Bye Bye Imperial College

Friends and family are sometimes amazed when I describe how the career path in particle physics works. I think this is quite an interesting subject and also different than many other careers, so I thought I would create a post on this. This is particularly relevant as I have just changed jobs. So for this one time we will not talk about physics but instead about what it is like to do physics.

Particle physics is a very international field. For example I grew up in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where I also did my undergraduate studies. When I graduated I decided continue study for my Ph.D. in Amsterdam, at NIKHEF. About half of my five-year Ph.D. I spent in Chicago, working at Fermilab. Once I received my Ph.D. I accepted a contract for two years at Imperial College, as a research associate. Young researchers that are not lecturers or readers yet are usually referred to as Post-docs. This has to do with the fact that they already have their doctorate. I recently accepted a more advanced post-doc position with Cornell University. Even though Cornell University is based in Ithaca, New York, USA, I actually will live and work in Geneva, at CERN. The next step in my career probably would be to become a member of staff at some university. I am very much looking forward to that, as it would involve teaching and working with students.

One of the interesting things is that during all this time I was working in large international collaborations, so there really is not much difference except for the location and your direct colleagues. I think that if you ask a random particle physicist they will tell you that their work is so international that location really does not make a difference any more. I now have just started a new job and besides having moved to a different country the only change I've noticed is that being closer to the detector project I work on makes life much easier. Oh and the fact that the weather is better in Geneva, of course!

I love my job and the traveling is one of the additional advantages (besides doing something fun, interesting, challenging, with motivated colleagues in an international environment)