hi Melanie,

my quick answer is," as long as I can, because it is a lot of fun!"

my longer answer is that I like studying the sun because almost everything I do in this job is interesting, challenging, and rewarding. I like finding out new things, I like finding things in the observations that do not make any sense and trying to figure them out. I like the challenge of trying to answer a very hard question.

On a daily basis I get to do some different things, too. For example, today I have been writing a report on the work I have been doing to the agency which gave me the money to do my research, but I have also been examining some of the recent data from our new observational satellite, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and now I am answering questions from students. Since it is NEVER really boring, I hope to continue doing this for many years to come.

[quick note apologizing for the typo earlier, I use voice-recognition software for much of my typing. And sometimes I do not catch what it misses!!!]

this is not boring, it's great!