OMG: MPT, PHD!
April 29, 2009
If you woke up this morning and thought, “Global warming is on the rise, amphibians are in a race to see who can go extinct first, the economy is in the toilet, any day now my boss will discover that I don’t actually do anything at work, and my blog will never have the eclectic cachet of SV-POW!, but at least Mike Taylor doesn’t have a Ph.D.,” then it is my happy duty to ruin your day. Mike defended today, successfully.
Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present Michael P. Taylor of Ruardean, Englishman, adventurer, raconteur, Doctor of Philosophy in the paleontological arts. Note that when recumbent he is approximately equal in length to 1.5 Sauroposeidon cervicals, and appears to be cradling an invisible wine glass. Don’t stare too long, or you might not be able to look away.
Congratulations, sir! Let the blogosphere ring with the happy news, and undescribed sauropods cry out for recognition.
Update (from Mike)
Thanks to Matt, and all commenters, for your kind words. I wondered when the “Latin love god” photo was going to appear, and that day has finally come. What Matt doesn’t know is that this photo was used for the cover of my forthcoming album:
Available wherever good music is sold
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
April 29, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Congratulations! We’ll hoist our pints in your general direction this evening.
April 29, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Congrats, Mike! I mean, Dr. Mike!
April 29, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Hooray! Congrats to you, Dr. Taylor.
April 29, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Well, let me be the first to congratulate you, Dr. Oh, too late? Well, let me be the first smart-aleck to congratulate you. Too late again? Well, let me be the first to congratulate you for leaving graduate-student-hood behind while you still have most of your hair. (No offense intended to those who do not.)
April 29, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Congratulations Mike!
Ooh, Dr. Taylor, that is a highly disturbing photo.
April 29, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Congratulations!
April 30, 2009 at 2:37 am
Congratulations to Mike! It couldn’t happen to a nicer chap. One who offers an inclusive welcome to the palaeo-interested, with not a hint of superiority nor exclusivity.
I speak as one who has had slight, but for me significant, acquaintance with said Dr.(at dino conference in Piccadilly, May 2008). I am delighted and encouraged at his attainment.
April 30, 2009 at 5:36 am
Holy cow! There’s hope for all of us! :-D
Congrats, brother. I second Mark–those cervicals are freaky thangs…
April 30, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Congratulations, and welcome to the fraternity of dinosaur Ph.D.s!!
Also, you have a promising career as a scale bar… :-)
April 30, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Congrats!
I’ll take the opportunity to suggest we introduce the “taylor” as the unit of sauropodal awesomeness. One taylor corresponds to 2/3 Sauroposeidon cervicals.
April 30, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Thanks to all who have commented. It certainly does make quite a difference having finished: as I stride briskly and purposefully down the street, women gaze at me with frank and undisguised longing, and men cower in fear at my superior intellect. No doubt Matt and Darren noticed similar effects.
Happy days.
April 30, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Wow, this implies a whole new level of respect I’m going to have to get used to… ;)
Congrats Mike, well deserved!
April 30, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Oh frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!
Congrats, Mike.
April 30, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Hawt.
Well done, Most Parsimonious Tree!
April 30, 2009 at 7:06 pm
YAY!!!! Congrats! That is AWESOME!
April 30, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Heartfelt congratulations sir.
(Though I’m still disappointed you didn’t call your thesis Bob..)
May 1, 2009 at 6:23 am
congrats, Mike! Next challenge: two points for the first paper titled, “pride and prejudice and sauropods”.
May 1, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Wherever indeed.
Congratulations. I hope we’ll meet at the SVP
OWmeeting!May 1, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Hi Mike, congratulations. I hope the chapters will be published soon:o)
May 2, 2009 at 10:46 pm
It’s funny, but when I saw this picture of Mike posing in front of the Sauroposeidon cervicals, I found myself strangely attracted to him. Normally, of course, that kind of pose is a complete turn-off, but this one had a certain something…a sort of Darcy-like smouldering. Mmmmm… Dr Taylor.
(It’s OK. I’m his wife).
May 2, 2009 at 11:01 pm
It’s OK anyway. He’s a beautiful specimen.
…we are talking about Sauroposeidon, right?
June 25, 2009 at 2:00 pm
[…] that I’ve finished my Ph.D at the University of Portsmouth, what am I going to do with the rest of my scientific life? […]
July 21, 2009 at 10:28 am
[…] July), I drove down to Portsmouth, with my wife Fiona, to graduate — the consummation of my Ph.D programme. I’d expected to be issued with a sober black robe and one of those hats with a flat square […]
July 8, 2013 at 8:11 pm
[…] I did a Ph.D in my spare time in five years. That involved a lot of late night, and had to be fitted into the gaps around a […]
October 1, 2017 at 9:08 pm
[…] up as a 50-50 blend of sauropod palaeontology and open-access advocacy. Along the way, I (Mike) got my Ph.D, and Matt moved from UC Merced to Western University of Health Sciences, where both he and his wife […]