CONGRATULATIONS, Amaya !!
Yesterday I sat in on my first dissertation defense, that of my good friend and lab-mate, Amaya Becvar. It was unbelievable! Jim Hollan opened the session with a story of his first interaction with Amaya (then an unknown graduate student in Bio-Chemistry who wrote such a phenomenal essay in his undergrad HCI class, he was convinced it was plagiarism. It was not!!) Amaya proceeded to do a excellent job of presenting her dissertation work of the past three years. Her composure, attention to details, and mastery of the material was immediately evident; furthermore, she is emotionally passionate about her work and this showed. At the end of her talk, the room erupted in applause, I got tears in my eyes, but she deserved so much more than that. I wish I could have stayed ’til the end of the questions to give her a hug—I’ll have to give her a hug the next time I see her. In the meantime, I hope she takes this token of my congratulations for her. And I hope she is CELEBRATING !!
Amaya, you have always been a woman who I admire very much as a friend, colleague, artist, and HCI professional. I hope we can work together (directly) some day. I wish you luck and happiness in your post-PhD career! Congrats!!!
