A professor, a father

As promised earlier, here are some memories from my last weekend’s interview date with Young Professor.

We were meeting at the train station at which the campus is located. The plan was to talk about research, give a presentation of previous projects and have a tour of the facilities.

I was anxious all week beforehand, as there was not plan yet and we were meeting to “discuss research” so it sounded like we were meeting to see what impressions we would get and whether we would get on. It sounded like a date.

I have not been at a date for ages, let alone scientific date / courting prospective boss and employer. Ok, I should rather say courting prospective supervisor, as this would be more appropriate word to describe that relationship in the context of the fellowship application. But it was a meeting to evaluate the possibility of entering into a relationship. Mentor – mentee one, but nevertheless relationship.

So when I saw a guy with a small child who looked like the professor I was meeting, I was unsure if this was the right person. I decided to wait for him to approach me, after he deals with his three year old boy, who was very keen to run off in several directions at once.

It is much easier for a Japanese person to identify a foreign female at the train station gate (among the number of foreigners there equal to one), than for me to identify Young Professor among many Japanese males of unidentified age. The guy with the son had identified me and it indeed was Young Professor. He immediately confessed: “I am sorry; I accidentally took my family with me today”.

That sounded so funny that I could not help but smile. It sounded he accidentally got married and had children and had to confess that to me. I tried to reassure him that it was not a problem.

First, we went up the shopping centre at the train station to find his wife, who was feeding their six month’s old daughter. On our way there and while waiting for his wife to finish feeding, we started the discussions about science and possible projects, while keeping an eye on his hyperactive son.

When his wife emerged from the feeding room and after a brief introduction, they promptly swapped children and she headed off with the boy and we went towards the department with the pram with the fed and happy infant.

The girl behaved well during my presentation, and she was giving me big smiles that covered more than half of her face. Was this a test whether I am able to focus in the presence of such a lovely infant, stay cool and talk about science?

She was however becoming increasingly unhappy when her dad started talking, and was not paying appropriate attention to her. She started behaving like an unhappy baby and we had to finish our scientific discussions.

There was one part of the visit’s plan that was unrealised yet: the tour of the lab and the facilities. With an unhappy and screaming baby. She was tired and opposed violently when Young Professor tried to put her on her back into a special baby backpack (I have no idea what this device is called).

At the firt attempt it turned out that the straps are adjusted for his wife’s size, i.e. much smaller, and he was not able to put it on at all. The baby was screaming non-stop at that point and could probably be heard at every corner of the building.

And she was not very cooperative with the strapping-on process; she put her legs straight in front of her and refused to work together. I offered my help and after several minutes of a struggle we managed to get the screaming baby onto Young Professor’s back. I know nothing about babies and this was all quite scary, but the moment we started walking she fell asleep!

So we managed to have a tour of the lab and the facilities, and finish our scientific discussions. That baby fell deeply asleep so we had some time for chatting on our way back to the station too.

Overall, I am very keen about the science Young Professor is doing and I would finally get to do what I want to do scientifically, what I have been keen to do since I came here but had no chance to in the lab of Big Old Boss.

And then the revelation came. Young Professor told me (or rather mentioned casually) that I could work as a postdoc there even if our application for the fellowship falls through. I was dumbstruck. It was so much more than I expected that I did not even know what to say. I am sure that I did not give the impression of enthusiasm that I should have given. After all the uncertainty about my future and whether I would stay in science at all, I was in deep shock. It was too good to be true!

I am now asking more questions about this opportunity, while trying to write my application and describe all the science that we had been talking about at the meeting last weekend. There are exciting times ahead!