Thesis defense
On this day, I successfully defended my thesis. Rather than the end, this is the start of my academic journey!
Defending a thesis
Although the last mile of my PhD may not have been the hardest, I can confidently say it hasn’t exactly been a piece of cake either. Condensing all the work done in the past four years into a 30-minute presentation has not been an easy task, especially preparing to answer and defend it in front of a committee of professors. Eventually, I was able to keep within the allotted time for the presentation, and I am glad to say that the committee was satisfied with my work. They specifically praised the quality of the work done, and the clarity of the presentation - which I am very proud of. The question round lasted 1 extra hour after the presentation, and although I didn’t feel any of the time passing by, I was exhausted by the end of the day. I suspect the adrenaline rush of the presentation kept me going, but boy did I crash when got home :)
Celebrating success
After the defense, I had a small but very nice celebration with Prof. Naumann, my colleagues, and my family who came to visit me for the occasion. It was way more emotional than I expected. I felt overwhelmed with gratitude and luck to have met and worked with such amazing people, and for the support that I received along the way. It was a very special moment, and I will cherish it forever. On a lighter note, my colleagues prepared me a very nice gift, keeping with the tradition of the group: a PhD hat full of references and inside jokes to me and my work.
Here is a picture of the hat itself, can you guess the meaning for some items by yourself? :)
The future
As I mentioned in the introduction, this is not the end of my academic journey, but rather the start of it. I decided to pursue a career in academia, and I am in the process of starting a postdoc position at the beginning of 2024, which I am very excited about. I won’t say much about it yet, because I don’t want to anticipate anything, but I will update this page as soon as I have more news. Suffice to say, I’ll move a bit farther away from Italy this time around, across the pond ;)
