Love under the microscope

Michael Charette and Ellen Boudreau attend  Convocation ceremonies. (Pearce photo)

They say married people start to look like each other, but dress like each other?

For Michael Charette and Ellen Boudreau, it was only for one special day. During spring convocation ceremonies, the couple who met and married while studying for their PhDs sported matching black gowns faced with yellow silk and velvet birretums with golden tassels.

It felt good to don the regal ensembles Ñ Ellen added four-inch stilettos to hers Ñ after years of rigorous thesis and lab work. Michael (BSc Õ97, PhD Õ07) and Ellen (BSc Õ00, PhD Õ07) are both pursuing post-doctoral fellowships at Yale University School of Medicine.

ÒItÕs so much better to have someone in the trenches with you,” says the newly minted Dr. Boudreau. ÒThey understand what youÕre going through Ñ the thesis and lab work Ñ because theyÕre going through it all too.”

Others in the Boudreau clan have also discovered romance at Dalhousie.

EllenÕs brother Robert Boudreau (PhD Õ06) and his fiancŽe Randy Lynn Newman (PhD Õ04) also met while doing graduate work at Dalhousie. And before that, EllenÕs parents, Leonard Boudreau (BSc Õ72) and Elaine Boudreau dated and married during their university years. (EllenÕs other brother John is also a Dal alumnus; he graduated with a BSc in 2006.)

This spring, Dalhousie graduated 53 PhD students, the largest class to date.