At Laurentian

Carolyn and I had a very nice drive up through beautiful countryside to Sudbury, Ontario, today -- about five hours on the road. Tonight, we had dinner at the home of the president of Laurentian; the dinner was in honour of myself and the other recipients of honorary doctorates this year, including Minnijean Brown Trickey. Minnijean was one of the Little Rock Nine -- the African-American students who integrated Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas, 50 years ago. I told her how much she meant to me, and we both got teary eyed, and she hugged me. It was an absolute thrill.

At my table at dinner was Prof. Michael Emond, the Laurentian psych professor who nominated me for the honorary doctorate. We'd never met before, but immediately hit it off; he'll be introducing me tomorrow. And, in fact, I was pleased to see the program book for tomorrow's convocation, which says:

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CONFERRING THE HONORARY DEGREE
Dr. Michael Emond will present Mr. Robert Sawyer for the Doctorate of Letters (honoris causa). Dr. Sawyer will address Convocation.

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What a cool moment of transition! I'm still stunned that this is happening to me ... I'm very flattered, and very pleased.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site