After one year my PostDoc in Paris is now over and tomorrow I’m starting at SFB 1114 at FU Berlin. As I already told one of my new colleagues, it’s been quite a thing for me not being Xians office mate any more. One reason, obviously, is that with respect to work it’s a great luxury to be able to ask a senior researcher questions at almost any time. My second major reason is that the last time an office mate was so pleasant on a personal level was about six years ago when both Felix (then office mate) and I where new fathers and just generally got along very well. Christian told me last year how he was very thankful to Jim Berger for taking him as a PostDoc “and basically for no reason” (his words). Christians publication record wasn’t great but Jim Berger didn’t care. My response was that that was exactly how I felt, very thankful – and for the same reasons.
It was rather easy to feel at home scientifically in Paris in general. Especially in domains with a strong math component it’s hard to find a better place when taking the union of all Paris universities. Dauphine had a nice atmosphere with many young researchers, especially probabilists. This also made me reflect more on Germany, and I can’t help but feel that the situation in the most prosperous country in the EU is much worse than in France. Rather it is comparable, especially with respect to young researchers, to some EU countries that are currently fighting low tax revenue. But there is hope. If the EU dissolves there will be less comparisons…

The hard part of this year was family life and commuting back to Berlin almost every weekend. It gave my wife the life of a single mother during week days. Another reason to be very thankful, being supported like that. I’m happy to have been here when my son entered elementary school and hope that was it in terms of long term family separation.