another milestone

Just presentation a research paper to the department today. So basically I have completed most of the major milestones for the PhD program half-way through the 3rd year in the program:
- qualifiers [checked]
- required coursework [checked]
- two research papers [checked]

All that remain are to conduct a one-semester lecture, and start/work/complete the dissertation. Yeah, all that remain...

paper presentation

Presented my first paper at a conference. Made a few good connections, received some good comments. Added bonus: paper was the eventual 1st runner up for Best Paper award.

1st acceptance

2 days after receiving my 1st rejection letter from the journal in March, I received an acceptance letter with nice reviews from a conference for the same paper. Accepted for presentation. A few days ago, I was notified that the paper will go into the conference's Best Paper proceedings.

Not too bad for a 1st year summer, I guess...

A post-3rd-semester recap...

I've just completed my 3rd semester in Dec 2008, and now finishing up with the 4th semester (i.e. 2nd year).

Significant milestones:

1. Cleared my qualifiers in Jan. 4 long exams in a week (Two 12-hour papers, two 4-hour papers, and 1 full day of pre-reading for 1 of the paper.) My initial plan was to start preparing for the qualifiers in Oct. However due to an urgent research project, I could only really do the readings in mid-Dec. I think I read about 120 papers - that's like 3600 pages. I seriously don't know how I did all these readings...

By God's grace, I managed to clear the qualifiers successfully. If I were to do this again (and thankfully I don't have to), I would really try to prepare much earlier. 

2. Submitted a paper to a journal in Jan....

And it just got rejected. We (the other co-authors and I) received a 2-page assessment on a paper that represents 10-months of toil. I always wonder how it would be like to read a rejection letter. Now I know. And I'm beginning to wonder how it would be like to read an acceptance letter.

So basically I'm done with coursework (although I will continue to do more....). And I just have to focus on research and more research. Trying to get a project started for this summer. Hopefully that will work out well.