• Question: How many places in the world have you been for your work, and where are they?

    Asked by bht2698 to Murray, Sarah, Diana, Caspar, Alan on 21 Mar 2011 in Categories: . This question was also asked by hnr12x.
    • Photo: Diana Drennan

      Diana Drennan answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      As a post-doc I went to San Francisco and Monterey California. For my job now I’ve been to England twice. Once to company research labs in Port Sunlight & Colworth, and the second time as a visiting scientist to Cambridge University – they do research into computational methods there.

      I almost went to China for a big company conference with researchers from all over the globe, but they canceled it at the last minute. =(

    • Photo: Alan Winfield

      Alan Winfield answered on 20 Mar 2011:

      I’m very lucky that I get to travel alot for my work – in fact one of the brilliant things about being a scientist is working with lots of other scientists around the world – and getting to visit them! Over 25 years or so I’ve been to many different countries, either to spend time working with other researchers, to give lectures or to attend international conferences. For some years I collaborated with researchers in Pasadena in the USA and got to go there quite a few times – which was brilliant. In more recent years I have had work trips to Japan, China, Taiwan and Vietnam – all amazing places (in fact I loved Vietnam so much I went again on holiday).

      Those are all far away places. I work very closely with a number of researchers in continental Europe and so visit quite often. Especially to Belgium, Holland, France, Germany and Switzerland. In fact I go to those countries so often I’ve lost count and don’t really think of them as ‘abroad’ any more (I love trains and always try to take the train to Belgium, Holland or France – I was in Paris just 2 weeks ago). Although less often I’ve been to most other countries in the EU for work. Next week I have a 2 day meeting in Spain, then in April a 3 day meeting of the European Robotics Forum in Sweden.

      You may think this sounds like alot of trips abroad but, compared with business people it’s not that many. In fact we do our very best to minimise travel by having lots and lots of meetings by Skype over the Internet. But I do think myself very lucky to be able to go to different countries as part of my work.

    • Photo: Murray Collins

      Murray Collins answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Hi –

      I’ve been working in Indonesia, in S.E. Asia on and off for a few years. I made a film there, did some camera trapping there (‘catching’ animals on camera) for a national geographic project, and did my MSc fieldwork there, in beautiful Sulawesi.

      I have also worked for the Government of Gabon, in west central Africa, doing a carbon stock assessment (measuring thousands of trees in the jungle!)

    • Photo: Caspar Addyman

      Caspar Addyman answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Even if you don’t do go to distant jungles, science can be a great job for travelling the world. It is very international so you can get a job almost anywhere and you travel a lot to meet other scientists.

      I have been to Vancouver, Boston and Denver to go to big international conferences to tell people about my research and I have been to Amsterdam, Dijon, France, Ohio and Budapest to meet other researchers and to learn more about their work.

      I am currently employed by the university of Burgundy in Dijon..But I mostly do my work in a lab in london and a small office in Berlin.

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      I’ve been to Newcastle, Leeds, London and Loughborough with work. I also went to Belfast.

      In july I am going to present at a conference in Sorrento in Italy! Can’t wait!

Comments

  • Photo: bht2698

    bht2698 commented on :

    Wow! sounds fun! do you enjoy going to all those different places or does it get boring?

    • Photo: Alan

      Alan commented on :

      Well the fun part for me is spending time with different scientists and seeing where they work, and the places and countries they live. The travel can get boring. I always prefer to go by train, which is less boring because you can get up and walk around – go to the buffet for a coffee and so on. And the scenery from the window is always changing and a fascinating way of seeing a country. But yes I find airports and long flights very boring!