Category: Retirement PhD Page 1 of 5

I bought one of these long-sleeve t-shirts for everyone in the family and gave it to them when I graduated. I had never worn it and even forgot that I had it. This morning, I dug deep in my shirt draw and there it was. It is now my favorite t-shirt. Perfect to protect my delicate skin for walks in the sun.

I am very proud of my buddy John S. who had his first PhD committee meeting at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I meet John in 2007 when I started a new job in Raleigh, North Carolina. We worked MANY late nights together and formed a life-long friendship. He is about a decade younger than I am so, while he is younger then me, I could not say that he is young. One night when I was about a third of the way into my PhD program, we got into a conversation about what I was doing. He thought he might like to do something like that, too, so I connected him up with my professor Troy G. To make a long story short, they talked, he applied to the program and has been working on it ever since. He has had a HUGE impact on our area of research. I have to say that is significantly greater than my own research. I did perform the prototype work for his research topic, but he has taken it wildly beyond what I did or even imagined. I think he is about half-way through his program now, has been instrumental in helping to secure grants for Troy and is on the way to very big things in the area of ground-based imagery analysis and machine learning/artificial intelligence for ecology and hydrology. His committee meeting went really well. We are all very much looking forward to where his research leads.

The University of Nebraska merch pays off! Just letting you know, if you have it you need to wear it. We have had MULTIPLE people either stop us to talk and/or yell GO HUSKERS in Texas, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Multiple in EACH PLACE! Looking forward to doing this on my upcoming trip to Oregon. I think I need to buy more because all I really have now is the ball cap in this picture. I lost my sweatshirt on a trip to Boston–think I left it on the plane.

I am off and running on the volunteer work I am doing for the GaugeCam GRIME Lab. I am now automatically downloading images from the USGS HIVIS KOLA camera site and plan to see if I can write Python code to measure the water level in images with only a very small octagon in them (less than the width of a typical staff gauge) to be used for creating a pixel to world coordinate calibration model. I did not think I would be so energized on this project, but it is very gratifying and a lot more enjoyable without the time pressure associated with the work I did for my PhD. We are going to try to start off just with small, finite length project with specific research goals in mind and see how that goes.

Now that my PhD schooling is complete, I have asked to stay on and continue the research that started at North Carolina State University back in 2009. Troy (UNL) and Mary (UNK) have positioned a much smaller target at the Kearney Outdoor Learning Center (KOLA) in Kearney, Nebraska. The idea is to investigate the stage measurement accuracy level when the octagon used for pixel to world coordinate calibration is small enough to fit on the top of a traditional USGS staff gauge. This fits into Troy’s and Mary’s research programmed aimed at reducing the conditioning (addition of objects solely to help measure) of water body images. I am in the process of porting the original code written in C++ to Python so it is easier for people in the hydrology community to use. Troy writes about it over at the GaugeCam blog: here.

Christian and Kelly took Lorena and I to the fabulous Boiler Room Restaurant in Omaha for a steak after the commencement ceremony at University of Nebraska–Lincoln. That is the same place where Lorena, Christian and I went after my dissertation defense back in June. Afterward, we all went to a craft cocktail bar named Berry & Rye and had a foo-foo drink before we went home. On the drive up from Lincoln we stopped in at something called the Holy Family Shrine–a roadside Catholic shrine that is an architectural marvel with flowing internal water features and spectacular views of the landscapes and hills along the I-80 freeway.

I have the diploma, my University of Nebraska email and Teams accounts are going away in a month or two, and there is a real feeling of finality to this enterprise of getting a retirement PhD even though I am not yet retired (thankfully). I have already started on a volunteer research project with the GRIME Lab. I am going to take that work at a much more leisurely pace. Hopefully, we will be doing something with the ITESM university system in Mexico, too, so it should be fun.

Lorena and I had an outdoor thermometer at our house in Centralia that we loved to check. Youngin’s parents wanted to get me something. Unbeknownst to them, they got us just the perfect gift. Lorena and I are looking for a bracket that will allow us to rotate the thing different directions so we can use in when we are sitting on the porch or in the living room. The best part is that it is a Cornhuskers branded thermometer. I almost laughed when I opened it because it was so perfect.

A huge note of thanks to my PhD adviser, Professor Troy Gilmore (top photo), at University of Nebraska–Lincoln and founder of the GaugeCam GRIME Lab where I plan to volunteer now that I have finished my degree. No words are sufficient to express my level of gratitude for his support through so many years of education and research and, even more, for his friendship. His wife, Youngin, made a spectacular Korean dinner for the commencement after-party with committee members, Aaron Mittlestet (bottom photo) and Mary Harner. I am just so grateful for it all.

Done. They handed me the actual diploma during the graduation. Troy and Youngin threw us an amazing after party. I will describe it all in a little more detail when I am not writing on my phone.

Today, Lorena and I are meeting Troy and Youngin for lunch in downtown Lincoln. This is probably my last day of school, ever. It has been an incredible amount of work, but every minute was worth it. Part of this had to do with me wanting to get a PhD, but honestly, the best part was the people with whom I worked. My committee consisted of 100% people of good will. My buddy John S. Started in the same program about halfway through my program and it has always been a joy to work with him. I’m going to enjoy continuing to volunteer with Troy, but it kind of won’t be the same. I just wish there was a way to adequately thank everyone involved.

Lorena and I drove up from Texas to Lincoln Nebraska today for my graduation. It was a really nice drive that we took pretty slow, stopping to eat whenever we wanted. I’m getting a little nostalgic about all of the schooling at this point. This really is the last time I’m going to do something like this. I’m glad I did it, it gave me great joy.