Next stop is the topology in computer science workgroup at Stanford, where I have accepted an offer for a postdoc research position up to 3 years (conditional on my good behaviour .

A short background blurb for those who haven’t read this blog before – and for those who haven’t heard the story: I’m a mathematics PhD student from Sweden in Germany, living apart from my wife for about 2½ years now. She has a position waiting for her in Michigan, and my advisor told me to get that thesis written and go for a postdoc to stay at least on the same continent.

Hence, I currently try to finish up my thesis (progressing surprisingly well!) and land postdoc positions for fall 2008 (~25 applications out, contacts duly notified, and a LOT of job search angst).

I find myself on the career path I have been going for since I was 4 years old – there’s a story I’ve been told over and over by my family: on the way back from a children’s theater show with my aunt, I chatted in the subway with an Iraqi immigrant, who asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I proudly answered “Scientist!”.

All, significantly, that has happened since is that I now know more precisely -what- kind of scientist I want to be, and how to get there. Thus, my striving for a postdoc comes with a standard issue set of rosy-coloured glasses and a large bunch of optimism. We’ll see how much of that remains 6 months from now.

Tying in with the postdoc carnival theme, this places my theme song for that pie-in-the-sky firmly at Knocking on heaven’s door.