JoAnne Rocks The Southland

Well, JoAnne's visit to USC yesterday was just excellent. Colleagues, postdocs and students have been stopping me in the corridor all day today to tell me that yesterday's colloquium was very enjoyable. It was informative about the big picture, the little picture, and was clearly presented. My last minute advertising brought in several non-regulars and so we had a full room with people sitting on the stairs, which always adds a bit of excitement to everything. The key point is that JoAnne got across the fact that we have exciting times coming up in particle physics, both experimentally and, consequently, theoretically. Young people and older people alike did not fail to get excited, and the message that fundamental particle physics is alive and well was very well conveyed. JoAnne also managed to sprinkle in some good humour and explain some very difficult material clearly, making the talk accessible to an audience with a wide range of interests and backgrounds. There were several probing questions of high quality from excited members of the audience. It seems that JoAnne did not get the memo - instead she's one of the writers of it! -cvj