Saturday, June 30, 2018

Saying Goodbye to Jessica


This is Jessica and I have photographed her and written about here before.  We have known each other for about ten years now, when, as a high school sophomore, she showed up at our astronomy club and wanted to build a telescope and grind and polish a mirror.  So I helped mentor her as she started on the project.  She graduated from high school and went to the State University of New York at Stony Brook.  After four years, she graduated with a triple major, believe it or not: physics, astronomy and mechanical engineering!  It took her only one more year to get her masters!  Then she went to work for a large science facility on Long Island, helping with engineering work for testing the detector for a giant astronomical telescope.  When she started at Stony Brook, we would meet every now and then at a Dunkin' Donuts just down the street from her parent's house, when she was visiting them, and catch up on what was new.  Well, she has just been accepted at the University of Arizona for her PhD studies!  So this was our last Dunkin' meeting before she moves to Tucson, with her partner, and begins her studies.   All of a sudden, a whole lot of years have gone by!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Jessica. Impressive. I remember when you first posted about this high school student.

Anonymous said...

Amazing what she has accomplished. Congratulations to her. How could it have been 10 since since you first posted about her on your blog. betsey