After graduating from the University of Virginia Biology department in 2012, I landed a post-doc position in Montpellier, France – home to one of the most lively research communities in Europe. Particularly for studying ecology and evolution, this is the place to be. Yes, yes, there is also the wine and the bread, and here in the south, the Mediterranean. But there’s more to changing continents than a new diet, phone number, and weekend destination list. In general, there’s not that much of a difference between working as a scientist in the U.S. and in France if you just consider the actual science work – you do experiments, you collaborate, you vie for grants, you present your work, you write and review papers. There are subtle differences that can either promote or impede this process, and a slue of things that just take a period of adjustment. More than pointing out the respective qualities of bagels versus baguettes, I hope this site serves to both inform those who are considering the pond jump (both ways, in fact) and foster some reflection on how our own system works.
Bio: I graduated from UVA (the first time) in 2003 with a double major in Biology (BS) and Italian (BA). Focusing on infectious disease biology, I managed to serendipitously put my linguistic skills to good use working on a fungal plant pathogen in the Italian Alps, and eventually on the French side, during my graduate career. Earning both my Master’s (2008) and PhD (2012) from the UVA Biology Department, I finally left Virginia to continue my work on ecology and evolution of infectious disease as a post-doctoral researcher at the French National Research Center for Functional Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in Montpellier, France.
