Last Thursday was a very important day in our household. After many long years of dedicated work, Jeran defended his doctoral dissertation! He did such a fantastic job! He got the dissertation turned in a week or two ago and had only about a week to create his PowerPoint presentation and rehearse it. Considering he had mounds of data and information that he has collected and knows, he did an amazing job keeping it short and understandable while still relaying the full message of his project, which dealt with understanding the underlying biology and mechanisms of pancreatic cancer.
(thanks to Bryan for pictures at the defense)
Presenting Dr. Stratford!*
*But don't call him that - he'll probably get mad or at least roll his eyes. As we like to say, he's "not the kind of doctor that helps people".
Jeran's mom came out to be here on the big day. Hooray! His presentation was really quite exceptional and I wish everyone could have been here. His labmates threw a very thoughtful and awesome party afterwards, including some of Jeran's favorite foods and his typical lunch foods too. Jeran requested the US-Belgium game be playing at the party also since he had missed watching it and several other World Cup games to prepare.
We later went and wandered around Duke Gardens.
Jan and Jeran at Duke Gardens
This log had 5 turtles on it sunning themselves! Another nearby had two or three on it. Some of them were moving around, displacing each other, and it was very entertaining to watch.
