A picture of the hat:

      It's a "sandpile-model." Get it? ;)

      (A note here: I had actually forgotten to take a picture of the hat before presenting it to Ryan.  I had to take this picture, later, at a grad student party on 8/16/04.  Thus, this was actually the last of these pictures to be taken.)

      This next one is actually a really cool picture.  -I just wish I had been a bit quicker.  This was just a little bit after "the tie" had been swapped from Ryan's advisor, Dr. Newman (shown at left) to Ryan himself ("center stage").  It was REALLY funny.  :)

      Ryan's reaction to the hat:

      This was a bit more difficult than you'd expect:

      A problem in stability analysis:

      :)

      Dr. Woodard:

   Triumphant Crew:

      Shown from left to right are: DOCTOR Ryan Woodard, Dr. Scott Bailey, Dr. Newman, and Dr. Renate Wackerbauer.  They're all really cool.  :)

      What can one say about Ryan? DOCTOR Ryan is really cool.  He's an amazing individual in that, even though he has a PhD in physics, he's still really personable---and I don't just mean high functioning Asberger's [Syndrome].  I mean GENUINELY PERSONABLE.  (And trust me--at that level of physics--that's REALLY rare.  :O :) )