“It was the best of times and it was the worst of times” is how I describe time in graduate program in the Chemistry Department of Michigan State University.
It was the best of times because I had a great research advisor, Dr. Chris Enke, who was very supportive, open to new ideas and provided a lot of freedom. The rest of the group was great too and I made some lifelong friends. Additionally the group and myself were well supported by grants from the Office of Naval Research, NASA and a company called Extranuclear (that later became Extrel).
It was the worst of times because I was more academically challenged that many would suspect, which led to a detour through a Masters program on the way to my Doctorate. Graduate school also involved 50-60 hour weeks, 6-7 days a week and virtually no social life. In the end, it was all well worth it for it launched me on a very satisfying and successful career. Some highlights from this time period can be found below:
MSU Enke Lab 1983
After 39 years, I was able to recover the Forth source code for the Multi Micro system described in my Ph.D. Dissertation. I have included it here for completeness and maybe a bit of vanity. What is much more interesting is the process of recovering the data from 5.25″ floppy disks which is described in my 5.25″ Disk Archeology page. And Yes, Forth can be a pain to read especially if you don’t have the system to interact with.