Our older son, Alex, graduated from Queen’s in Math this spring. We attended convocation which was lovely, a big change from Zouheir’s and mine which was held in the now-demolished arena. Alex’s was held in Grant Hall, a lovely historic building on campus and something of an icon. Four disciplines received their degrees, both undergraduate and graduate: mathematics, physics, computer science, and geography.

There is much pomp and ceremony in a Queen’s convocation. From organ music, to bagpipes that pipe in the procession, to the beautiful space. It lasted about an hour and a half, including an address by the recipient of an honorary doctorate, Peter Nicholson.

Graduates file onto the stage as their name is called, they are “hooded” and then congratulated by the rector, principal, and a representative from the alumni association.

There was a reception afterwards in Jeffrey Hall for the math grads, with an opportunity for parents and students to mingle with staff and faculty. And to take pictures.

We also got a nice picture of the breakfast club from the summer of 2012. Alex worked for Professor Agnes Herzberg, who made coffee every morning. They’d be joined by another student Ed Belk and Professor Mansouri for coffee and current event chat before the work day began.

Professor Herzberg gave Alex a coffee mug with an image of Jeffrey Hall on it, and we grabbed a moment when the rain held off to get an outdoor pic.

Thirty-one years ago, I graduated from the same department. A few pics:

Alex has begun a Master of Management Analytics at the Queen’s School of Business, which is held in Toronto. It uses the Executive degree model, running on Wednesday evenings and alternate Saturdays to permit full-time employment. Alex is hot on the trail of work, and has started a blog that will have present some of his work in analytics. He’s making use of all the open data that is coming on-line in Toronto to do some interesting analyses. Check it out and leave him a comment!