My time in Kabanov Lab was amazing.
My advisor, though incredibly busy, was exactly the kind if advisor I needed.
I'll also say I'm the kind of student he needed.
Today, he reposted my new profile picture on facebook and wrote
Philise, for you being my first African American PhD graduate trainee I thank you again for this inspirational image. It made me reflect more on the presidency of Barak Obama. Historians and political scientists for many years to come will analyze and argue about his successes and failures as they always do. But at the end it all will be seen as a great success. I am absolutely convinced that if our Nation survives and prospers for centuries (which I hope it will) President Obama will be viewed as a great American President of Lincolnian proportion. And it is not so much because he was the first African American President, but to a great extent due to the exceptional virtues - dignity, grace, eloquence, patience, thoughtfulness, education - he and the First Lady have demonstrated. This sum of the great virtues that any Presidency I know has yet to match. God bless.
What's most significant about this is that my boss had never successfully graduated an American before I graduated. He felt like a failure because of it. He said as much. So he needed me just like I needed him. And even when it was hard and I wasn't sure I'd ever get to PhD candidacy, I never for one second thought the man wasn't trying to make me a better scientist.
I defended in 2014.
The man is still smitten in 2017.
I'd say mission accomplished.
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