Quite a lot has occurred since my last post, hence the long delay in updating. The biggest news came Tuesday last week:

I have been accepted into UAH for graduate school!

This knowledge made my NASA JPFP research proposal all the more real when I submitted it Tuesday night (at 11:59 for a midnight deadline). Knowing exactly what I’m going to do in the next few years is impossible, but planning and preparing for the future provides a wonderful sense of relief. I know that my research plan as it currently stands will change, as it changed with each draft of the proposal, but it gave me the direction that I had been wanting. With goals and the challenge to meet those goals comes anticipation and excitement. I can hardly wait to begin!

The research proposal outlines my plans to use Swift’s BAT and XRT to study GRB physics and properties, statistical analysis, high-energy detectors, theoretical burst and afterglow models, and, at a later point, get involved in GBM science when GLAST is launched. The proposal itself is ten times better than my NSF proposal, and could have been even more cohesive with a little more time (largely my fault; time management has never been my strong point).

I would especially like to thank Sandy, the best advisor ever.

My next major project is to prepare for the Florida Academy of Sciences meeting in a month, which I am helping to plan and implement. I will be giving a 10-minute talk on my work on GRBs.