First and foremost, I am a born again Christian. I grew up always knowing God, never rebelled against Him (although there were ups and downs as my faith was stretched). I currently go to Calvary Chapel in Lower Hutt. I enjoy listening to Pastor Alwyn Wall from Calvary Chapel Westminster (London); he is simply the best Bible teacher I have ever had the privilege of learning from. This all comes after about five years of being outside any church 'institution' - I got kicked out of a church for believing the Bible over the pastor's 'authority'. Of course it was painful at the time, but God taught me a lot during those five years, and I have grown so much because of it.Secondly, I am a research scientist. I did well at school and enjoyed maths and science. In my last year of school (1997) I was selected as one of five students from New Zealand to compete in the International Physics Olympiad in Canada. As a result of the training for that, I was granted entrance into second-year maths and physics in my first year at Victoria University in Wellington. I gained my BSc in 2000, BSc (hons) in 2001 (first class), and went on to complete my PhD in physics in 2005. My PhD supervisor was Jeff Tallon, who is one of New Zealand's most distinguished scientists in the field of superconductivity - and also a Christian. I started working for him as a summer student in 1999, and continued into the following year part time while I was studying.
About six months before completing my PhD I was attending a summer school in Germany with visits scheduled to London/Cambridge and Stuttgart (and then a holiday in Germany, since I had wanted to see the country ever since I learnt German at school), when I received an email asking if I was interested in a post-doctoral position conducting synchrotron experiments on nanostructured systems. I had heard about synchrotron techniques and applications at another summer school in Canberra in early 2004, and still remember thinking on about the third day, 'This is the sort of thing I would really like to do - but I probably won't get a chance'. So while I was in London I arranged to meet up with my prospective post-doc supervisor. As soon as I arrived, she said, 'Let's go out for lunch and I'll tell you about the job that's yours if you want it.'
Lunch with Mary Ryan and her students, London, May 2005
I started my post-doctoral appointment in London in May 2005 (while still being employed by Industrial Research Limited in New Zealand). It was a big culture shock, to put things mildly. But I settled into church at Calvary Chapel Westminster, joined a women's soccer team, and kept in touch with family and friends on MSN, Skype, and internet message boards. I was only there for three weeks or so; in August I had to return to New Zealand for my PhD oral exam which was a breeze. I had a few weeks of synchrotron beam time at Stanford (SSRL) on the way there and back, so the time passed quickly.
Me in the klystron gallery of the 3 km-long linear accelerator at Stanford
As work progressed, and things in London got rather frustrating, the opportunity came up to move to SSRL. I prayed a lot about it (always having been thankful that I never had to live in the US) and had peace about moving there. It took a couple of months for the final paperwork to come through, and I moved to Stanford in June 2006.
By the time I moved we had a lot of experiments planned at several different synchrotron facilities, so I was kept busy with trips to Chicago (APS) and New York (NSLS), but still managed to find accommodation and buy a car. In August they had the annual shutdown for a couple of months, so I made a few road trips at weekends to get out of the Bay Area mayhem for a while. In October 2006 I went on a tour to Israel which was fantastic.
Jerusalem, and the garden tomb
In February 2007 I had a trip back to New Zealand, and managed to arrange things so I would still be around in March for my youngest brother, Stuart's, 21st birthday. I had wondered about extending my visa for another year, but five months of almost continuous beam time soon made up my mind about that! During that time I had: three weekends where I didn't have to work; a week in Japan at SPring-8, the largest synchrotron facility in the world; mentoring a summer student; and I can't remember how many 24-hour stints at the beamline (too many). So in August 2007 I returned home after one more 10-day experiment at the APS (Chicago), where as usual I took the night shift. Once again I prayed a lot about this and had peace about returning home.
"Watching paint dry" at SPring-8, Japan, July 2007
In May or June 2007 I accepted an offer of a permanent position at Industrial Research, which was a huge relief - given how difficult it is to find a research job in New Zealand.
When I returned in August the wheels were already in motion regarding taking up a part-time secondment to the New Zealand Synchrotron Group to be the Technical Director of the New Zealand Synchrotron Support Programme. A fancy title, to be sure, but basically it means co-ordinating any and every New Zealand-based user of the Australian synchrotron in Melbourne, and assisting with applications to other facilities in cases where work cannot be done in Melbourne. Again, an amazing opportunity that I could never have dreamed of - praise God.
I bought a house in October. It's in Avalon in Lower Hutt, near to Fraser Park and the Hutt River trail, not far from work and my parents' place. I am very happy with it - again, praying a lot about things, and if the house was the right one. It's good to be able to finally settle down and have a place to call my own. And for once, the future looks to have some stability.
My new house in Percy Cameron Street
No comments:
Post a Comment