Out of the Dark Age

...or something.
My department is famous, unfortunately, for being rather male-dominated. Out of 30 full-time faculty, only one is a woman. There is hope however, in that the department is going on an all out hiring binge that will hopefully bring in more folks than old, white dudes (very Texas, no?).

But there is recent good news: that lone female professor (who is an amazing researcher and is highly respected in the field, chairs many committees both nationally and within the department and was president of the Geological Society of America in the 90's) has been named the new department chair. I think this move is important in encouraging talented women scientists to apply for positions within the department and shows dedication on the part of the higher-ups to highlighting 'diversity' as a priority.

Thoughts?

For real, though

Ok. Some brilliant scientist really needs to do a study on how time flies!! This past month has been cr-azay.
I am an official PhD candidate! My qualifying exam was easily the most horrible thing that has ever happened to me in my life--when I left the room while my committee decided my fate I was pretty resigned to giving up on geophysics and becoming a yoga instructor, or working in a yarn store.
But somehow, they decided that I'm worthy and let me pass--without even any additional coursework--hell yeah! Though there were definitely things that I need to brush up on. (Since when can a geophysicist not draw a freakin' travel time curve?!? I don't know where my brain went on that one.)

I may do some further posts on the exam itself--but, who really wants to hear about that?

A new Scientiae Carnival is up. You can read the posts here.

I also want to than A+ and Lab Cat for their comments recently!