Alexander Gibson
Imperial College London
Summer 2005
A Trip to the Midwest
Having previously dodged con-men and sharks in my San Diego placement of 2004, I found myself in the middle of cornfields and a sleepy Midwestern town known as West Lafayette this summer. It was certainly a far cry from the West coast, but had a distinctive charm all of its own. Purdue is perhaps most famous for its Astronaut alumni, numbering over 20 in total and including a certain Neil Armstrong. It even had its own airport with a number of aircraft for students to train in, which you could often see flying over campus.
Home Away from Home
I was met at Indianapolis airport by John Courter, who was an undergraduate in my research group and who was an immense help during my stay. We got a beer together as my supervising Professor, Dr. R. Byron Pipes, was arriving back from a conference in San Diego shortly after me, and so met him before driving back to West Lafayette. My first night was spent in a very luxurious Holiday Inn, and the next day my accommodation arrangements were confirmed and I moved into a spare room in John’s apartment. This was just a few minutes walk from campus, which was very helpful on the days when the rainstorms came in!
The City and the Campus
On my first weekend there was a big festival in town, where a lot of the restaurants were giving out discounted food samples, whilst there was a firework display and music. I also visited the National Guard stand, and had a go on their climbing wall, with the use of some advanced safety harnesses which automatically stopped you falling if you just lent back. After a couple of attempts, I got the hang of climbing and bounded up to ring the bell at the top. The recruiting Sergeant, William Fields, was waiting for me as I returned to the ground, and gave me his card to visit his office on campus sometime. My girlfriend, Gina, was also visiting me that weekend, so we went to a putt-putt (mini-golf) and baseball centre, where you could program the machine to hurl baseballs at different heights and speeds. Unfortunately I soon discovered that “chest” height on the machine equated to “groin” height for a tall lad like myself, and spent most of the time trying to dodge them, with my old School Sports Teacher’s cries of “Don’t be afraid of the ball!” ringing in my ears!
Fourth of July Festivities
With the 4th July weekend rapidly approaching, I used some of my salary to fly Gina out to me for the holiday. We went to a firework display and open air concert in a park on campus, where we enjoyed various patriotic songs and speeches, and a performance of the 1812 overture complete with National Guard Artillery! A few weekends later, I took the opportunity to travel to see her native State of Colorado, which seemed light years away from Lafayette, with very low humidity and some very spectacular mountainous scenery.
My other main source of expenditure during this placement was on ammunition. Being a keen riflemen in the UK I took the opportunity to find a local range and get some practice.
All in all, I had an absolutely fantastic time during the placement, with its many opportunities for both academic and personal growth. Everyone I met at Purdue was extremely helpful and I would like to pay particular thanks to Vicki Cline for organising the placement, John Courter for his assistance throughout my stay, and Professor Pipes for giving me the opportunity to work in his research group.