Comprehensive Examinations

As most of the people that will be reading this blog know, I have just finished the second year of my doctorate at Oregon State University. For those that are familiar with academia, I just passed my written and oral examinations, for those who aren't familiar, I will briefly describe the process. Basically after you finish classwork you must pass a series of detailed written examinations that test you on everything that you have learned while studying geology. At OSU, we take about 10 hours of written examinations on various geological topics. The exams are then graded by the faculty members that wrote them, and they decide if you have passed or failed. If you pass the 4 exams, you are then eligible to take your oral examinations. During the orals, the student sits in a room with 4-6 professors, and the professors ask questions to determine the depth of your knowledge, or in other words rather they think you are Ph.D. worthy (failure can lead to termination from the program). The tests not only test what you have learned in the past 6 years, but also your ability to use the knowledge that you have acquired to critically think. This being said, I passed my written examinations about three weeks ago, and Monday morning I passed my oral examinations. The examinations were very exhausting and at times painful, but an overall good experience. Upon passing my oral examinations I have advanced to Ph.D. candidacy. This means that all I have to do to complete my degree is finish my research project, and although this is a daunting task, volcano research is the reason I have remained in school so long and I look forward to completing my projects.

The Next Step

It's been a few months since I last posted, so I figured I would get on it. First of all, I defended my master's thesis on May 13th. The defense went fairly well, and I received an award for the best geology master's thesis presentation (http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/people/students/theses/spring2009/dale_burns.html). When I last posted, I was about to attend AGU in San Francisco to present my research. The conference went very well, and I made many contacts, some of which would prove very important in the following months. After AGU, I spent some time in Leggett, during which, Adam Manus and I did some recording at his place. Most of the people reading this have probably either heard Adam and I perform the song or at least heard the CD. Following the holidays, I returned to San Diego and returned to the world of research. The day before I returned to San Diego, I was invited to Oregon State University to interview for a Ph.D. position in the Volcanology, Igneous Petrology, and Economic Geology research group (http://www.geo.oregonstate.edu/research_groups/viper/).

After returning to San Diego and returning to work, I was offered the Ph.D. position at OSU, which I readily accepted. At OSU, I will be running an electron microprobe laboratory, while developing high precision micro-analytical techniques (geochemical) for studying silicic magma chambers (explosive magma chambers). The project will also require me to spend some time in the Central Andes (South America), which should be great .  At OSU, I will be joining one of the best volcanology research groups in the world, and I could not be more excited. We are set to move up to Corvallis during the last week of June.

Away from academia, I have continued playing music, and it has proven very rewarding. I started playing with a group of guys from the La Holla area about 3 months ago, and we have recently started playing shows. Two weeks ago, we played at a venue in Lee Vining, near the eastern entrance to Yosemite. The gig was great, the people at the venue were great, and of course, the scenery was out of this world. We played for about 4 hours, and I even sang a couple of songs. We have another gig this Wednesday night at the Skybox in Clairemont Mesa. 

Finally, perhaps the most exciting news, in about a week, Cerise will be finished with her bachelor's degree. She will have a degree in geology from Humboldt State University. She finished her last upper division classes while working as a science educator at the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center. If you know Cerise, give her a shout. She has put in a lot of work, and finished her bachelor's degree in a very difficult field.

Anyway, that concludes this post. I will post again after we arrive in Corvallis.

Dale Burns

December 6, 2008

The purpose of this blog is to let friends, family, or perhaps someone who is just curious, learn more about my current situation. As most of you know I now live in San Diego where I am nearing the completion of my Masters degree at San Diego State University(SDSU). My field of study is geological sciences with an emphasis on isotope geochemistry. 

Specifically, I work on lavas from Kilauea Volcano on the island of Hawaii. The project I work on uses high precision geochemistry to look at changes in source composition (i.e. what is melting) and melt production (i.e. how much magma is being produced) during recent prehistoric eruptions from Kilauea's summit magma reservoir. This past summer, I was lucky enough to present my preliminary data at a volcanology/geochemistry conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. My advisor and I spent 10 days in Iceland, and it's an experience I won't readily forget (for some pics see: www.flickr.com/dhb910). Currently, I 'm preparing to present at yet another conference. This conference (AGU) is in San Francisco from December 15-19th. I'm sure the conference will be a great time, but I sure could live without the added stress of preparing a presentation. 

 

Switching gears, I have developed a passion for playing the mandolin. I have always enjoyed bluegrass music, so the mandolin was a great choice for me. I have been playing at San Diego Bluegrass Society events, such as band scrambles and jams, and recently a small group of us have started meeting once a week and putting together some songs. We currently have a banjo player, 2-3 guitar players (rhythm and flat-picking), a stand-up bass player, and myself on the mandolin. Eventually we may do a gig or two, but for now we just jam. It's a great stress reliever and it gives me something to look forward to during the seven day work week. Also, thanks to the great people at Old Time Music here in San Diego I was able to trade some instruments and get a nice hand-carved mandolin. It's great, it cuts right through a jam even with 2-3 banjos playing. 

Finally concluding this blog, after I present in San Francisco I will be returning to Leggett for ~2 weeks, if you are in town and want to get together give me a call(my number is the same as it's been since I was 14)

One more thing, if anyone would rather get in contact by email my address is: dhb910 at gmail.com