Philosophiæ Doctor

Finally the day (03/31/08) ended with my committee members and my advisor congratulating me for successfully defending my dissertation (don't know if they had any time to go through my work!). Oh by the way, it was only recently that I found out that a PhD. work is called "dissertation" in the US and a "thesis" is relatively smaller work (like the Masters' work) while the opposite is true in Europe and in India. There is a funny anecdote: When I wanted a recommendation letter from my prof in India, he gave me a open reco which had some words like "his dissertation" (referring to my Masters' work). When I asked him if that should be a "thesis", he told me "no, a thesis is for a much larger and detailed work, as in a PhD". I am wondering why this hasn't caused any major confusion so far. Anyway, coming to my defense, not too many questions, but some pointers which were not central to my focus of research. I would say its not a great work, but a decent piece of manuscript that can be potentially used in the simulation of N-body problems to reduce the computation time to a significant level. My advisor says it has good prospects but that can happen only if I have the time, patience and energy to publish the ideas. I believe earth shattering thesis like the ones produced by de Broglie and Lebesgue will have a fair share of extreme intelligence along with the researching abilities (not to undermine the hard work that went along). I have learnt/unlearnt several things along the way - the key point being: the more one studies, the more one understands academics is abyss. Standing on the shoulders of the giants would first require the ability to stand!

P.S: A faculty in a renowned institution told his students in the class "why do you guys think a PhD is a wonderful thing, all my colleagues have them, after all!"