Leaders Seeking God's Will - David's Defence

It is finished. On August 18, 2014 I successfully defended my PhD dissertation before an examining committee of seven, and a great cheering squad in the gallery.  It was a long defence taking nearly the full three hours, but in the end I passed without corrections.

The process for Interdisciplinary PhDs at Dalhousie University is to have an examining committee comprised of my supervisor, my three committee members, a representative from the ID PhD program, a chair appointed by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and an External Examiner.  My External was Dr. Gregory Grieve from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  The candidate (me) gives a short presentation of less than 25 minutes.  Then beginning with the External, the committee members each take turns asking questions.  There can be a break mid way through (though not in mine) and then a second round of questions.  This will continue for 1-2 hours and then the gallery and candidate leave the room while the committee deliberates.  I then wait impatiently for the chair to invite hopefully Dr. David Michels back into the room.

So I am a doctor now.  Convocation on October 7, 2014 is merely the formality, but my wife says I have to go. :-)  I was privileged to have a great supervisor and committee.  I learned a lot from each of you.  I still feel like a poser calling myself "Doctor" but I'll get there.

For those interested, please find below a re-recording of my presentation.  A little too formal and rushed for my liking but I was trying to cram 7 years of work into 25 minutes.  Enjoy the pictures - I don't like lots of text in a powerpoint.

Next week I will share some of my experiences at the Information Seeking In Context Conference ISIC 2014 in Leeds, UK.

Good to be done (Take us out Cool and the Gang.)