I passed my PhD qualifier examination! I am now officially a PhD candidate, as opposed to a PhD student (whatever that means). I wish I could say it went well, but in all honesty, it felt quite brutal. With all that said, what's done is done, and I passed, so I feel relieved. My prof, and my committee members raised several discussion points about my research proposal, that I think will be useful when it comes time to write papers (and my dissertation, eventually). In any case, it is clear to me more than ever that is much work, and learning, to be done.

So here I am, on my first conference. I'm staying in the heart of Paris, a few minutes from Notre-Dame and Sorbonne University Pierre and Marie Curie Campus. I am to give a short talk overviewing the current status of the spectrometer at the University of Toronto, as well as any new research that is being done with the measurements from the spectrometer. I rehearsed several times, but apprehension does not seem to go away.

Today, I picked up several packages from my "mail box" at the Physics Department, as well as a copy of the key to my office. When I was handed the key, the receptionist asked if I was doing a PhD or a masters, and upon hearing my answer, she simply said, "oh, good luck."

I never really gave much thought to the so-called "imposter syndrome," but boy, is it real.