Cool trips

  • Imagine you are sipping tea or coffee while discussing various issues with a broad and diverse network of students, colleagues, and friends brought together by the common bond of physics, graduate school, and the physics GRE.

Post Reply
tweetie_brid
Posts: 63
Joined: Wed May 30, 2012 7:59 pm

Cool trips

Post by tweetie_brid » Sat Feb 02, 2013 1:34 am

Anyone get to go on cool trips for a presentation.
I mean has anyone got to travel to a foreign country to do research.

I am going to study astrophysics, anyone get to travel to hawaii to do observational astronomy.

I belong to the amateur astronomy club in my city. I just love our night under the stars.

TakeruK
Posts: 941
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:05 pm

Re: Cool trips

Post by TakeruK » Sat Feb 02, 2013 4:11 am

Traveling to cool/interesting places is one of the main reasons I want to pursue a career in academia. And astronomy does seem to have more meetings and opportunities to travel. Some cool places I've been to for conferences are France and a ski lodge in Oregon. Later this week, I'm going to Hawaii for some observations! I really enjoy the opportunities to see new places, try new things and meet new people :)

User avatar
Andromeda
Posts: 127
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:17 pm

Re: Cool trips

Post by Andromeda » Wed Feb 06, 2013 8:56 am

I've traveled to over 50 countries on six continents- most were financed by myself on breaks between various stages of school (ie six months between B.Sc. and M.Sc., then four months before PhD). For the academic ones though-

- I did a semester abroad in Auckland, NZ in undergrad, not sure if this counts though.
- I got to go to Argentina for my M.Sc. work on the Pierre Auger Observatory. One week in the middle of nowhere, week after was Thanksgiving so I hung out in Mendoza (the town proper) and a few days in Bariloche in northern Patagonia. :)
- PhD is now in Amsterdam because I realized if I love to travel I should move to Europe. Besides trips being easier to arrange from here, living abroad is just great fun and Amsterdam just makes it even more amazing.
- While here, I have had workshops I visited in Paris, Oxford, and a few middle of nowhere places in the Netherlands (I also visited Austin, TX for AAS last year). One should also move to Europe if only because the conferences are suddenly being held in way cooler places. Unfortunately my current radio telescope is also in Middle of Nowhere, Netherlands so I don't get cool trips out of that.
- Future conferences this year involve one in Belgium (in an indoor water park- score!) and another slated to occur in Mauritius. I'm also TAing for a course here where they take the students to the Canary Islands for a week to do observing- I was supposed to go this past fall but alas there were too many students who signed up so no room for the TA. :(

It's kinda a crazy list looking back on things, really, but I love to explore be it travel or astro research so it's a big priority for me. I see myself as after the PhD going from postdoc to postdoc every 2-3 years for awhile so I can enjoy living in other parts of the world as well- most people think I'm crazy for security reasons but I would jump at the chance to work in South Africa for a postdoc (Australia I'd love too, but that one isn't as insane).

Final note, I take my project's mascot around at my various astronomical conferences/ meetings and do a little photo blog for him for anyone keen- link. Sort of our unofficial PR thing. :)

ThatTallGirl
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2012 6:00 pm

Re: Cool trips

Post by ThatTallGirl » Fri Mar 01, 2013 2:39 pm

I spent a week in Osaka, Japan helping with set up for an experiment at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics.



Post Reply