doors open

I've just said "no" to studying at the ANU, probably Australia's most prestigious university, with a group of highly intelligent, friendly people (not to mention around $28,000 a year worth of tax free money). When you've got a range of fantastic choices available to you, it's difficult to have to reject all but one of them. I can't say that I don't feel a little twinge of regret associated with the offers that I didn't take up, but as my thesis supervisor said to me, "if only we all had such nice problems".

The decision that I have made means that I will be doing my PhD under one of the brightest young scientists going around, in an area that I've grown to become genuinely interested in. I'll also be working with a co-supervisor at the ANU who will teach me nifty things about computational quantum chemistry, so I guess I won't be completely turning my back on the ANU. Doing a PhD at CAMD also has the plus of my being able to stay around my friends and family in Sydney, at least for the next 3 years.

Now I just have to wait around until the UNSW scholarship results come out to see what sort of money I'll be getting next year. If I don't get a scholarship, CAMD are offering to fund my PhD anyway, but if that happened I'd be feeling like a bit of a leech.

Another option was continuing on with the group that I did my honours project with, and I spent much of the past week at a conference with them in Queensland. The trip was all expenses paid, we had buffet breakfasts, lunches and dinners, the accommodation was pretty terrific... it was also pelting down with rain for much of the time. That actually wasn't such a bad thing, since ideally we were meant to be sitting inside listening to speeches all day. The rain saved me from the temptation of skipping the speeches and spending my days kayaking, swimming and lying around on the beach. Not that I would have succumbed to that temptation anyway.

Fortunately for us, the rain cleared up every now and again. Here is a photo that I took of some of the guys bike riding, after having spent a significant amount of time lying around on the beach. The speeches had finished by the time we were enjoying ourselves outdoors.




Really, the speeches had all finished by the time we were enjoying ourselves outdoors. Why do you doubt my integrity?

The group that I went to the conference with is filled with great people, and for this reason I'm sorry that I won't be studying with them any more. However, I was able to avoid having to endure a final, heart-wrenching final goodbye to the group, at least for now. Myself and another student won $250 each for the work we presented at the conference, so we'll be shouting everyone a lunch some time soon. Apparently it's a tradition for students in the group to shout everyone a lunch after suddenly lucking upon a decent amount of cash, and the lunch is meant to be half-decent as well. We suggested taking everyone to Ivan's Fernery.

Here's the poster that I won the prize for. Perhaps the judges were swayed by my bribes of pretty colours and clip-art.