Doctor Fufu

My little sister is now a PhD!

Mariana successfully defended her thesis this morning. The title is "On the Spatio-Temporal Radial Growth Response of Four Alpine Treeline Species to Climate Across Central Labrador". It sounds very exciting. Way to go Fufu! (Julia can say 'Doctor Fufu', and is working on 'dendrochronology')

Who would have thought? After a few years where it wasn't obvious what she'd end up doing, she found 'dendro' (aka dendrochronology), and grabbed on, and the rest is history. The hook was apparently a few trips North to do 'field work' in the Yukon, where the black flies are the size of small birds and you have to constantly wear a net over your face. The study at the time was pollen dispersal (which involved setting up the collectors and then waiting around several weeks for the pollen). We would hear on occasion about how they avoided bears and battery acid, learned to fight fires by helicopter, and got drunk with the locals. Lately, it's been tree rings in Labrador with long truck rides in the middle of nowhere. She would email spectacular pictures taken from a small float plane, and other pictures of her dendro buddies, nets over their faces, carrying their equipment to a campground or something.

Anyways, I ramble. The point is, she made it. Jane Goodall had her chimps, and Mariana has her tree rings.

Fufu, we are proud of you.

(just please don't use "spatio-temporal" in a sentence, ok?)

Addendum: here are some pictures of the event.