Lorena and I flew to Tempe last week for Christian’s PhD graduation ceremony. It was nothing short of amazing. Several thousan graduated even though the ceremony we attended was just for the schools of engineering. There were bagpipes and speeches and lots of happy people–us included.

Since this is end of Christian’s educational journey, at least for the time being, I thought I would just put down a brief synopsis of his trajectory for posterity.

Age 13 – Homeschool

  • Duke University TIP (Talent Identification Program) medal
  • Passed first CLEP (college credit exam) test

Age 14 – Wake Technical Community College

  • Dean’s list all semesters for two years at

Age 18 – North Carolina State University

  • BS in Applied Mathematics
  • Dean’s list all semesters
  • Honors Mathematics
  • Graduated Summa Cum Laude (highest honors)

Age 23 – Arizona State University

  • PhD in Electrical Engineering
  • Fellow of the Fulton School of Engineering
  • MIT funded his fellowship that paid for school and a living stipend
  • Published 3 referred journal articles

Age 24 – Boston area

  • Accepted a position as a full-time researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory