Am 18. Oktober werde ich als Software-Entwickler zu Microsoft wechseln. In deren Search-Technology-Center in London Soho werde ich an Algorithmen fuer das Sortieren von Sucheintraegen arbeiten. Damit muss ich meine Lehrtaetigkeit in Leicester aufgeben; auf meine Promotion sollte sich diese Aenderung aber nicht auswirken.

University of Leicester

Three years ago, I moved to the University of Leicester as a graduate teaching assistant and PhD student in computer science. I hoped to leave an imprint through strong contribution in teaching, research and the many other activities that I have been entrusted. Not everything could be realised, the understanding of which I comprehend as part of my learning process. But what we have achieved, would not have been possible without the great colleagues I found at Leicester, many of which I now call friends.

As a member of the teaching body, I have been involved in many interesting courses at Leicester. The experience to be on the other side of the lectern is invaluable. Again, I owe much to teachers and teaching assistants I could work with, as much as to the students, who went beyond the assignments. I hope to return to teaching in the near future.

Coalgebra, Category Theory, Quantum

My research of the last three years took place mainly in coalgebraic logic and category theory. The level of abstraction and precision has grown my fascination for pure mathematics. Nevertheless I learned that one should keep in mind, that research in a highly abstract area of foundational science should have clear aims and results justifying the effort. I am pleased to have contributed to coalgebraic logic through my work on coalgebra automata and trace logics, and I hope that some of the ideas will be taken up by my colleagues working in coalgebra.

Recently I became interested in the mathematics around quantum logic mainly through the excellent workshops at Oxford and Imperial College. A friend and expert in the area told me that quantum is out-dated. Nevertheless, I see room for inspiration for coalgebra and coalgebraic logic. I hope to see similar ideas being implemented in the near future.

There is still a pile of unfinished material on my desk. I hope that time will permit me to write down the ideas and keep up the exchange with the great minds I was allowed to meet over the last years.

Software Development at Bing

Although the interviewing process took long, the transition will be more suddenly than anticipated. I will join the Soho lab of Bing in London, working on ranking algorithms and data analysis. Because the objectives and questions are much different from the ones in my studies at Leicester, I look forward in great excitement to the new challenges awaiting me.

From Leicester to London

When I moved from Amsterdam to Leicester, I often found myself in difficulties explaining where exactly Leicester is. I suppose with London, this will not be an issue. On the one hand I resent the general migration to the capital, on the other hand I am excited to become citizen of one of the most avantgarde cities and look forward to see more often the good friends of mine, who have moved there already.

Nevertheless, Leicester has become a home for me over the last three years. I have met great people and made very good friends, first of all Laura. Not only because I will have a PhD to complete here, I hope I will be able to return often and stay in touch with the everyone.