The four NASA winners each got to give a 30 minute presentation on their research. Here I'm pointing out that one definition of the glass transition is that the viscosity of the material is more than ten trillion times larger than that of water. What's interesting about that is that the factor of ten trillion is arbitrary, we could have picked something else. Usually in science we have more precise definitions than this, and there are in fact more precise definitions of what a glass is; yet this definition is a pretty common one nonetheless. A copy of the slide that I'm talking about is below.
 Being handed my certificate by Dr. John Grunsfeld, NASA Chief Scientist and former astronaut. |
 The four NASA PECASE winners: Eric R. Weeks, J. Marshall Shepherd, Thomas H. Zurbuchen, and Mark Simons. It was fun to meet the other award winners, they were all nice people and were doing very interesting research. Note which person didn't wear a suit, although he was spotted wearing a suit the following day at the White House ceremony, see below. |
 Outside the Executive Office Building before the White House ceremony. |
 Getting my award from John Grunsfeld (NASA Chief Scientist, left) and John Marburger, White House Science Advisor. Our camera wasn't working so well so the picture is a little blurry. |