New job
Well, the big news from this weekend is that I accepted a tenure-track job at Fairfield University. I'll be starting in the fall.
This was certainly a bit of a late-season surprise. I had been basically set to teach at Smith another year. Fairfield had interviewed me at the JMM, but their announcement had indicated a strong preference for a statistician or applied mathematician, which I am not. They ended up hiring a statistician, but they liked their pool so much that their administration agreed to let them hire another mathematician this year rather than run another search in the fall. So I got called in for a campus interview and then got the offer two days later. Pretty nuts!
I'm going to miss Smith. The students are fantastic and enthusiastic. There's people in the department that I became good friends with. I'm sad to say goodbye. My teaching schedule for next year was going to be fantastic and I already had 15 students registered for my number theory course, including several who I'm teaching this semester.
On the other hand, I'm sure the students at Fairfield will be enthusiastic too. And I'm certainly looking forward to being in a permanent position. Mostly, I'm just looking forward to cutting the 12 hours of commuting per week down to 3-4. The teaching load is a little heavier, but I think I'll manage easily since I won't be as tired. And I will maybe have some time to do some research! They also have an REU program which they are very excited in having me join and I am equally excited to contribute to.
On a personal side, Christian and I get to stay in our apartment another year. We had grown to like New Haven quite a bit. The irony is that I couldn't mention any of this to the people at Fairfield during my interviews because I didn't want them to know about my two-body situation. So they kept talking about the great theater scene in New Haven, or getting snowed in under 3 feet of snow in that huge storm this winter, and I just had to act completely ignorant. That's gonna be something to recount during the department's first happy hour.
This was certainly a bit of a late-season surprise. I had been basically set to teach at Smith another year. Fairfield had interviewed me at the JMM, but their announcement had indicated a strong preference for a statistician or applied mathematician, which I am not. They ended up hiring a statistician, but they liked their pool so much that their administration agreed to let them hire another mathematician this year rather than run another search in the fall. So I got called in for a campus interview and then got the offer two days later. Pretty nuts!
I'm going to miss Smith. The students are fantastic and enthusiastic. There's people in the department that I became good friends with. I'm sad to say goodbye. My teaching schedule for next year was going to be fantastic and I already had 15 students registered for my number theory course, including several who I'm teaching this semester.
On the other hand, I'm sure the students at Fairfield will be enthusiastic too. And I'm certainly looking forward to being in a permanent position. Mostly, I'm just looking forward to cutting the 12 hours of commuting per week down to 3-4. The teaching load is a little heavier, but I think I'll manage easily since I won't be as tired. And I will maybe have some time to do some research! They also have an REU program which they are very excited in having me join and I am equally excited to contribute to.
On a personal side, Christian and I get to stay in our apartment another year. We had grown to like New Haven quite a bit. The irony is that I couldn't mention any of this to the people at Fairfield during my interviews because I didn't want them to know about my two-body situation. So they kept talking about the great theater scene in New Haven, or getting snowed in under 3 feet of snow in that huge storm this winter, and I just had to act completely ignorant. That's gonna be something to recount during the department's first happy hour.