After your four years of medical school, new doctors all across the nation take the step into residency programs, practicing medicine under the supervision of a more experienced physician.

But near the end of that fourth year, students all across the nation are “matched” to programs all across the nation, telling them and their families where that residency education will take place. The Blade covers the story well today.

But I’ll admit, even as health care is a prime national topic of conversation, even as the students’ medical specialities tell compelling and complex stories about medical care in this nation, I really enjoy Match Day for reasons having nothing to do with medicine.

Check out this video, put together by UT New Media Specialist Chris Ankney:

I have the barest inkling of the work that goes into becoming a doctor. The pressure, the stress, the exhaustion. No doubt emotions that are mirrored in the preparation for many different careers. But at Match Day, there is a collective catharsis that sweeps the room that you don’t get from the private, quiet successes in other career fields.

As great as the reactions of the students are, I found myself watching the eyes and faces of family members as they watched the med students open their letters and learn their fate. I enjoyed very much watching the pleasure of girlfriends and boyfriends, wives and husbands, and parents and friends as they watched this extraordinary transition from a closed envelop to an open one.

Congrats to all on this exciting stage in your journey and a special shout out to my fellow Ontario High School alum on his placement. Well done, NP.

In yesterday’s paper, the Blade highlighted the successes and challenges UT faces as we and others lead the development of the solar industry in northwest Ohio. The latter story correctly points out that UT is competing with some very wealthy, very prominent institutions for research dollars and researchers as discoveries happen rapidly and can quickly make the cutting edge technology of yesterday obsolete.

There were two parts in the pair of Blade stories that I particularly enjoyed.

1.)

“The University of Toledo pops up even on my radar screen, and I don’t have any business out there,” said Dave Christensen, a top engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.

NREL is one of the most prestigious renewable energy institutions in the world and I’m particularly glad to see they hold no ill will at the recent departure of two of their leading scientists – who left NREL to come to UT.

2.) Rosa Zartman and her ability to give an amazing impromptu interview on the role of solar research and how it has impacted her life and career. While there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of local examples of veering from manufacturing into the solar industry mid-career, UT’s focus on college degree programs in solar and advance renewable energy is going to open doors for a new generation of solar experts.

And while it certainly is a competition as resources and brilliant men and women are scarce, it’s also important to remember that the solar industry (even if you feel like you’ve been hearing about it forever) is a fledgling industry that will be growing at an incredible pace for years and years to come. There will be room to specialize and carve out niches, and that’s something the Blade does not address.

For instance, the solar panels are not uniform. Originally made of silicon wafers, today thin-film solar technology is one of the fastest growing segments within the industry. Thin-film solar panels – a thin layer of several different combination of chemicals on a thin piece of glass, steel or other material – are much more cost-effective and many are turning to this second generation solar technology as they work to turn a profit. Xunlight’s thin-film panels can be seen here (check out the 0:45 mark).

The Blade is absolutely correct that we’re in a solar race. But look who we’re running against and we’re still in front of a lot of our solar peers. And we’ve been training for this race for decades while so many other universities are watching from the sidelines.