I took time out from exam preparation to catch the end of the college conferring ceremony yesterday and I’m glad I did. As well as the great atmosphere, the beautiful chapel, the students and their proud parents, there was a nice surprise – one of the first students I ever taught at WIT was conferred with a PhD (help I’m getting old).
Venet Osmani arrived at WIT from Kosovo at about the same time I arrived from Trinity – he was among the first of our fulltime students from abroad and I remember there was a certain amount of anxiety as to how the program would roll out! In the event, Venet turned out to be one of the best students we ever had. It’s such a privilege to teach good students – more like a sharing of knowledge than a chore. Venet went on to do his PhD research with the TSSG, the highly respected telecommunications software research group at WIT, and is now continuing research in the same area with renowned international research center CREATE-NET in Italy. Definitely one of our success stories…
Last year’s conferring at WIT
Today, its back to earth and back to work on those pesky exam questions. However, 24 hours from now, I’ll be airborne – en route to Portugal for a few days break with The Surf Experience, hurrah!
Me and my laptop, that is. There’s plenty of work to be done, but it’s as easy to do in the peace and quiet of lazy evenings in the surf lodge as in a busy office in rainy Ireland. Plus, one of the chief instructors at the lodge is doing an Open University course in fundamental physics – we always have great discussions on particle physics, string theory and the mysteries of the universe!
Antimatter 