The Beginning of an Era

So, under "normal" conditions I would start this whole thing off with a bit of an introduction and an explanation of why I think I am important enough for you to want to give a damn about what I think and go through.  However, if you are reading this then you know exactly why I am writing it, so I will skip the explanation and stick with an introduction.

My name is Daniel E. Dusang (giving me a set of initials that were always fun to enter into arcade high score lists) and I am currently a PhD student at the University of Oklahoma.  This semester marks my first as a PhD student and my 18th as a college student in general (a fact I have been wowing my freshman lab students with all week).  In those 17 previous semesters I attained a bachelors degree and a Master's degree.  The bachelors is one in Conservation Biology/Wildlife Management from Purdue University.  Purdue is back home in Indiana where I was born and raised and I miss it's campus and particulars every day that I inhabit Norman and OU.  My Master's degree is in Zoology and I achieved it right here at the University of Oklahoma. 

My Master's degree was a bit harrowing, but I went for a Master's instead a PhD for the experience of it, and boy did I ever get an experience.  The degree began a bit aimless for the first semester or so, all I knew was that I wanted to work with Lesser Prairie-Chickens (a species of prairie grouse that lives in the southwestern US).  I eventually decided that I wanted to work in the field of population genetics and designed and began a project with the collaboration of Dr. Jeff Johnson at the University of North Texas.  After a year on that project I began to realize that it's scope was a bit too large for a Master's degree.  So, I decided to take the data I had, shelve the project for my inevitable PhD, and begin something that I could finish and write up relatively quickly. 

Thus began my work in niche modeling...