Front Page News

A couple months ago, we got wind that Sam was probably going to get a grant award from the DoE, an Early Career Research award.  We were really excited, because this was a grant for 2.5 million dollars, that would ensure Sam's funding at PNNL for the next 5 years. [Just to be clear - we don't see the 2.5 million.  That goes to the lab where Sam works, and he continues to receive his same paycheck.  It just makes everyone happy when he can fund his own research.] We've been waiting (on pins and needles) for the final word on it, for what seems like forever. Last Tuesday, Sam got the official word.  Actually, the first email he saw on Tuesday was one from the public relations office, asking when that day he could have head-shots taken.  Thoroughly confused, he finally found the actual email telling him he had been awarded the grant - it was in his junk email box. 

There were a couple funny things about having head-shots taken the day he did - first of all, he's been begging me to give him a haircut for at least a couple of weeks.  But, in my newborn exhaustion, I hadn't found the time or energy to do it for him.  He had also spent much of the weekend outside, and sunburned his lips, which, by Tuesday, were cracked and peeling. Lovely.  And then their was his shirt.  Sam almost always wears a button up collared shirt to work, but on this day, he had gone in with a t-shirt, and a v-neck sweater.  Nice.  Given the circumstances, I think his head-shot came out pretty good.  Now, when they said "press-release" I imagined that that meant they were going to run an article on the PNNL website.  Which they did.  But, imagine my surprise when, yesterday, during joy school, one of the kids in the class told Olivia they read about her dad in the newspaper.  I thought he was making something up, or confusing Sam with someone else, but then one of the moms casually mentioned they saw Sam's article.  I checked out the article on-line, but had Sam pick up a copy on his way home - like he did when Harrison was in the paper.  He was actually on the front page of the business section:

Okay, so the business section is actually the very last page of the B-section, and only one page long, but still.  He also got a shout out on the front page of the paper.  Apparently his article was a "Hot Read":

Pretty crazy.  I knew we were excited about the grant - I just had no idea it was so newsworthy to everyone else!  They also mentioned him on the local NBC affiliate (not sure if it was on the news broadcast, or just on their website.)  And R&D magazine.   Kind of fun to have a "famous" husband for a day.  I'm so proud of Sam and all the hard work he does.  Sam really loves his job and his work, and seems to be pretty good at it.