Getting a foot in the door

YES!

Finally, after meeting 3 researchers, I've found a supervisor (the 4th one I'd met within this 2 weeks) for my honors thesis.

Had a chat with Dr Taylor earlier this week on Monday and because maritime issues are not is forte, he kindly referred me to his colleague, Dr Ron Huisken. Being his colleague, Dr Huisken's office was just down the corridor so I decided to pop by and see if he's around. The door is ajar and lights are on but he's no where to be found. Fortunately I'd browsed through SDSC's website previously and thus could remember his face. A little hunt in SDSC subsequently found him in Dr Hugh White (Head of SDSC)'s office. So I waited outside for their meeting to be over before catching Dr Huisken as he walked back to his office.

Back in his office, Dr Huisken listened attentively and keenly as I gave a mini oral-presentation on my proposed honors thesis. When I was done, he uttered the magical sentence, "If you're happy, I'm happy to supervise you for your honors thesis." I couldn't stop grinning. The effort has finally paid off. We chatted about how to narrow down the scope of the thesis and some other random issues. Apparently, he's married to a Singaporean (whom he'd met in Perth) and he had a short stint in intel. Ain't that quite a perfect match?

So what's left now is to seriously draft up something concrete for the actual application. On that note, I believe I'd have to work closely with Dr Huisken to streamline my thoughts into something that's do-able. At the same time, that draft would assist me in my application for the 2009/10 Summer Research Scholarship (SRS). Hopefully, I'd be qualified to do both the SRS and honors. Let's just keep our fingers crossed and wait for the good news for now...