Bonus: That One Time I Almost Became A Norsk

I have another bonus story to share. In the spring of 2013, I was finishing my fourth year of a teaching-only position at Providence College. The position had a college-mandated limit of four years, which means I was soon to be out of a job. The teaching position at Providence College was intended to be the final step in achieving my goal in getting a tenure-track faculty position at a teaching-focused college or university. For the fifth year in a row, I thought I had one of those positions, and for a variety of reasons, and some crazy stories, it kept not happening. I had also felt that my resume and application had lost some of its luster, as it had been over five years since I had finished by PhD. All of these factors resulted in me exploring ideas as to different avenues to take my career. One of those avenues was with UniResearch in Bergen, Norway. I submitted my application, interviewed remotely, and I was offered the job as a research scientist working in a regional climate modeling group with UniResearch. As I pondered whether or not to take a job in Norway, I concluded that at that point in my life I was trying to simplify my life. I decided that taking a job across the Atlantic Ocean was not an effort that would simplify my life. It was an odd realization because 16 years earlier I was angling for any option or path that I could find to get a job in Norway. To this day, I stand by that decision.

It is therefore easy to see how receiving this opportunity to spend three months in Bergen has a special meaning to me. I didn’t realize, until a few months prior to my visit, that this visit is in fact at the same research institution. I decided to research the connection, and I discovered that UniResearch and NORCE had the same address, and that UniResearch was rebranded/reorganized into NORCE Research in 2017. The person who offered me the job is now a faculty member at University of Bergen. He has been one of my unofficial hosts at the university. It is with all of these connections that made me even more excited to receive the opportunity to do this visit to Bergen for three months. It has provided me a bit of an opportunity to see what my would have looked like if I had gone down that path. When I turned down the job in 2013, my previous advisor at the University of Colorado – Boulder said he had funding to support me on a research project for one year. We have been able to maintain that funding, albeit lean at times, for 13 years. After working remotely in Providence for the first year, I decided it was time to move back to Colorado in 2014. In the last five years, I have also been adding a lot of teaching at the University of Colorado – Boulder to my responsibilities.