I'm all DONE!!! On Tuesday March 2, 2010, I successfully defended my PhD thesis ('Iron intake through groundwater and iron status of women in rural Bangladesh") at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. What an exciting day that was made all the better by my dad and sister coming in town and Scott skipping work to join me. The day consisted of my 1 hour public seminar describing what I did for the past 5 years and what it all means in the world of public health for women of reproductive age followed by a closed oral exam with a committee of professors that could last as long as 2 hours but luckily ended up being just about 1 hour.

Here is a photo of me with my committee (from left to right: Drs. Eliseo Guallar, Keith West, Parul Christian, Tom Burke):

My presentation wasn't until 2pm and I spent all morning trying to keep my excitement for finishing under control. This excitement completely trumped my nerves; I couldn't even think about anything that might go wrong during the presentation or exam. "Who cares what happens during my oral exam. This is a day to celebrate the completion!" is all I could think all morning. Finally by 5pm I was in fact done and calm Becky Day re-surfaced.
After the defense my friends, family, and people from my office celebrated on campus with some h'ors d'oeuvres and champagne (and sparkling juice pour moi) before going out to a wonderful dinner with my family and I and my advisor, Keith West, and his wife, Marie, and Parul Christian who I have worked closely with during the degree.
My oh my, the day was filled with so many emotions. On the drive home from dinner around 9:30pm I almost fell asleep in the car. Phew – all done.