Talking about things of which I know very little

My final trip for the year was to the Australian Neutron Scattering symposium in Sydney earlier this month. I'd been invited to speak for half an hour on something. At first I wondered if they'd contacted the right person, because I've never done any experiments involving neutrons in my life (discounting some data that was collected during my PhD on some of my samples, that we couldn't make head nor tail of). But sure enough, they wanted me.

Over the last 4 years or so I've been working on a computer program that would be of interest to both the neutron and x-ray user communities (as well as being quite useful), so I opted to talk on that. I managed to get a reasonably stable version of the program ready for uploading to the IRL website before the Tekapo trip, and I prepared the talk at the same time. However I didn't have time to practise it until I arrived in Sydney. Just as well my presentation time had been scheduled for the last day. After having about 5 practise runs, I managed to get through it in the right amount of time without too many 'um's or 'don't say that you idiot's. On the day it all went down rather well which was a relief. Getting invited to speak at meetings is a big deal and it looks good on one's CV.

From here on it's just a matter of winding down to the end of the year. This week has been quite productive; next week in between the various Christmas functions I hope to be able to tidy off a lot of loose ends.

In case I don't find the time to write here again before Christmas (or in case you don't have the time to read) let me finish by wishing you all a merry Christmas and happy new year.


A picture of my house; although anyone living locally should really drive past as photos taken at night seldom do justice!

A weekend in Tekapo

Last weekend saw a bunch of us from work start the long drive to Tekapo for the 6th annual get-together of the three major nanoparticle research groups in NZ (from IRL, Vic and Canterbury) on Monday & Tuesday. The IRL lot decided to drive down on Saturday and do some short walks on the way; which we did despite the weather trying to put us off.

The week before I had been tied up with part 2 of a 'leadership development course' at work so had to put in some long hours at the end of each day to get my Tekapo presentations ready. In the end it all came off really well and sparked some quite fruitful discussion. Now I just have to find the time to pursue things...

On both afternoons we drove to Mt Cook village and did some walking: Monday to the Hooker glacier lake and Tuesday up the steep climb to Sealy Tarns. A picture says a thousand words so I will leave you with the following offerings.


Hooker glacier lake, Mt Cook hiding behind the clouds.


View from Sealy Tarns towards Mt Sefton.