Inspiring conversations

I gave a talk at the EMPG conference this afternoon. As luck would have it, my talk was scheduled just before lunch. After I spoke one gentleman* came up with an additional question. We got to talking about my current research and my PhD research, and we wound up going to lunch together and then looking at photos from my thesis. He was interested in the Tasmanian whiteschist, having read about them years ago, and he enjoyed seeing my photos of them, and the graphs of the difference between the composition of the two different appearances of the garnet in that unit. The conversation lasted for the entire 1.5 hour lunch break. It was really enjoyable, and quite inspiring. I've already downloaded a handful of papers as a result of that conversation, and I look forward to reading them.

*Yes, his name is well-known in my field, no I hadn't met him hitherto, and yes, I have read and cited his papers.