The Best Defense...

...is a good offense. Or so they tell me. I think I managed to defend without being offensive. I'm not sure - that didn't come through in my feedback. Here's what I remember about my Day of Defense.

Part I: The Dissertation Presentation

• Barb had an extremely kind (and rather extensive) introduction. I think she made me out to be a better graduate student/researcher than I actually am.
  
• Some faculty from the Department of Microbiology showed up - which surprised me, as I never thought they would be interested in hearing about my research. Quite frankly, I thought they detested me, for being a student in the Department of Pathology and for leaving the Immunology Training Program. I never actually thought I had the intelligence to hang out on the Microbiology floor.
  
• Outside of those on my Dissertation Committee, there were absolutely no faculty from my home Department of Pathology. Not one. Sad. This was not a surprise. When my first advisor left the institution, not one faculty member from the Department of Pathology inquired as to what my plans were, whether I needed funding, or offered any support of any kind. (In contrast, two professors from the Microbiology Department did check in with me during that period.) But that's okay, I won't miss the Pathology Department - you can't miss something that was never there for you in the first place.
  
• There was a very nice turnout of fellow students. You guys are awesome.
• I don't remember much from my actual presentation. I recall starting it, but I put it on cruise control after that. I do seem to remember thinking that I was talking to the screen quite a bit, and not the actual audience. Other than that, I got rather positive feedback from my committee, and Barb seemed to be very happy with my presentation.

Mikey shoulda threw in more dirty jokes. I might've stayed awake then. Didja see Andy's defense last week? That. Was. Genius.



Yeah, whatever. Anyway, Part II: The Oral Defense

• During this time, the committee discusses with the candidate any issues they might have with the experiments, dissertation, and the candidate's knowledge within the field of study.
• The Committee Chairperson allotted each member 20 minutes to question me.
• As expected, one committee member asked me a rather basic science question. It started off with me being asked the mechanism of histone acetylation. Then to which amino acid the acetyl group was attached. Then draw the amino acid. Now draw the acetyl group. And I messed it up. I got the hard part - I drew the correct side chain, but couldn't dig up from memory what a darn peptide bond looked like. This is simple high school-level chemistry, folks.
  

• The best exchange was between Cyrus and Greg:

Cyrus: Shall I ask Michael to draw the Krebs Cycle?
Greg (to Cyrus): Can you draw the Krebs Cycle?
Cyrus: No, but...I don't have to (evil grin).

• The rest of the defense went as expected. Some discussions went smoothly, other discussions were a little hairy.
• As usual, at the end they sent me outside while they discussed. Or snickered. Probably a mixture of both.
• Then Jackie, the Committee Chairperson, called me back in by calling me "Doctor."
• At the end, it was only me and the committee finalizing the language of my thesis abstract, and the committee signing all the required paperwork. Then handshakes and hugs.

Kinda anti-climactic, huh? Just like this post.