hello tweets,

there are many of you whom i've never met but i have spent so much
time reading your messages, both public and private, that i feel we
are friends. i just wanted to announce to you that i have accomplished
one of my life's dreams ... a rare event for anyone ... and i wanted
to share this with you.

i am now a fully fledged PhD. my defense occurred this morning and it
went incredibly well and, perhaps most shocking of all, i did not (as
i'd feared) dissolve into a puddle of tears at the end of it. i guess
that spending most of yesterday in near-hysterics was sufficient to get
that out of my system for a couple days.

i will be moving to NYC shortly to accept the chapman postdoctoral
fellowship at the american museum of natural history. for my postdoc,
i will construct a molecular phylogeny of the lories (Loriinae), the
brush-tongued parrots from the south pacific islands. some of you
know that i have spent a good part of my life breeding lories, so you
can probably appreciate the intense joy that winning this postdoc
brings me, particularly because i see this as the launching point for
the rest of my life, where i will have the great priviledge to study
my beloved birds, the lories.

i will probably lurk on tweeters, and maybe report a few sightings
to make you salivate with envy. but really, i would really love it if
you guys let me know when you visit NYC, maybe you would like to
drop in on the museum when you are there?

it's been great to know such a fun group of bird people. take care
of each other and don't forget what happened to the woman who got
everything she wished for ... (she lived happily ever after). it can
happen to you, too, if you work hard for it!

regards,

Devorah A. N. Bennu, PhD email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
After September 2002: Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow
The American Museum of Natural History, New York City
Visit me on the web: http://students.washington.edu/~nyneve/
Love the creator? Then protect the creation.