Life of Wry

Jim watches Peter teaching an introductory fluids class to about 40 mechanical engineering students. We’re watching on Jim’s phone a lecture Peter delivered a couple months ago, the link of which he finally sent yesterday (just before he left for the airport for his Europe trip with Maya).

Over the past three years of Peter’s PhD studies at UM, Jim and I have listened to hours and hours of his explanations of turbulence, SPOD, perturbations, Navier-Stokes (and more) … and so we are familiar with the cadence, delivery and content — even as we don’t understand a word of it. (I, personally, could listen to him talk all day, even as my eyes glaze over and my mind wanders.) I think we both pick up on his enthusiasm for his subject/s and his insistence that we can absorb this, if he just tries one more time to explain it.

I got a particular kick out of his students’ questions and comments, and Peter’s response to those. I couldn’t really assess their understanding, or the quality of their questions — or his answers — but I liked those interactions a lot.

Peter was a TA this semester for Aaron’s intro fluids class. This was his first opportunity to teach a class (and it was just one class; he took the helm as Aaron was at a conference that week). But he’s been doing office hours, answering students’ questions and helping with homework, all semester. He’s also been helping develop and grade quizzes and reviewing weekly homework. I think it’s been a real eye opener for him, and has been something he’s enjoyed for the most part. It was a real close-up view of the tasks and day-to-day life of a professor. It’s a long way from here to there, if there is a there there, but/and I think he remains motivated to pursue that academic path. We shall see. Jim and I are true bystanders in this journey… Peter is steering his own course. I think the academic life would suit him, but, again, it’s a long row to hoe and a lot could happen in the meantime. For us, it’s all good; he’ll make the right decisions when the time comes.

It was too bad the grad students’ union went on strike part-way through the semester, though. Peter ultimately joined the strike (though was not entirely supportive of the demands they were seeking), but was sorry it happened during his first TA gig. He had to forgo some of his TA tasks, but at least got to lecture a class before the strike began.

Anyway… big thrill for us. He sounded just like our guy, sitting on the couch with us, excitedly explaining his research and answering our dumb questions. But he also sounded like some big fancy grad student giving a lecture to a class of intro students, sounding confident and in command.

How cool is that?