Wooden Plaque for PhD student

Wooden Plaque for graduating PhD student Dr. Zheqi (Vaciry) Lee

Several years ago, I started making little plaques with names and degree for students in the @leeoesterreichlab after they receive their PhD. Today I can finally say congratulations to Zheqi “Vaciry” Li (@vaciryli), who had to defend his dissertation via Zoom this week. But he nailed it! This plaque is made from walnut, ambrosia maple, and cherry, and the design is roughly inspired by architecture from Huishan Ancient Town near Vaciry’s hometown of Wuxi, China. I have to give special thanks to @chelseachen655 and @kaiding568 for providing and proofing the characters.

Vaciry defending his dissertation (via video thanks to covid-19).

Emily Bossart PhD Plaque – Daniel D. Brown, 2018

Congratulations, Dr. Bossart! (@emiloulou14).
Here’s a quick little plaque I made for her in celebration of her completing the grueling trial that is the Dissertation Defense (and grad school in general from my experience). I’ve included a few little vids so she can see a bit of what went into it (cutting the wood to size on the table saw, then sanding, scrollsawing, and finishing). One of the pics is just showing the stain test on the piece of oak I used – I had no idea it would react so dramatically with my homemade steel wool/vinegar stain. The time lapse vid shows the pine base barely reacting at all (I’m guessing fewer tannins in it).

Dr. Kira Krend and “Oahu Amakihi”

So this is pretty rad… here is recent Ph.D. recipient Dr. Kira L. Krend holding up “Oahu Amakihi,” which  I designed specifically for her.  It was commissioned as a graduation present for Kira by her friend, the illustrious scientist/writer Christie Wilcox (of “Observations of a Nerd” fame).

As mentioned in my original post, the islands in the pond are the Hawaiian islands where Kira studied the Oahu Amakihi honeycreeper (perched on Oahu) and the disease ecology of malaria (mosquito). I couldn’t really figure out a good way to get a Plasmodium into the image…