The theme this year was "Being a Critical Member of the Nuclear Industry" and it was hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They centered much of the conference around the acronym 'nfpe' which corresponds to the factors in the four factor formula for criticality. How nerdy, right?
The food in Wisconsin was very delicious and I would go back solely for that reason. The meals provided for dinner at the hotel were slightly above average, however, the local cuisine that I did get to sample was some of the best I'd ever enjoyed. The dinners on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening all had keynote speakers. For the dinner on Friday, we journeyed from the hotel to the convention center located on Lake Monona. Lake Mendota, directly across a one mile wide stretch of land, is better according to the university students (although I only briefly had the chance to see it).
Waking up to a snowstorm (it probably just seemed like a storm to me -- less than two inches accumulated at any given time) Saturday morning was fascinating. The snow continued on and off for the entire day, and when I walked to lunch from the hotel my hands nearly froze! When people told me the weather was unpredictable in Madison they were completely correct.
There are a lot of one-way streets in Madison, and the crosswalks are smarter here than they are in Gainesville. The farthest walk I took from the Hotel was to James Madison Park on Thursday afternoon. In my daily visits to the capitol building, I was able to see lobbyists, groups of elementary school students, and the nearby homeless population.
I was able to meet students from around the country and world, CEOs and industry recruiters, and even Commissioner Ostendorff of the NRC, who gave an important message as a panelist for a Non-proliferation panel.
I roomed with a graduate student named Travis from the University of Maryland. He was presenting the research he's been working on for his master's thesis in the field of materials engineering. I'm glad that I didn't room with anybody from back home, because Travis and I turned out to have a lot in common with each other. Since I have family in Maryland, I plan on meeting up with him in the near future!
Right now I'm in the hotel's Starbucks adjacent to the lobby - the smell of coffee was all I needed to awaken. I am patiently waiting to depart for the airport, where I have two flights between me and Orlando. Thanks for reading.
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