We welcomed in 2008 on a flight back to Seattle, unaware that it would be our last year in the USA. We both worked very hard during out post-docs in medical science, and we both made novel discoveries and uncovered some of the mysteries of the development and function of white blood cells. Adrian had his work published in some excellent journals, and I learned that the paper from my post-doc “may be suitable for publication, pending revisions” in a great journal. Adrian has been offered a professorship, and I am investigating some interesting jobs in clinical trials. We experienced the freezing winters of the North that will never make me consider Canberra to be a cold city ever again.

I attended MacWorld and witnessed Steve Jobs give his last keynote and unveil the Macbook Air to the world. We explored more of the USA in dribs and drabs – Arizona, Nevada, California, and Hawaii – as well as exploring the Ukraine and Moldova.

The biggest issue that we faced in 2008 was the decision about where we would live in 2009. At first, it was between Maynooth (Ireland), London (UK), Montreal (Canada), and Brussels (Belgium). We visited all four places, and it came down to a battle between the two bilingual cities, Montreal and Brussels, and then Brussels won due to employment and travel opportunities. We celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary in the country that was to become our new home, and Adrian will starting his own lab at the University of Leuven from February 2009.

We finished up our post-docs in Seattle in November, made huge progress towards completing our Masters of Public Health degrees, and finished up the year visiting extended family in Australia that ranged from Brisbane to Adelaide. After nearly two years outside of Australia, we are able to see our birth country with new eyes, and appreciate its charms as well as its challenges. It is a country of relative compassion and opportunity, but is also isolated and monolingual. The weather is nearly always warm with blue skies and extraordinary wild-life, but the water crisis is hitting hard and many of the main rivers no longer reach the sea.

In a few weeks we fly off to Brussels, to begin our new home in Belgium. My goals for 2009 are:
- To find a short-term furnished apartment
- To get a residency permit
- To find a job
- To start learning Flemish
- To get a work permit
- To start my job
- To start learning French
- To buy a house

I think that’s enough to keep me busy for twelve months or so. It is a bit overwhelming to be faced with so many changes, but I realise how lucky that we are to have this opportunity, so the main emotion I feel is excitement. We had a great time in North America over the past two years, and while I think we are better suited to Europe, I am very thankful for all the happy memories that we have of the United States of America.

My first day of my PhD was February, 2004. I had a long hard road ahead of me. I spent many days and long nights attempting FACS, PCR, bleeding, hybridising, giving seminars, going to lab meetings, and writing many many words about science. In January, 2007 I submitted my thesis, and left for Seattle. My thesis was then sent out to review by two anonymous reviewers. Four months later, I got their comments and responded to the issues that they had raised, and sent this back to Australia for final approval. It wasn’t until November, 2007 that I got the letter confirming that I had been awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. I deferred graduation for one year, and then in December 2008, I was able to walk across stage and officially claim my diploma.

It was the first time for a while that I heard the national anthem, Advance Australia Fair. What a strange song. These days, our soil seems more brown than golden. As the university is only sixty-two years old, it has to import a lot of its pomp and ceremony from Oxford. The robes we wear, even in the heat of summer, are thick black wool, as worn hundreds of years ago in England.The silver mace, carried during the academic procession, is a twentieth-century replica of the eighteenth-century Oxford mace. The conferring process for PhD graduates is very neat, but I was nervous that I would stuff it up in front of everyone. When my name was called, I walked across the stage and kneeled in front of the Chancellor. I removed my black velvet bonnet, and inclined my head and he placed a blue silk hood over my shoulders. I replaced my bonnet, and stood up. He handed me my testamur, shook my hand, and I walked down the stairs, degree in hand.

Afterwards Fleur and I celebrated with champagne, our many years as molecular biology graduate students officially coming to an end. Adrian and I then had lunch with my parents, where they presented me with a beautiful watch to mark the occasion of my graduation. Now, when we find a home in Belgium, I can now hang a diploma on my wall that proudly proclaims that I have earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the Australian National University.

I recently got a message asking for details about being a post-doc in Belgium. The salary for a first-year post-doc straight out of a PhD is set at 2350 euros per month after tax (more if one has children or a non-working spouse). In addition to this, health care and free public transportation passes are often provided. Naturejobs often has post-doctoral positions advertised, however the best strategy is to search for papers of interest, and then contact the lab heads directly. One will have the best chances of success if one can state why one wants to work in that lab in particular, and suggest a project that one has designed ones self. Most of the websites for Belgian universities are not great, so it can be difficult to get an idea of where the best researchers are situated. A list of the ISI highly cited researchers from Belgium can be found here. Work visas for non-EU citizens will be sponsored by the institute, but can take several months to be processed. Collaborations and conferences within Europe are plentiful, and it only takes a few hours on the train to arrive in one of a number of countries with excellent research and development.

Wednesday, November 5 was my last day as a senior post-doctoral fellow at the University of Washington. We went out to Lydia’s Last Lunch at Serafina with current and past lab members. I had some delcious trout, and they gave me a lovely card:

“thank-you for all your help and for answering all my questions… thank you for teaching me awesome Australian words: arvo! I will miss you! You’ve always had a smile and a kind word to share. You know how to distract me when I’m nervous (i.e. you let me rattle on about my cats)… we’ll miss you.. We are sad to see you go!… I have enjoyed and learned a lot from our many conversations… Thanks for all your support to me, especially when things have not been going the best. Your positive attitude and kindness have been very helpful so many times.”

I may never again walk through the university library, watch the squirrels hide and recover acorns, see the mountain behind the fountain, celebrate a birthday with cake, or a paper with sparkling apple juice. We have made so many wonderful friends here in Seattle. Now I am leaving my career at the bench behind, and looking forward to a rewarding future in clinical trials.