Playa Conchal, Costa Rica

Surf Camp, Tamarindo

Earrings

Tamarindo Airport

Our journey home started in this little airport just outside Tamarindo. The plane (mini van with wings) took off from here on a gravel runway, or should I say driveway... From there we flew ten minutes away to Liberia, where we landed and all 6 passengers got off the plane except for us. Javier and I had our own private flight to San Jose, which was awesome! See the photo of our friendly (teenage?) pilots below. Does Sansa Air have a frequent flyer program???

Sansa Pilots

Mia

Morning Sun, Alajuela

Silla

Basura

Congratulations Javier!

Congratulations on the job offer! I’m so proud of how far you’ve come. Thomas Edison said “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”. You are living proof of this.

It’s amazing to look back an remember where you came from and the journey you have taken to get here. It has been an evololution of the professor in the making...all the way from little Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Flashback to grad school: working all hours of the night, working weekends, ‘mixing potions’, science camp, writing a thesis (remind me again what language that was)* , getting a postdoc with a world renowned scientist, becoming group coordinator, more late hours, more weekends, more writing, more publishing, more lectures, completing your molecule Nankakarine!

Enter the interview season: Preparation started in the spring, waking up at 5am everyday to work on your proposals before heading to work. Revision, revision, revision for months to follow. Then the submission of 35 or so applications, followed by traveling, writing, speaking and trying to sell yourself in 48 short hours after 8 years of long, hard work.

At last, job offers. Buffalo, Delaware, Santa Barbara and potentially UNC (had they not cancelled their search).

Somehow weaved into all this was quality time you spent with me, with friends and family along with adventures and trips here and there. Not to mention your help and support getting Pica Press off the ground and running strong. After all is said and done, you are still a wonderful person. You have managed to keep things in perspective and it has made all the difference.

I know you hate being in the spotlight, but you are an inspiration and deserve to be celebrated, if only by this little blog entry. We are all so proud of you and excited for the new challenge that lies ahead. Congratulations professor! As our friend Huw would say “You are a scholar, a gentleman and a true friend!”

xoxo
sooze

*A Highly Enantio-and Diastereoselective Intramolecular Stetter Reaction Catalyzed by Chiral Triazolinylidene Carbenes: Catalyst and Reaction Development and Mechanistic Studies”