Question: Who’s A…BD…forever?
By Thoreau
Answer: Guitarist Brian May from Queen. He’s finally finishing his Ph.D. in astrophysics, after 30 years.
The lesson is that no matter how bad you think your grad school experience was, there’s somebody out there who took even longer to finish. The world’s oldest university, the University of Al-Karaouine in Morocco, has a Ph.D. student who enrolled in 859 and is still working on his dissertation. I know what you’re thinking: How could he live so long? The answer is that he actually died, but as punishment for his sins he was sent back to complete his dissertation. But the project is taking longer than expected, because he’s a mathematician and his advisor assigned him a simple problem involving a salesman who travels around…
Hat tip to Jim.
Comment by Neel Krishnaswami —
July 25, 2007 @ 5:49 pm
Recently someone came back to my department after a long absence to finish his PhD — apparently his tenure committee thought it would be embarassing to grant him tenure without it.
Comment by Jim Henley —
July 25, 2007 @ 8:44 pm
The Chinese never boil frogs!
Comment by Jon H —
July 25, 2007 @ 9:03 pm
“The lesson is that no matter how bad you think your grad school experience was, there’s somebody out there who took even longer to finish.”
I think Brian May’s experience is a leeeeetle bit different from that of people who sweat over a PhD for extra innings.
For one thing, most ABDs don’t get to jam on guitar on top of Buckingham Palace before an adoring crowd and without threat of being shot or arrested.
As far as I know, May noticed that not much work had been done in the field he’d worked in, so his notes would still be relevant and worthwhile. So he dug them out of the attic and spent some time finishing it up on campus.
What’s cool is that he joined the rest of the department at the pub for drinks.
The question is, how many non-Brian-May-caliber ABDs could go back after 30 years of dormancy and be allowed to finish?
(Actually, though, I suppose it’s possible May had to pay something extra to be able to restart. With his dough, he could pay for a whole PhD program all over again just to get back in.)
Comment by Jon H —
July 25, 2007 @ 9:04 pm
“But the project is taking longer than expected, because he’s a mathematician and his advisor assigned him a simple problem involving a salesman who travels around…”
With a minor in some question about some tall stacks of disks.
Comment by Karen —
July 25, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
What about the one about the two trains, one going east from Chicago . . .
When I was in high school I had an algebra problem involving the relative ages of one Melissa and her cat. The problem was to write an equation showing the relationships between Melissa’s age and the cat’s. My parents and I struggled for hours. We could get the answer but not the M!@#@64!!! equation. Finally my father gave up and called Archie Brock, head of the East Texas State math department. Archie said “Joe Fred, I haven’t done any problems with numbers in 25 years. Hell, I can’t do that.”
Comment by Thoreau —
July 25, 2007 @ 9:40 pm
I think Brian May’s experience is a leeeeetle bit different from that of people who sweat over a PhD for extra innings.
For one thing, most ABDs don’t get to jam on guitar on top of Buckingham Palace before an adoring crowd and without threat of being shot or arrested.
Yes, but just think about how much farther he could have gone in his career if he’d only finished his degree.
Comment by chris y —
July 26, 2007 @ 5:52 am
What’s astonishing is that whatever aspect of astrophysics Dr May was working on before he became distracted by other matters is still sufficiently relevant to be worth finishing.
Comment by Barry —
July 26, 2007 @ 7:53 am
He probably worked on something involving the Moon, which hadn’t been studied since the Apollo program ended.
Comment by Jon H —
July 26, 2007 @ 11:33 am
“He probably worked on something involving the Moon, which hadn’t been studied since the Apollo program ended.”
I believe his field is interstellar dust clouds. Or maybe gas clouds.
Comment by Jon H —
July 26, 2007 @ 11:38 am
“Yes, but just think about how much farther he could have gone in his career if he’d only finished his degree.”
All those years of thankless labor in obscurity…
Oh, the weight of regret he must carry.
Comment by Jon H —
July 26, 2007 @ 11:39 am
Oh, and apparently he finished the PhD despite already having been given an honorary one.
That’s something.