The doctor is in

I'm such a clod. I was all busy posting pictures of my birthday, and I skipped over a much more significant event. Last Friday, June 16, Vicki graduated with her Ph.D. in physical anthropology. Her parents, Terry and Carla Cooper, came out for the event. Well, mostly they came out to play with London, as you'll see in an upcoming post.

Here are some pictures from the glorious event. The first stage was an anthro department function in a lovely forest meadow. Then the university-wide graduation ceremony was held on a grassy field overlooking Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful, sunny, and very hot day. Fortunately the area taken up by the graduation ceremony was only a small chunk of the field, and I was able to turn London loose and chase him around in the sun.

Vicki was hooded by her advisor, Alison Galloway.



Here are Vicki and Alison standing next to Carla.


Alison presented Vicki to the department and gave a quick summary of her project. She finished in five years--five years that included a lot of non-dissertation-related forensic work, heart surgery, pregnancy, and a year and a half of motherhood. Not bad at all.


A quick pic with Terry while the graduates waited to file in.

And here I am, proud enough to die.


Alison hoods Vicki. The Ph.D. program in physical anthropology is brand new, and Vicki is Alison's first Ph.D. student.


The first steps into a new world. Next month Vicki starts at postdoctoral fellowship at Berkeley. After that, who knows?