We had a busy day today. Our friend John Usher, an ebullient genius from the bubbly town of Beer in Devon has spent the last few years on a Ph.D. in Music (sound recording) at McGill University here in Montreal. He finished his thesis last spring, but due to scheduling conflicts with his board of advisors he couldn't defend the darn thing for several months. So he's been bopping around different parts of the world -- Chile, Beer (of course), France and such -- and has been crashing in our extra room for the last week or so now that he's back in town.
He defended his thesis today, so Maj and I went to see the presentation. I'd never been to a thesis defense before, and it was different than I expected. I was picturing something along the lines of a parole hearing, with perhaps some fraternity hazing thrown in, but it was actually a very public lecture about his research. There were maybe 30 people in attendance -- friends, board, and curious department members -- and John gave a great lecture about his work. As one of his panel members from the Psychology department said, "You've done a good job making this really complicated issue clear enough that I could almost understand it."
It's pretty great when you see someone you like and respect really shine in what they do best, and John absolutely shone today. His thesis is on the abstruse subject of audio-spatial imaging -- how we can tell where the source of a sound is -- but he made it clear enough that I could follow along -- almost.
tags: john usher mcgill phd defense sound