Sights in Madrid

The organizers of the IUCr conference had sightseeing tours and excursions that the conference participants could sign up to take. I took one half day trip on Sunday to the Museo del Prado which has some fine European art by Velázquez and Francisco de Goya mainly but also Titian, Rubens and Bosch and others. There are also Greek and Roman sculptures. Photos are not allowed of course but it was wonderfull to see. The famous Picasso Guernica is at the Museo Reina Sofía which, unfortunantly, I did not get to go see. We also took a bus trip around the city and were told about many of the famous sights in Madrid. It was difficult to take pictures out of the bus window but we did stop at the famous bull fighting areana (I did not go to a bull fight) and the Royal Palace. I have put some of the pictures below.

An old Spanish Church near the Prado

A Friend Melissa and I at the Bull Fighting Stadium

The Palace

Don Quixote Statue

A movie was being filmed in the palace gardens

IUCr Conference

(a blury image of me giving my talk)

The IUCr (International Union of Crystallography) is a large conference that is held every three years.  It is a large conference with several thousand participants. People from all over the world attend. As part of my travel grant from the U.S. National Committee for Crystallography funded by the National Academies, the awardees were allowed to observe the General Assembly where the representatives of all the nations who are members of the IUCr make science policies. It was such an honor to have been selected for this particular travel grant, as most of those awarded were post docs, early career scientists or about to finish their PhDs. Observing the general assembly has been a really interesting experience because these policies affect all researchers in the field. It has been fun to watch.
Each of the travel grant awardees is assigned a mentor that is from the US and we had a dinner with our mentors. My mentor was part of the commissioning and design team for TOPAZ. His name is Victor Young and it was nice to get have a good conversation during the dinner of traditional Spanish food that is from this area of Spain. 
Also, we were invited to the US-Spain speed networking reception. My area was Mathematical and Theoretical Crystallography. There were only myself and two other senior scientists in this section. One was from Sweden and the other Scotland. It was nice to get to talk with them and learn about what they are doing. They were also really interested in my work and very encouraging.
Overall, I have met many people and had lots of interesting conversations. The talks I have heard have been well done and on very good research. I have learned a lot and hope to attend again next time when the IUCr will be in Montreal, Canada.
My talk was on Thursday morning and the first talk in the micro symposium. It was intimidating to know one of the very best world experts in diffuse scattering Richard Welberry was also a speaker. The micro symposium was held in one of the two conference auditoriums and there were about 150 people attending. The talk went well and I got lots of encouragement afterwards by some of those who listened. All the speakers had a photo taken (below) and received a certificate. This has been a very positive experience and I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity and to have been invited to speak

The five speakers and two symposium chairs on either end

Goodbye Switzerland and Hello to Madrid, Spain

It was bitter sweet to leave Switzerland. It was an excellent experience both in terms of research and culturally.  I had a marvelous time working with our research collaborators at UZH and meeting new people. My roommates were sweet girls and very welcoming. I enjoyed the public transportation and the gorgeous scenery. I hope to be back next summer.

Madrid is beautiful and the people very friendly. The weather is hot and the climate dry. The landscape reminds me of Texas. I am looking forward to IUCr congress and meeting lots of interesting people.

Dinner with some UZH people

A friend of mine who works with Tony Linden  in the crystallography lab at UZH, Rangana from Sri Lanka and his roommate Timm from Germany who works in Kim Baldridge's theoretical chemistry group invited us over for dinner. My roommate Gerladine and I went.  They live just one level below us. Timm spent a long time cooking and making things perfect. The food was good and it was fun visting. We had curry and spicy food made by Rangana as well as stir fried veggies from Timm. For dessert Timm made a quark cream (quark is a German cheese somewhat similar to cream cheese) with vineyard peaches and mango banna sauce with passion fruit. 

Zürich Street Parade

Today was the 20th anniversay of the Zürich Street Parade.  For more information check out this website:
http://www.streetparade.com/history/history?lang=en-us&content=31&main=31
Everyone dresses if funky and sexy outfits and parades through the streets. I went for just about an hour before heading to get my groceries and do my laundry and took some interesting photos. They play electronic music and dance and party. Everyone loved having their picture taken. There was this group of guys dancing in pink bunny outfits that were quite funny. I tried to take video with my camera but it is not that great getting the sound.

Resting

Above is a picture of exactly what I am going to do tonight. That is my gray Holland mini lop mix Brady sleeping. He sleeps like a person all the time. I miss that little guy and my other two rabbits and last but not least my husband (pictures below). :-)  Ok so I am getting a little sappy with pics of the bunnies but couldn't resist.

The 2-D code is almost finished (just have to add the ADPs) and tomorrow I will do a practice run of my talk for Madrid. I need to add one more section of results to my paper and then write the introduction and conclusion. I will be working on these things for the rest of this week and next. My work is not finished but I can relax a little now that things are gettning to the end.

Rainbow Outside My Appartment

I ran home today because it was storming on the way back from UZH. The weather was cool and cloudy in the morning and then by mid afternoon it was sunny.  Then by evening it was cloudy again and starting to thunder so I rushed to catch the bus home. I made it to the bus right as it was about to leave. As soon as  I got to my apartment the sun came out again and right outside the entrance was this gorgeous rainbow. I took a picture because I thought it would be nice to share. 

Calloborative Research

Trying to make the most out of my time here at UZH has made for quite a busy work week and working weekends.  It has been quite enjoyable though and the day goes by quickly, before I realize it I have been there ten hours or more.  I have learned so much from our collaborators here and have come a long way on my 2-D code.  The Monte Carlo crystal optimizer, correlation pair statistics (up to fourth nearest neighbors) and neutron diffraction intensities portions have been written. The paper I am writing has also progressed significantly with lots of helpful editing and suggestions. It is nice to spend so much time with people who are not just experts but also great to work with.  I have taken some pictures in Michal's office, which he has been kind enough to share with me for these past couple of weeks. They show Michal  who is a post doc from Poland and very good at theoretical crystallography and author of the general disorder simulation and structure solution software ZODS for the project and Hans-Beat who is well established and well known crystallographer and retired professor working and discussing things with me.  Today Hans-Beat went over my outline for my talk in Madrid at the IUCr. He has lots of experience giving talks and was really helpful. It makes me feel more confident that I will be prepared to give the invited talk in my session.  The last picture below shows all three of us looking at an occupational disorder simulation visualization from ZODS.

Swiss National Day (August 1)

Some general information on Swiss National Day: " More than 700 years ago, the inhabitants of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden signed a contract of mutual aid and protection, the Federal Charter, now considered to be Switzerland’s deed of foundation. This oath, said to be taken on August 1, 1291 on the Rütli meadow overlooking Lake Lucerne, was mainly an act of rebellion against the ruling Habsburgs.

The National Day on August 1 was, however, only instituted in 1891 to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation. The annual celebration was introduced in 1899, mainly at the insistence of the Swiss living abroad who, seeing the national days already celebrated in other countries, also wanted a special day.

For decades after that, the national day, however, was just an ordinary holiday and only some cantons declared the afternoon or the whole day as an official national holiday. A popular vote – with 83.3% approval - in 1993 made the event an official national holiday.

Celebrations are now held across the country, in which the anthem is sung. It exists in four versions: German, French, Italian and Romansh. " from http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Fireworks_and_food_feature_on_Swiss_national_day.html?cid=30808642

After finishing up at UZH, my roommate Geraldine and I went down town to see the fireworks and look at Fraumünster built 853 and Grossmünster meaning "great minister" inaugurated around 1220. (pictures below).  I have also included a video I took with the bells of the churches chiming together.  The first picture is Grossmünster and the second is me in front of Fraumünster's doors.

We went down by the Zürich lake which is beautiful and has a population of white swans (picture above). We sat on the grass and watched fireworks all around the lake.  Some people we letting off their own fireworks which made things exciting because all of the sudden one would go off right near where you were walking, making both of us jump. There was lots of live music and entertainment, including face painting, food, and alcohol.  Most people had brought a picnic to eat by the lake. My roommate is pictured with the lake behind her.  She was a lot of fun to go with and kept jumping at the fireworks people let off in the street.   

Relaxed Day

Today I needed to stuff again for the week. Sundays all the grocery stores are closed. In fact almost everything is closed on Sunday. I went to the neighborhood Coop grocery and it was nice to find so many fresh choices. I took a picture of my groceries for the week because I thought it is intersting to see how the products are different.  Those blackberries taste as good as they look. 

I went back to UZH today to work some and took some more pictures of the pretty duck pond.  Also, just so you believe me, I took a picture of the cafeteria sign, it really is called Mensa. Mensa in German means "dining hall, canteen, refectory".

Working at UZH

The UZH campus is beautiful.  The buildings have large windows and lots of natural light.  Everything is new and clean.  The office I am currently sharing with the post doc, Michal Chodkiewicz in the Sinergia project, who is writing the ZODS (Zürich Oak Ridge Disorder Simulation) software is large and has plenty of natural light which I really prefer. The first picture below was taken from the door of the office to show the window and the layout of the office.  The second is taken from the other side of the office and shows the white board where I was working out my two dimensional disorder simulation for a hexagonal lattice for the 2-D code I am writing.

We go for lunch in the Mensa cafeteria which serves hot lunches daily. They usually have three menu choices, one is always vegetarian. The other collaborators Hans-Beat Bürgi (University of Bern) and Thomas Weber (ETH) visit a couple of times a week to have discussions about our work. These discussions are educational and enjoyable. We skyped with ORNL yesterday and spoke with my advisor Robert Harrison and Vickie Lynch. It is interesting to work with so many experts in different areas and a privilege to learn from them all.

Downtown

I went to downtown Zürich to buy my groceries, there were some things I needed that were not carried in the smaller neighborhood grocery stores. So I took the tram down to the four floor Migros to buy a towel and other various and sundry items. It is organized very well. The first floor is groceries and then each floor specializes in different things like kitchen or harware but each its own area with its own checkout. There were other stores within almost like a mall but all for Migros. The fresh fruit and meat is especially good. I bought a personal sized box of berries: blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. They were all delicious but you had to eat them right away because they were so fresh they would be rotten in a couple of days. Across from Migros is USB bank so I included a picture because what is more secure than a Swiss bank?

Transportation

The transportation system here is amazing.  The trams (picture shown) run like clockwork. This is impressive. They have a countdown to the minute of when the next tram will arrive and it is almost always there exactly on time. If it is more then exactly one or two minutes late you can see those waiting get visibly upset.  The Swiss culture is very concerned with precision especially when it comes to time. Swiss watches are the best after all. The trams and buses are extremely clean and wonderful to ride. They have large windows and you can watch the pretty scenery go by as you ride to your destination. Most people plant flowers in window boxes. This makes the buildings look cheery. The picture of the tram is the one I just missed coming down the pathway from UZH. This is not a big concern since the next one will be there in about ten minutes.

July 25 First Day in Zürich

I arrived in Zürich, Switzerland on Sunday July 24,2011 to gray skies and a temperature of about 59 degrees Fahrenheit.  Monday proved to be  gorgeous and sunny but still with temperatures in high the 60s /low 70s. Above is a picture of the UZH where I am working on theoretical chemistry/crystallography modeling disordered crystal structures. The campus is gorgeous and surrounded by biking and walking trails and a pretty duck pond.  I have an apartment nearby that I share with two roommates, who are synthetic chemistry PhD students at UZH. One is from Venezuela and the other is Swiss.  They are very kind and welcoming.  It is great to meet other chemists.