Deacons?Jacque has been presented with a really good job offer from Wake Forest University, in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They've offered to make her "The Reynolds
Professor of Computational Biophysics", an endowed professorship with tenure
jointly appointed in the Physics and Computer Science departments. It's
a great offer, but there are a number of considerations: what is Winston-Salem
like? What is Wake Forest University like? Are there good opportunities
for Brian in the area? Would Jacque feel comfortable with an academic position
after being in a business setting? Does the geographic location make sense
for us? Could we really root for a team known as the Deamon
Deacons?
To try to answer some of these questions, we spent the week in the Winston-Salem
area, checking out the city, the university, the medical center, the neighborhoods,
etc. Rick Matthews and Jennifer Burg, chairs of Physics and Computer Science
respectively, did a really marvelous job setting up appointments and social
events for us for the week to help us maximize our short time in the city.
We started with a couple of afternoons looking at housing and neighborhoods.
Rick set us up with Martha Wood, former two-term mayor of Winston-Salem
and current Realtor, who did an amazingly thorough job of showing
us around. We looked at or inside a number of houses, and found that one
can seemingly buy about 10 homes for the cost of a single San Diego house!
Brian had a number of introductions with people who could give a good
overview of opportunities for him in the area, at Wake Forest, at the affiliated
Bowman Gray School of Medicine, at local companies, etc. Jacque also spent
much of the week meeting with potential future colleagues, checking out facilities,
etc. Although Jacque's seniority will have the most influence on the decision
about where we will live, it's good to see that Brian will have a number
of opportunities to choose from if we go to Winston-Salem. He hasn't yet decided
if he will be immediately looking for a full-time or part time position.
It was a very busy, informative, and interesting week, and answered many
of our questions about the city and the university. It also raised new
questions, and by week's end, we still weren't decided about whether or
not we should move there. So, we embarked on a trip to visit a number of
friends and collegues who are nearby and get their opinions. Thus, "The
Decision Tour"...