Boston update

It's all official and in the final stages. I'm moving to Boston in two weeks. Signed a contract with EMD Serono and got my new visa approved. That was quite the process with 6 recommendation letters, hundreds of things to prove but it's all done now.

Harvard University

I was in Boston for a conference last week at MIT and Harvard and tried to start adapting. It's quite the change. Not too hard as Boston is much more European and what I'm used to from home. Real houses, real city, lots of trees and people in a hurry. I'm excited to make Boston my new home but really don't want to leave San Diego. But sometimes you have no choice. The job that I'm starting May 1st is really exciting and an amazing opportunity that is very rare these days. Ironically, this possibility came up because EMD Serono closed their site in Geneva and moved the immunology research to Boston... And my friend and inside connection in Switzerland has to find a new job now. In fact she was looking for a year now and hasn't been able to find anything. Open jobs are very, very rare and hundred if not thousands of scientists apply. I consider myself really lucky to have scored that one!

Selina is looking for jobs in Boston too. She will interview at Harvard in two weeks for a position in Dyann Wirth's group, a malaria lab. Sounds all very exciting too! The world's number one university never looks bad on your CV...

I will be moving in two weeks. Selina will stay in San Diego a little longer as she cannot quit her job without losing her visa. Means she has to find a new one and get her visa transferred or apply for a new one first. That makes the move easier. I can leave with just my personal stuff, live in a furnished apartment and look for a place to stay. Once found we can ship our things from San Diego. Working for a company these things will be taken care of.

I hope that the blog updates will become a little more frequent again with all the new things happening. Happy springtime!