My flight to Turin had two stop overs, Singapore and Frankfurt. Had to opt for this for a cheaper fare. Luckily the luggage went straight to Turin. The flight from Singapore to Frankfurt was about 12 hours long and we experienced some turbulence along the way. At Frankfurt, I received the news that the management had decided to close down INSPEM and be transformed as one research centre of excellence in the Faculty of Science. While I anticipated such result, I was still disappointed with the outcome for reasons that I have mentioned in the precious posts. On the flight to Turin, I was thinking on what should I be saying to Prof. Rondoni. MICEMS, however, is independent of INSPEM and the closure of INSPEM should not in principle affect MICEMS. Nevertheless how MICEMS is going to be placed within all these transformations is still uncertain. During the flight then, saw the sceneries of the Alps (see below), while thinking deeply of how much effort we have put in INSPEM and MICEMS.
On reaching Turin, took a cab to the University Residence at Paolo Borsellino (costing 31.50 Euros). Took a while activating my International Data Roaming before taking the keys to my room.
Rested a little before meeting up with our Research Fellow Santo Banerjee. We took a walk and I told him about INSPEM closing down. He was certainly visibly upset and stopped our walk, perhaps digesting implications for his position at the institute. I told him we have yet to discuss on migration of staff and there is no clear cut picture for this. We stopped at a park to take a rest before walking back to our residence.
The next day, we are supposed to meet Prof. Rondoni at Valentino Castle before he goes to University of Turin (nearby) for some lectures.
Lamberto gave a quick history of the castle which also housed the Faculty of Architecture. He brought us to some places which are not open to the public. We saw the meeting rooms of the Faculty (still being used).
Below is the ceiling of the Faculty of Architecture Dean's office.
At the time, they were preparing for Leonardo da Vinci exhibition due to be opened that afternoon. So we got a quick pre-exhibition glimpse of the displays. We saw some handwritten manuscripts by da Vinci and even some hand-built models of da Vinci. It was rather tempting to take photos of them but I did not, out of respect. Later I regretted it.
After the meet, we went to the International Office to sign some documents and then we had lunch.
While waiting for Lamberto, later that day, we met Francesco Malaspina, an algebraic geometer who, according to Santo, knew Bengali. We also met a collaborator of Prof. Rondoni, Paolo Mario de Gregorio during our discussion with him. Our discussions were mainly about INSPEM and MICEMS, some of which I should not disclose but he was concerned about the position of Santo due to INSPEM's closure.
The next day, I met INSPEM's mobility students who just arrived the day before.
We (me and Santo) also got our passes for our office (shared with others). Then we had lunch.
Later in the evening, we had discussions but more on scientific matters. We were contemplating of getting some international or private grants. I mention about the possible venture of using Nambu brackets to help quantize chaotic systems, which may be of use to semiconductor lasers (where I send some related news to Santo the next day). Then Lamberto asked to prepare a talk for the idea, the next day.
The next morning, I received another news about the possibility of INSPEM 'not being closed'. It would be based on the proposal of INSPEM 2.0 that Rezal (our head of lab) had presented on the Sunday workshop. Told Santo and Lamberto about this and they were happy about the news. In fact Santo immediately mentioned that he may proceed with the research proposal with Marco Pizzi of Altek Group. We (me and Santo as Lamberto had lunch appointment with the Vice Rector) then had lunch.
Much later that evening, I gave a talk on quantization and Nambu brackets. But I had to stop before the place I wanted to finish as it was getting late.
There were points about constraints and quantization raised by Lamberto that I could not answer and I was curious on how he could 'circumvent' this point in an earlier work he mentioned using Dirac brackets. He mentioned he had some notes on this and I was looking forward to see this.
The next day we are supposed to continue the discussion but early that morning, I received more messages, one of which slighted me off. It seems that I was sidelined from any further discussion on a new institute that was suggested to replace INSPEM. While I have mentioned that I prefer not to be in the 'new management' if there is one, I am still interested to see what goes into the new institute researchwise and there is of course MICEMS interest to be taken care of. It reminded me of the days before the formation of INSPEM and I went to form (unknowingly) Laboratory of Theoretical Studies in ITMA, only to find out that INSPEM was formed a few months after. Later this lab is closed down despite the message that I got was to merge.
So for that morning, I wasn't in the mood for discussion. We discussed only general matters. Lamberto gave me some references for his work but he could not find his notes. I had also left my notes in my room after reading his review article on transient fluctuations and steady-state fluctuations that are relevant to our discussions yesterday. Then Santo left to catch a flight in Milan and I simply waited for our lunch. At lunch (together with Paolo), I almost took pasta with meat in it but Lamberto generously bought me another pasta dish which is vegetarian. After lunch I said goodbye to Lamberto and Paolo but my mind was occupied.
Back in the room, I pondered on the situation. It seems clear that I'm not wanted in the new set-up. Even with INSPEM, sometimes I felt like I'm an outsider and it did not make my duties any easier. I hated the politics. Chatted with my other half, whether I should apply for early retirement. We have always discussed about this each time I'm stressed out with work problems. Should I do it? I know I have some pending duties with many students ungraduated yet and I do wish that I am able to do more work with MICEMS. I guess I'll wait until I reach home to decide on matters.
Today is Good Friday which is supposed to be a holiday (though some offices are not closed and Lamberto told me he was coming to office). However I have to checked out at 10am from the residence. I felt I should just check out and go straight to the airport. The cab now costs 34.50 Euros. At the Turin airport, I started to write this post (and conitinued in Munich) since I had so much time before the flight.
No comments:
Post a Comment