’ll be finishing up my Masters requirements and working on my thesis proposal.