Update on figuring out my next steps in life:
I have a possible job opportunity in France. There's a position at the synchrotron Soleil, 20 km south of Paris in Saint Aubin next to Gif-sur-yvette. I've put in an application, and in order to advance to the next step, I'm asked whether I'm fully committed to moving to France and taking the position or not. I know that people routinely hide their true intentions in such situations to maximize their options, but I have a hard time with any deception and like to act with integrity.
Meanwhile I've also been looking for jobs nearby in Colorado and found a possible job in Denver. That job is with Emily Griffith Technical college to be a program manager for a "quantum learning lab". They have $1M government grant over several years and follows on a similar program recently implemented at CNM Community College in New Mexico. This opportunity came out of a fair amount of networking on my part. Attending the Colorado Quantum meetups, I met the person in charge of workforce for Elevate Quantum who suggested me for this position. I may still consider taking the quantum information certificate program at CU Denver, getting involved more broadly in quantum information education. There's a sense of flexibility and opportunity at this time that may be uniquely American in this new field/industry of quantum sensing and computation.
It's hard to figure out what to do. On the one hand, this position at SOLEIL is permanent (CDI) and is just what I was trying to get at ESRF 8 years ago when my scientist position came to an end. It's in the optics group and would allow me to work both with experiments and with the electron storage ring. And I would be back into the synchrotron light source community, and working with other facilities throughout Europe (and the US and around the world) would allow me to continue work I spent 10+ years on already.
On the other hand, I've been wanting to get into teaching, and haven't gotten any traction with my applications to nearby universities. This Denver position looks like an opportunity to get into the teaching world even if it's not a standard faculty position. I think part of the role would be to work with companies and help design the courses to ensure people gain the skills they need to work in the growing quantum tech industry in Colorado, with major funding and collaboration from the Elevate Quantum consortium.
Of course, the job isn't the only consideration. For a long time I've been trying to avoid being forced to move because of work. I've started over my life several times already: Long Island, Grenoble, and then Boulder. Do I want to start over again in Paris? I like the Nyland cohousing community I live in here in Colorado and I also have Wilderness Studios and the Boulder art community more broadly, Way of the Crane, Movement Mass, yoga and other friends here.
There's also the question of the political mess the US is in right now. Grants are being cancelled right and left. I read one statistic that 75% of US scientific researchers are considering leaving the country. Might the very government grant funding the position I'm considering be cancelled and then I'd be out of a job again? On the other hand, I don't want to abandon the US, and perhaps from within the Denver Public School system and Emily Griffith, I could do some good against the consolidating fascist American government. The last elections were quite good for the Democrats and we still may be able to preserve our democracy, with some luck and a lot of hard work.
As I think of the possibility of returning to France, I think about all the challenges involved in living in France. There's finding an apartment and the requisite dossier, visa issues, banking and tax issues, getting a French driver's license (fortunately, Colorado is one state with a reciprocity agreement with France, so that might be easier this time), and the general issue that French culture is difficult to enter and takes a long time to become established. I have 8 years of experience in Grenoble, but I'd have to start a lot of it over again in/near Paris.
I've found a great YouTube channel by an American who's lived in Paris for 8 years and watching his videos does give me the sense of having more resources this time around:
Anyway, I've been discussing this with a lot of people to get feedback and help clarify my thinking on this. I think I'll have to sort this out within the next month or so. Neither job is 100% certain at this point, but both are dependent on my enthusiasm and commitment. I hope I can have at least another few weeks to look into them before having to make a decision.
