As some of you might be aware, this is my last year at the Perimeter Institute. It’s been great, but the contract was only for three years, and come August I’ll be heading elsewhere.
Determining that “elsewhere” was the subject of an extensive job search. Now that the search has resolved, I can tell you that “elsewhere” is the Niels Bohr International Academy at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, where I’ll be starting a three-year postdoc job in the fall.
There are some pretty stellar amplitudes people at NBIA, so I’m pretty excited to be going there. It’s going to be a great opportunity to both build on what I’ve been doing and expand beyond. They’re also hiring several other amplitudes-focused postdocs this year, so overall it should be a really fun group.
It’s also a bit daunting. Moving to Canada from the US was reasonably smooth, I could drive most of my things over in a U-Haul truck. Moving to Denmark is going to be quite a bit more complicated. I’ll need to learn a new language and get used to a fairly different culture.
I can take solace in the fact that in some sense I’m retracing my great-grandfather’s journey in the opposite direction. My great-grandfather worked at the Niels Bohr Institute on his way out of Europe in the 1930’s, and made friends with the Bohrs along the way, before coming to the US. I’ll get a chance to explore a piece of family history, and likely collaborate with a Bohr as well.
Congratulations, Matthew!
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Congrats and welcome to Europe.
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Congratulations! Copenhagen is a great city. I wouldn’t worry too much about the Danish though; everyone here speaks fluent English, so you don’t have to learn Danish to get by. If you want to though (which I found worthwhile), at least they offer free courses for up to 18 months…
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Good luck! I hear Danish is completely unintelligible, even to Danes:
http://cphpost.dk/life-in-denmark/the-danish-languages-irritable-vowel-syndrome.html
😉
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Xezlec, it’s hilarious, almost like Monty Python etc. Because many people in the West buy all sorts of fake news etc., it should be pointed out that it’s a humor drama program from a Norwegian TV. The official “separation” of Norwegian from Danish language only began in mid 19th century so it must be fun to watch how far they have diverged from each other.
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Congratulations!
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You might want to brush up on the local culture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t70YoTKcrm4
Set you goals low and you won’t be disappointed.
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