2010.06.04 ITS OFFICIAL...MOVING TO OREGON

Its been very busy the past few weeks with graduations and vacation, but I'm slowly putting together some more posts to recap these events and perhaps my last Colorado skiing adventure for a while.

Although its been in the works for a few weeks, by signing an offer letter this morning I've accepted a postdoctoral position at Oregon State University. OSU is located in Corvallis in the western part of the state about one and one-half hour south of Portland. Additionally, the area is situated only about 1 hr from both the beach/ocean (west) and mountains (east).

At OSU, I'll be joining the Environmental Health Sciences Center with funding through the NIEHS training grant entitled, Mode of Action of Environmental Toxicants. I'll be working in the laboratory of Dr. Joe Beckman, a true pioneer in the free radical biology field. His research interests have focused in understanding the basis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. More information on Joe's lab can be found here.

The decision to leave Colorado was a difficult as the last six years have been amazing. However, postdoctoral positions provide the opportunity to explore new avenues, both personal and professional, for a short (2-5 years) period of time that I wanted to take advantage of. The propensity for rain and lush green landscape of the northwest will take some getting used to, but hopefully I'll be hiking, climbing, and skiing the mountains/volcanoes of the Cascade range in no time.

Mount Hood rises above the Portland skyline:

For now, I have one month to wrap up work in the lab at UC Denver. Then I'm planning to use July/August for an extended vacation to enjoy Colorado and spend some time back east before making the move in early September. Of course, Devon will be making the journey as well as she has sought out her own postdoctoral position at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. The distance between Portland and Corvallis presents some challenges, but we're confident that we can meet halfway, literally as we search for housing in the Salem area.