Aachen
Tuesday January 12 I’ve made a Blitzvisit to Aachen: not to the city proper, rather to the suburb were Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule is situated. Many years ago I had been looking for a job at RWTH and found none, so I avoided the place. Nowadays my former PhD student Marteen Wegewijs is a tenure-track prof over there. He has been repeatedly inviting me, and have promised a special treatment: lift from Roermond to short-cut a two-hour train loop. Though visit was quick, I’ve learned many interesting, unexpected things. Among them:
1. It is plausible to get an edible food in student’s cantine (knew that before, forgotten while in Delft).
2. Russian theory postdocs (Pletuyhov and Saptsov) and are tougher than they used to be. I did not manage to confuse the two about their own research though I did my best.
3. Markus Morgenstern does fantastic, exciting things by STM in both 2d gas and graphene. Unbelievable! I cannot reveal the details but he will post at arxive soon: please follow.
4. I’m still able to pull cars out of their snow graves with my bare hands only.
