[kevins]

congratulation Dr. Mitch.

[owen886]

what i could only say is also congratulations!

[movies]

I wonder - do we know what is the situation of other graduate students staff members? Movies? hmx9123?

I hadn't noticed this topic, so my apologies for my late congratulations to Mitch!

As for me, I defended in June of 2009 and have moved on to a postdoc position now.  So far so good – looking to land a job sometime next winter!

[Borek]

I defended in June of 2009

Congratulations!

Glad to see you have not forgot about us completely

[Dan]

I also recently defended (successfully) - last week actually! Just waiting for the examiners to approve minor corrections, then I can submit the final hardbound version.

I've now moved from carbohydrates to a postdoc in transition metal catalysis methodology.

[Borek]

Wow, congrats to you too

Soon we will have enough PhDs to open our own university

[movies]

Thanks and congrats to you too, Dan!  I hope you enjoy the transition metal thing; I have kind of gone in the other direction, working on enantioselective transition metal chemistry and total synthesis in grad school to what amounts to medicinal chemistry (with some enantioselective catalysis) for my postdoc.  It is always good to learn new things!

[azmanam]

While we're horn-tooting, I defended back in July, 2010, and am starting my second semester teaching at a small, primarily-undergraduate, liberal arts university in the midwest (US)

My congrats also go out to Dan, Movies, and others who recently escaped the clutches of PhD hell

[408]

PhD hell

The pay yes, but surely some others actually enjoy it?

[azmanam]

some others actually enjoy it?

Those are, as yet, unconfirmed rumors. 

Or government plants.

[nj_bartel]

Didn't realize we had so many doctorates!  Congrats to all

[Dan]

I have kind of gone in the other direction, working on enantioselective transition metal chemistry and total synthesis in grad school to what amounts to medicinal chemistry (with some enantioselective catalysis) for my postdoc.  It is always good to learn new things!

Ah, medchem with chirality excites me. Belated congrats, and good luck. Yeah, I wanted to try something new - I spent 4.5 years doing target synthesis from the carbohydrate chiral pool with no need for asymmetric catalysis, loved it, but I thought catalysis methodology would be an interesting way to broaden my experience.

The weird thing is going back into the lab as a properly paid professional having been out of the lab for months with writing up, conference, moving cities. Your hands don't quite know what to do at first! Ah, but the feel of purple nitrile on your skin again... a pair of tweezers in your hand, a new manifold in your hood and a faint whiff of EtOAc in your nostrils. It feels good. I actually missed doing columns - I never thought I would!