Not so monsoonal...

I'm Moving to France!...and Cleveland?

I found a new advisor, new project, new goals. I no longer am the Quantum Dots guy, I am now Mr. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, that name hasn't stuck yet but I am working on it. The project is to design hierarchical porous microstructures for solid oxide fuel cells. In this way they can become more efficient,durable, reliable, and economical, at least that's what is being said in the Grant proposal. The project is a joint effort with SIMAP labs in Grenoble, France. This means that over the next four years I will be living in the French alps for approximately 9 months.

The project is currently being funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) since this is a governmental entity I'm supposedly not at liberty to discuss any further details of the project. My advisor (Dr. Bordia) is having me solicit for funding from other sources however. I am in the process of sending in my proposal to NASA for further funding. If the proposal succeeds I will be an official employee of NASA meaning I will have to do research for them as well. Unfortunately this means that on top of France I'll be living in Cleveland for about two summers. It seems that I won't have any time in Seattle!

Beautiful, clear, cold weather today. This is the view from West Seattle where Eli and I explored today. The tallest building is the Columbia tower. In case you were wondering, the Space needle is on the left-hand side. :)

Teaching has been going very well for the most part. Lot's of grading and dealing with whining. I had a girl get cut, a guy got burned, but it could have been a lot worse. My students think that I grade too hard, I have a few that want to meet with me and complain. They are kinda spoiled in my opinion. I'm trying to break them down :) Feel the pain that I felt in Undergrad. This is a picture I took of them putting a ceramic crucible full of aluminum into a furnace.

This coming week is New Grad Student visit day (my cousin Jason was admitted to UW) so I have to play gracious host to all the incoming grad students because I'm the junior member of my research group. On top of visit day this weekend I am in charge of Olympus week next week because my boss will be out of town and she said I'd be best for the job. Essentially Olympus week is a four day event where Olympus brings in about four top of the line microscopes (optical, laser, confocal, stereo and video) and teaches our juniors how to use them during the day and then makes sales pitches to local companies in the evenings. There will be speakers, workshops, and meetings, and I have to deal with everything, including the obnoxious Olympus rep. He's looks and acts like this guy.

Rachel visited: We took Seattle by storm (no pun intended). We were given free pitchers of beer and pizza for both being so attractive. Rachel it transpires fits PERFECTLY on my tiny couch. She is the largest person that could possibly live full time in my apartment. So if you are below 4'11" and about 100 pounds then you are in luck.

p90x:
I completed day 30 and decided it was going to kill me. I can now do a lot of pullups which is cool, but I'd rather get exercise outside or play raquetball or something. Speaking of which, I took my bike out yesterday and mid bike ride my back axle decided to shear away from the wheel. In a completely ironic and serendipidous way this happened RIGHT outside of a bike repair shop.

Archie! That is all.