Abstract
Richard says,
I’ve checked Tom’s responses and they’re all OK (attached). So all we need now is the letter from me as HoS to confirm that the required changes have been addressed to the satisfaction of the HoS, please. Then it’ll be “hello, Dr Tom”
As you can probably tell, I’ve finished the changes to my thesis and now have to prepare a 65-80 word abstract to be read at my graduation. The Graduate Research School suggests that I should cover ‘what you did’, ‘what you found out’ and ‘the signficance of what you found out’. I would love to have the following text read during the ceremony, which will be a ‘very special occasion’.
Dr Rayner collected 2000 fish from the Mulgrave River, squeezed their guts and sorted one piece of microscopic mush from another. His results showed that fish eat pretty much the same mush all the time, despite changing levels of mush in the environment. While his results challenge international paradigms of mush consumption, Dr Rayner hopes his research will have more important ramifications - such as helping to convince pissed idiots at Ye Olde Gordonvale Hotel that he isn’t a ‘c***’.
You can submit your version below…
March 1st, 2007 at 1:15 pm
you could be pushing more fully processed mush up hill on that last count.
March 1st, 2007 at 1:44 pm
My suggestion for an abstract:
“Dr Rayner achieved the exalted status of a Doctor of Philosophy by leaping from high mountains and surviving, crossing vast plains on a bright red fixie, fighting with huge and expensive Alaskan hamburgers, winning many rounds of poker and showing his dominance by smashing the place up when he lost.
He also worked out the taxonomy of fish mush by twitching 100 birds in 24 hours, twitching 15 endemic bird species in Tassie, winning the Good Guys mammoth photography competition, and ascended the summit of a little known mountain on Hinchinbrook Island with the help of 2 trusted sherpas.
In the midst of all this he printed Dominators t-shirts for 500 of his closest friends and restored 23 bicycles that he found ‘abandoned’ at the University or by the roadside.
The result of all this activity is that he gets to wear some medieval clothing for a day and, according to his blog on MySpace now has absolutely no friends.
Well done Tom.’
March 1st, 2007 at 4:15 pm
see that lock, we’ve been reduced to sherpas
March 2nd, 2007 at 9:34 am
Trusted sherpas
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:01 am
I can vouch that Dr Rayner began research on “fish out of water” at an early age. Most of the study was undertaken in a typical suburban backyard.
March 6th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Suggested summary:
“COME ON!!!!!”
followed by a stage dive (I imagine this could look pretty good in full gown).