Oregon Connection

I'm a little off chronologically with this post, but wanted to let you know about the visit from Brian's Oregon PhD advisor. Professor Mike Raymer was in Oxford for about 1 1/2 weeks before we left for the Royal Society Soiree. Just getting to the post about it now, because I had left our camera at a BBQ, and was behind in getting camera back and downloading photos.

To make a long story short, Professor Raymer used to teach and research at the University of Rochester New York before Oregon. His first graduate student was Ian Walmsley. As you've heard, Ian is now Brian's new advisor here at Oxford. To throw more fun into the family mix, there is a new professor, Matt Anderson, taking sabatical here at Oxford in the physics department. He was one of Professor Raymer's graduate students before Brian. Matt also was a postdoc with Professor Walmsley back at Rochester. And the funnest part of all, is that Matt and his family just moved into the same building that Brian and I live in in Oxford!

Obviously Professor Raymer and Brian worked a lot on collaborative work, and finished up a paper they had together from Oregon. But there was time to do some fun things as well.

On the Friday night Professor Raymer was here, we went out to dinner at Pizza Express and went to an modernized outdoor play of Shakepeare's Hamlet at the Oxford Castle. Gina also joined in for the evening and we were so glad the rain held off! Stopped at the Eagle and Child pub for a quick pint afterwards. The Eagle and Child is a well known Oxford pub where The Inklings met. The Inklings were an authors group including and discussed all important things. Authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

Sunday night we had Professor Raymer over for dinner at our flat. It was nice to visit with him here, have some wine, and listen to his great music online. Not only do Brian and Professor Raymer share a passion in physics, but they both love guitar playing and classic rock and blues music!

Tuesday was July 3rd and Ian and his wife Kate hosted a BBQ to celebrate the 4th of July for the few of us Americans in the group. Mike was leaving on the 4th, which is why we celebrated on the 3rd. It was rainy as it's been all month, so we were inside. But had great burgers and great company. And not only do Mike and Brian like guitar playing - so does Ian and Matt! And Ian even had his guitars all set up so they could take turns jamming together. They were having a great time and I took a ton of pics.