Academics – The Rottman Family Adventures

Dissertation Defense

January 30, 2013 by Jeff Leave a Comment

So after a solid 5 years the day had finally arrived. Although it is fairly certain by the time you get to this point, it is still rather stressful. I essentially get to stand up and present my last few years worth of research and then get it poked and prodded by both my peers and my committee consisting of my advisor and 2 other professors. I had invited a good number of people and quite a few were able to attend. The little room was standing room only! Many people from my department came as well as Phil and Luke from Rincon and Jon Vandegeest made the trek across the street as well. I really appreciated having them all there. Then, after about and hour of presentation, 30 minutes of questions and another 2 hours of questions and discussion with my committee, it was official!

It was pretty surreal. It was hard to really grasp that it was all done. I think I’ve just now started to realize that I’m never going back to that. We had made great plans for Beth to be able to attend and to let Clara sleep in my office, but Clara just didn’t want to cooperate, so Beth got to hover outside in the hallway. Luckily we got to grab a relaxing lunch afterward with just our family. I was really thankful for all of the work Beth put in to getting snacks and drinks for the defense as well as getting herself and Clara there for the day.

That night Beth and I made plans to do something we had been planning to do for quite some time. I got a tattoo and Beth got her nose pierced! We had debated it since our Spain trip (we didn’t do it then since Beth was pregnant) and decided that we wanted to get it done in Tucson. We went to the Black Rose in downtown Tucson for Beth’s piercing, which went really fast. We then had to go to their other location on 4th Ave to get my tattoo as all the artists at that location were booked up for the night. It ended up being a little bit later night than we had planned, which made it interesting with Clara, but she did great. The tattoo (which I’ll get a picture up of at some point) is of a cross inside of triangle. I chose this design as it was reminiscent of the picture that Ricky Jones (our RUF pastor at State) drew for me when describing the gospel. It represents the cross reaching down from the Godhead to man. It was the first time that I truly understood its power.

Extent of Reaction

September 6, 2011 by Jeff 1 Comment

As studying for Orals is coming to a fervent end I am reminded of the term in kinetics known as the extent of reaction. This describes how far a certain process or reaction will proceed under the given conditions. With my date with the committee set for tomorrow at 2pm, I find myself rapidly approaching this limit, my own “extent of study”. After covering around 8 textbooks, 5 undergraduate courses and 8 graduate courses, I’m about spent. Not to mention the time; most every night spent at a coffee shop until close along with the majority of Saturdays. Thank God for rest on Sunday.

It has been a stressful few weeks and it has been particularly difficult the last day or two to temper that stress with God’s sovereignty. We are told that we should not be anxious, but to instead to present everything before the Father with prayer and thanksgiving. This is a beautiful principle to believe in, but a very difficult one to put into practice. I find it easier for me to attempt to heap more stress upon myself and to ignore God’s gracious hand. I know that, whatever the outcome, it is for His glory and my benefit. I just hope He glories in my passing.

Studying for Orals

August 25, 2011 by Jeff Leave a Comment

With my Oral Comprehensive Exam coming up in a few weeks (Sept. 7th) pretty much all the time I am not at work is spent studying. This week my schedule has been essentially fully regimented (since Beth is out of town), getting up at 6am to work out before heading to work, leave work around 5pm, head home to eat then off to the coffee shop (Cartel Coffee Lab as of late) to study until they close at 10pm.

I’ve covered a lot of material this week which in some ways has renewed my interest in my field and also allowed me to condense these multiple subjects into a more cohesive knowledge base. Tonight I finished up covering my reactor design textbook. I’ll tell you though, nothing takes away your desire to read other books in the small amount of spare time I have than spending hours reading textbooks.

Hopefully I’ll keep this pace up and can feel very prepared leading up to the exam.