Hiatus

Hi, readers. Thanks for being here. For those of you who have someone autistic in your life, I hope that reading this story of my autistic son's life can help you in some way.

According to the little graph that shows how many readers visit per day, there are hundreds of you reading without actually joining my "Google Friend Connect" or clicking on my "follow" button. Welcome!! While there are a few autistic theoretical physicists, David is AMERICA'S ONLY SAVANT AUTISTIC PHYSICS EXPERIMENTALIST, because experimentation is dangerous and so requires someone like me--  a personal assistant to assure safety.

David's uniqueness makes him an important pioneer for others to follow, so it is important for me to keep up with this blog. Therefore, I apologize for the times when I need to take a break from the internet to focus on real world activities for a while. The last couple months have been such a break, and it will continue for another few weeks.

Please be patient with me, and in the meantime, if you're a new reader, you might enjoy comparing the nervousness in my earlier posts, when I didn't know if Dave would do okay at "the big university" with my calm, happy recent posts about Dave's successes in research physics. I laugh when I read those old posts, now that everything has worked out fine.

Blessings!

David's Website

Just a reminder that David Nisson's homepage is at:

http://student.physics.ucdavis.edu/~nisson/en/

Physics Conference at SLAC

November 11 and 12 was the California section meeting of the professional organization David is a member of, APS physics. While he has attended a previous APS section meeting, this was the first time Dave was among those who gave PowerPoint presentations of their research results. His colleagues have informed us that he did well, given this was Dave's first talk. Left to right in the first photo are UC Davis graduate students Brian Neal, John Crocker, and David M. Nisson.

The fact is that watching David give that talk was surprisingly emotional for me. The last time I found myself fighting tears of joy at David's happiness and success was the day in June 2010 that he walked across the UC Davis auditorium stage in his cap and gown. I assumed that the next time I'd have that same feeling would be when he earns his doctorate, but I was wrong. As David spoke, I found myself swallowing hard to keep from embarrassing myself with tears of pride and joy. My autistic son, (whom some authorities told me might never speak a complete sentence properly), gave an informative presentation on his research in condensed matter physics
Dave has definitely disproved his childhood doubters...

A week later the editor of the UC Davis Physics department online newsletter, Ms. Cindy Lewis, ran David's summation of the event:

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*GRAD STUDENT NEWS*

Shouts out to the Traveling Team Physics, including Grad Student David Nisson, who recently attended and presented at (his first) 2011 California APS Section meeting. David shares his experience with us below.

“The 2011 California APS Section meeting was a great experience for me. My favorite part was giving my very first presentation. It was exciting to have a venue to present my first results on a study... Members of the audience told me that they enjoyed my presentation. There was a wide variety of topics in the parallel sessions. It was interesting to hear the results of other people working on condensed matter physics, including not only experiments but theoretical predictions. The plenary sessions were also very informative, including one about a new kind of measurement being used on high-temperature superconductors.”

“Of the 242 attendees of the 2011 CA-APS section meeting, 17 graduate students, researchers, and faculty represented UC Davis. The conference, which took place on  November 11 and 12 at SLAC, was well-organized by a team that included Thanh Ky Ly, Hendrik Ohldag, and Mary Moseley, among others. In addition to plenary talks, parallel sessions, and interesting panel discussion, the students' “Meet Your Rock Star” luncheon and a delicious dinner, where speaker Burton Richter of SLAC gave an eye-opening talk about the realities of energy policy, there were plenty of opportunities to simply meet new people and chat. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and no doubt some helpful collaborations were born.”
 

The Lab

Well, the holidays sure passed quickly, didn't they. Happy New Year.

So now, David has time in his schedule to get serious about his laboratory work. This is tricky, because David's autism makes him a different sort of scientist to work with than the other group members. While he can focus quite well on math, physics troubleshooting, data analysis, and writing, he has trouble focusing on verbally-delivered information. Fortunately, the members of his research group are open-minded and welcoming toward David. I'm sure we'll work things out.

November

Hi All,

Where did October go so quickly?! Dave and I hope you're doing great. He's really enjoying his graduate-level courses, and looks forward to finding time to get back to laboratory work.

David has chosen a thesis for his Ph.D. How exciting!

We have much to be thankful for this holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now That Summer's Over...

Well, Thursday was Dave's first graduate level class, a seminar in condensed matter physics. How exciting for him.

Gone are the days of Dave needing me to remain in the classroom with him to take his notes. Nowadays, I get him there on time, remind him to sit at the front (he's distracted if at the back), open his notebook, sharpen his pencil, etc. After that, he's great at taking his own notes, following the lecture, and even making haltered-but-meaningful contributions to discussions. Meanwhile, I sit outside the classroom in the hallway. I read books and journals, pray my rosary, pay the bills (yes, still writing checks) or other written chores, exercise (I walk up and down the nearby stairwell). After class, I check in with the professor to answer his/her questions about Dave's special needs, etc.

So, when I'm not praying, exercising or writing checks, what do I read while Dave's in class?

Well, of course there's The Aggie, and The Enterprise, chock full of essential breaking news. Also, I received one of those itsy-bitsy Gideon Bible-ettes from a guy outside Shields library, which squishes into my overpacked purse perfectly, between my eyeglasses and Kleenex. Then, I was reading Joan Chittister, but have taken a break to re-enjoy the Willa Cather novels, starting with "My Antonia". The story seems so much richer than when I was "a young lass". Finally, I'm reading Dr. Darold Treffert's "Extraordinary People". So, there you have it-- Dave's and my life in a nutshell. At home, he studies while I cook, clean, plan menus, etc. At school, he's in class while I read. Slowly, but surely, our little system is helping David earn his degrees.

Happy New Year

Well,

I'm feeling frazzled by the process of watching Dave apply for graduate schools and fellowships. The easiest thing for me is to just stay here in Davis. But, is that the best thing for David?