Thanksgiving

I was able to take some time off to spend Thanksgiving in Iowa with Brian and Leila.  The weather was beautiful and the food was great.  It is so nice to see and spend time with the girls.  They showered me with attention and made me feel loved and welcomed.  Leila created a Thanksgiving feast that looked as good as it tasted.  Emily and I managed to find time to slip away and go on a bike ride together.  Brian shared his woodworking projects with me (current and future).

Learning and the Brain Conference

Just returned from Boston where I was attending the Learning and the Brain conference.  This year's conference was titled, Preparing Students for the 21st Century.

Many very well known researchers and writers in the fields of education, learning, and brain research such as Howard Gardner and his theory of multiple intelligences.  It is really fun to be able to attend their presentations and see them in person after having studied their theories in school.

I attended with a friend, Carmelina, and we spent one evening in Little Italy in the North End of Boston.  Saw the Old North Church from Paul Revere fame. Ate dinner in a wonderful little Italian restaurant.  Afterwards waited in line at Mike's Pastries for a memorable mint chocolate chip cannoli. 

I'm getting a little travel weary.  I am home now, but somehow they forgot to put my luggage on the airplane at the Boston airport.  They are shipping it on a later flight, but I will not get it until tomorrow.  I hope it comes first thing in the morning, because I am flying again to Iowa to spend Thanksgiving with Brian and family.

Meeting Astronauts!

Tuesday I had an invite to attend the official NASA Astronaut Class Introduction.  Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, introduced the newest class of astronaut graduates at a live TV event at NASA Headquarters in DC.  A class of middle school students from a local school were also invited.  It was a cool moment when Charles Bolden acknowledged the Einstein Fellows in the audience on live TV.  They showed a short video and then presented the new astronauts and opened it up to questions.  Afterwards, I was bold enough to ask if they would let us get a picture with the new astronauts.

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Technology

This week I traveled with two other Einstein Fellows to Portland Oregon for the Grace Hopper Celebration.

Fellow Einsteins at Grace Hopper.

Fall is beautiful in Portland.

People were lined up around the block and waiting in the rain for one of Portland's famous Voodoo donuts.

Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu

Sec. Chu is 4th from the left.

October 28 I traveled to NASA Goddard with other Einstein Fellows to to listen to a presentation by Steven Chu, Nobel Prize winner in Physics and now Secretary of Energy for the United States of America.  It was important to President Obama that this important position in our government be held by someone that was a scientist first, politician second.  His talk was titled, How Innovation has Changed [and will continue to change] the World. He noted some key discoveries:

Haber-Bosch Process that made it possible to harvest nitrogen in the air for fertilizer and changed the world's ability to feed itself.

Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize for the development of a new disease resistant wheat that is credited for saving a billion people worldwide from starvation .

William Shockley's development of the transistor from the vacuum tubes.

Integrated circuits - optical fibers - wireless communication.

He ended with a plea for continued investment in Research and Development by the US which is currently 9th in the world for annual R&D investment.  We need, "Invented in America, made in America, and sold worldwide."