Thanos' PhD Defense (August 26, 2002)

After five very busy years, the time came to defend! Those days are now a blur (partially due to lack of sleep), and it is good that I could have at least a few photographs as a testament. Everybody was there! Luz, Dimitris, and all the members of the group. MY seminar took place at 10 in the morning (here is the announcment). I was up to 4 am preparing the talk.... So, before everybody else came, Luz and I went to the seminar room and prepared the laptop:

A pose right before the presentation (I was so nervous!!!!)

One more pose please....

Well, believe it or not, the presentation finished! Here are two members of the committee (from right to left: Rick Flagan, John Seinfeld) and Costas Giapis came for comments.

After everything was finished (and I passed !), it was time to relax (I was sooo tired! I think it really shows in the photos, BTW) and take some photos. Here is one with Luz

And one with Dimitri Antso

And of course, Tim and Serena! Here they are, after they gave me a present (a really cool desk-clock, so I can always be on ... time).

Well, after everything was finished, John threw a lunch party, with pizza and drinks for the whole group. I brought Ouzo, Tequilla and Champange for all.

From here and on, it's all pictures from that lunch. From left to right: Alfredo Martinez, Bill Conant, Tim Vanreken and Serena Chung.

We are a big group, right?

You could see that it's about 1 pm. After a few drinks, everybody is happy, and all sorts of memories come to mind.

My personal request was a tequilla toast with everybody. Even John had a good-sized shot!

Another picture with Luz. Isn't she lovely?

Me and Ann Hilgenfeldt. She is John's personal assistant. We all love her.

The rest of the day was all about relaxing, and unwinding. No pictures were taken..... :)