Nicholas Klingaman graduated from the University of Delaware in May 2005 with an M.S. in Geography and a B.S. in Environmental Science, including a concentration in Atmospheric Science. In September 2005, he accepted a Marshall Scholarship to study for a Ph.D. in Meteorology at the University of Reading in Reading, England.

In a long hall filled with Rembrandts and Renoirs, chandeliers, gilded lamps, marble statues, and really nice carpeting, a bewildered American Ph.D. student shook hands with the Queen of England. I admit that I wasn’t particularly nervous when the Queen approached our delegation from the University of Reading Department of Meteorology. We had already received Prince Philip and Princess Anne without difficulty, and neither had bothered to give me so much as a second glance. Besides, I remember thinking as the Queen walked over, she looks like my grandmother. So my body delivered quite the shot of adrenaline when, having shaken hands with everyone in our group and inquired as to our Department’s research into climate change, the Queen turned, gestured at me, and said, “And you’ve come from the United States?”

In fact, it had been less than five months since my plane had touched down at London’s Heathrow Airport. My British friends were insanely jealous: I had barely started the research on my Ph.D., and yet I had secured a place in the Department’s delegation that would travel to Buckingham Palace to receive the Queen’s Prize for Higher and Further Education and meet the Royal Family. The magnitude of the opportunity that had effortlessly landed in my lap was not lost on me, however.

Neither is the magnitude of the opportunity to spend three years in the United Kingdom, studying for my Ph.D. in one of the world’s most-recognized meteorology departments. The year and a half that I have been living and working in Reading--located some 40 miles west of London--has been some of the most exhilarating and exhausting of my life. My dissertation project involves investigating the Indian summer monsoon rains and how they vary within each individual season. This necessitates examining the historical record and running computer simulations with a state-of-the-art numerical model of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Compared with many American Ph.D. programs that often exceed five years, the three-year target set before British students is ambitious to say the least. Having gained some experience, I would liken the British Ph.D. system to running on a treadmill for three years, but a treadmill that increases in speed and inclination every six months, when a committee of professors examines our work and decides if we’re still on-target.

We postgraduate students match the furious pace of our research with an equally zealous social life. Each Friday evening several dozen of us descend upon the local pub to share (not literally) a pint and commiserate. We play basketball, indoor hockey, and football (the British kind) most weeks and add cricket, croquet, and ultimate frisbee in the summer. This past Christmas I had the honor of producing the Department’s annual pantomime, a peculiar British holiday tradition in which popular fairy tales are adapted to the stage, complete with much cross-dressing and campy acting. While the pantomime is mostly an excuse to poke (not so) gentle fun at our professors, the Ph.D. students take the pantomime seriously: It’s a 90 minute production that includes full costumes, lights, sound effects, and homemade props. This year we performed “Jack and the Beanstalk” to an audience of over 200 paying customers. So although some weeks it seems as though I never leave the Department and its denizens, it certainly is a colorful and vibrant place to study.

“And you’ve come from the United States?” the grandmotherly woman in the pink suit standing in front of me asked.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” I responded. Some meddlesome part of my brain briefly considered the Constitutional implications of using that title, but it was quickly suppressed.

“I suppose you find that the attitudes [towards climate change] there are different than those in this country,” she said. Despite her broad generalization about Americans’ environmental views--we don’t all support drilling in the Arctic, clubbing baby seals, and using dynamite for trout bait--I was impressed at the poignancy of her statement. I answered her in the most diplomatic manner I could.

“While climate change might not be at the top of the political agenda, I think you will find that many American scientists and other educated Americans share the concerns of their European counterparts.” She seemed pleased with my answer. In the short time we’d been speaking, the Palace photographer had taken four photographs of the Queen and me, a copy of one of which now has a permanent space on my desk at work.

I have another two years at the University of Reading on my Marshall Scholarship. I don’t anticipate another royal encounter--although at some point during my Marshall tenure I will be invited to visit the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street--but I do intend to take advantage of every opportunity to make connections, whether with the academic staff over a cup of coffee or with other students over a pint of cider. I’m not sure whether I will return to the United States after I receive my degree, whether I will remain in the United Kingdom, or whether my research will take me even further abroad. After all, there are plenty of other queens and kings to meet.