Tag: EDAR2017

Hey, sorry for disappearing for more than a week. The EDAR conference (more on that in a later post) was super-intense and the weekend with my Gothenburg research group in Munising in northern Michigan was fantastic but didn’t really leave any time for writing. And after that I have been quite messed up emotionally, feeling very lonely and started doubting my project and … well everything. But it’s looking better now again. Yesterday evening I was out dancing lindy hop at The Brink. Although I only did a few dances, it was very nice to do something that was all about feeling good and playing, and not so serious.

Today I have instead spent my evening doing grocery shopping at Whole Foods (what a fantastic store that is!) and checking out the areas where the University of Wisconsin keep their university housing. Oh, how I wish that we could get somewhere to live there. The surroundings are absolutely beautiful and there were kids everywhere on the lawns. That said, the queues for staying there are most likely very long. By the way, if anyone would have an insider tip on where and how to find good places to live in Madison, all input is appreciated. Tonight, Madison has been good to me.

Today I spent some time walking in the other direction from the University. Gabriel suggested I took the walk by Lake Mendota downtown, and that was a really nice walk through the forest, just by the lake. After dinner, I had ice cream on one of the landings on the picture. Madison is really a nice and beautiful city; I look forward to going here with my family next year.

Tomorrow, I am in for a six hours drive to Lansing and the EDAR conference. I hope to be writing a little about my thoughts on the conference as well, but we’ll see if I will have time to get around to that…

I just wanted to notify anyone who might be interested in following my more personal reflections on my month in Wisconsin (and in Michigan over EDAR4) that I will be updating my Wisconsin Blog at this site (hopefully) regularly. The blog updates are not visible on the first page, so you will have to actively go to the Wisconsin Blog page by clicking in the upper right of the page.

Today, I started my new position at the University of Gothenburg as a non-tenured assistant professor (forskarassistent)*. In essence, this means that I have a position funded by my own grant until the end of 2020, although I will be on a leave-of-absence while doing my PostDoc with Jo Handelsman in Wisconsin. Speaking of which, I will be leaving to the US on Thursday next week for a month of setting things up at her lab (and also going to the EDAR4 conference in Lansing). I will return to Sweden in mid-September and leave for the US for real early next year.

In terms of actual work, this change of position will not mean very much at the moment. I will continue to do the same things for some time, and I will remain closely associated with Joakim Larsson’s lab at the Dept. of Infectious Diseases. And luckily, I will retain my lovely roommates for at least the time being. In the long run, however, this means that I will shift my research focus slightly, away from antibiotic resistance risk management towards interactions in microbial communities (still related to antibiotics though). Exciting times ahead!

Note
* For some reason, the university administration refuses to call this position assistant professor in English at this time, instead referring to the position as “Postdoctoral research fellow”. I guess that it might be bloody annoying explaining that this is not the same as “postdoctoral researcher” and virtually everywhere else would be called “(non-tenured) assistant professor”, but then on the other hand, who cares about titles anyway?