So I started this blogpost on Sunday, actually, but it was first
now I’ve had the time to continue and finish – and of course, most of what I
wrote on Sunday (like being at Gardermoen, drinking a glass of wine, on my way
to conference) is not true anymore. Now I am
at the Nuclear Data 2016 conference, and this first one of three crazy weeks is
going to an end.
So here’s s small recap of this week:
-
I gave my talk yesterday – it went
quite well, I think
-
We have discussed quite a lot
about what to do about the neutrons that we know are part of what we see in our
gamma detectors (I’m really looking forward to get all the new detectors, that
will be able to distinguish between neutrons and gammas!)
-
I still get quite nervous
about talking to other scientists, but it’s better now than it was before
-
it’s very hot here – more than
30 degrees
-
it’s very hot in my hotel room
(no AC) – probably more than 30 degrees, and if I open the window, I get many
many many mosquito bites (temperature and mosquitos are the reasons why I only
slept for max one hour at the time this night, and that I had to get up three
times to take a super quick shower just to cool down)
-
Bruges is a very beautiful
city. Unfortunately there’s not much time to see much when you travel to these
kinds of conferences, but I’ve seen enough to know that this is a place I need
to get back to with Anders – it really seems like the ideal place for a
romantic weekend <3
-
the top people in IAEA, NEA
and other such organisations are not able (at least none were able this week)
to give a speech with any kind of substance. For example, one of the top people
of one of these organisations basically said I’m a biologist, you’re nerds, I’m too important to stay here for the
conference*, water’s becoming more and more important. Maybe I’m naïve, but
I’d think those kinds of people were able to at least give motivating speeches
to 400 scientist…
-
I’ve learned a little bit more
about (prompt) fission gamma rays
-
I now know we need to analyse
the plutonium experiment so that we hopefully can use that as a test to if we
manage to estimate how much neutrons we measure together with our gammas
-
there are a lot of things I
don’t understand, and I feel kind of stupid for much of the time (I don’t think
it’s all my fault, though, since I think many of the speakers don’t really
think about us in the audience – that we should be able to understand what
they’re saying, and maybe even learn something)
-
Americans are mostly good at
giving talks, and not just because they don’t have language issues; they’ re
simply (often) good at explaining what they’re doing, in a simple language, and
they don’t forget that 90% of the people in the audience are actually not
experts in exactly the same field as themselves
-
there are actually people
wearing corderoi pants here
-
I just heard someone using the
word ”guesstimate”, which is just an awesome word, completely covering the
process of getting rid of these neutrons :D
II
The ”crazy” part of these three weeks is that I’m going to be ”on
the road” for most of the time:
On Sunday I left Oslo, for Brussels, and then Bruges. Tomorrow I’m
going back to Oslo, only to go directly on the boat to Copenhagen (Family trip,
with Anders, Alexandra, my sister, her kids, and our mother). We’re coming back
to Oslo on Sunday morning, and then I need to get back home and quickly re-pack
my bags, before I’ll meet NHO just after lunch. Then I’m starting the two weeks
long #jenterogteknologi-tour: we’re going to visit en different cities all
around Norway – a new one every day, and I’ll be giving a talk in all of these
cities. It really is all around Norway; from Kristiansand in the south, to Alta
in the North, and we’ll be driving around in a van :D Luckily I get to go home
and see Anders and Alexandra next weekend, but it will be sad to only see both
of them once a week for three weeks (I saw them last weekend, and I’ll meet
them this weekend, and then the weekend after).
I’m looking forward to October now, and ”only” having to finish my
PhD…
Unfortunately, I’ll miss the very end of the conference, since have to be back in Oslo by noon’ish tomorrow. This means I have to be on the
train from Bruges at 6AM. Hopefully then I can sleep on the train.
---------------------------------------------
*He din’t say that he was too important, but he made a point out of
leaving just after the first Keynote session. The other things he actually
said…
