Thesis: Day 4

Hello Dear Readers! 

Well, best laid plans.. I was hoping to blog daily on the thesis front but I’ve botched that.  It’s all good, I’m hopeful once I’m in the thesis groove I’ll be blogging more.

The last few days I’ve been slightly waylaid.  Yesterday was my Dad’s birthday- Gratulerer med dagen Dad!  And, the day before I had an opportunity to go to the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park (one of my favorite places in SD!) with a friend.  The MOPA has a super exhibit right now- ‘Infinite Balance: Artists and the Environment.’ Seeing is believing, and I highly recommend checking out the exhibit for some good visuals of what man is doing to our natural environment.

On to some reading.  Tomorrow I'm meeting with a contact to learn about the performance properties of algal biodiesel.  I'll let you know what I find out.

Cheers!

lisa liv  

Thesis: Day 1

Here we go... the final semester and the big show.  It's time to write THE THESIS. I can't say I've ever done anything like this in my life.  I'm feeling excited/nervous/intrigued/anxious/empowered/etc.  Overall, it's a very good thing.

As a little overview, I've decided to look at algae as a biofuel source.  It all started last summer 2011.  I felt like Alice in Wonderland falling down the algal biofuel rabbit hole.  You read it here first (or maybe you already knew this)- algae is a very exciting liquid fuel alternative to petroleum.  I plan on documenting my research so if you stick with me, you'll learn along with me over the next few months.

I've been ramping up to writing my thesis and laid some good groundwork.  But, I consider this my first official day of the semester and of working on my thesis.  I met with Greg Mitchell from Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) to hash through some good thoughts and directions for the thesis.  He's a rock-star researcher and great guy to boot.  He's all about empowering and motivating students.  It's really neat to have people so eager to help. 

So, that's day 1: met with a Prof and got some good ideas that I can run with to flesh out.  I see lots of reading within the next few days but I'll keep you up to date.  I'm going to get very familiar with this muck in the next 5 months.

happy new year to you!

lisa

ps. sorry for the absence.  I was fortunate to get to Paris to visit some friends at the beginning of December and then it was a whirlwind of moving to a new flat in Bergen, home for the holidays, holidays and some relax time here and there.  The fall semester was absolutely fantastic and I look forward to what the year holds.