That’s all, folks…
So, it’s the time of year that always seems to herald change for me. Ever since I was a kid, mid-September was when those feelings of uneasiness drifted into consciousness, making one aware of the changes to come. At school, September was the start of a new year, usually bigger and more challenging than the last. When I left school I thought that this September feeling would stop, but it seems to have continued due to one event or another, always significant, always in September.
Last Friday, my friend Naomi left Daresbury Laboratory, where we’ve worked together for over eight years. It was potent to me because she was one of over 40 people who have left the lab in the last few months, and September is when a big chunk of that number are going out the door. There are lots of leaving dos happening right now, and I’ve never seen the Ring of Bells up in the village so frequently! This loss of staff is happening partly because the SRS has finally closed after 28 years, and the lab is oddly silent and devoid of users. The other part is the STFC funding crisis which has meant even more people have been encouraged to leave to help overcome the chronic funding shortfall. Without a replacement facility on the site, the mood is sombre.
This situation reminds me a little of when I stayed on at Manchester University to do a PhD some years ago. After the bustle of 200-odd undergraduates which built to a climax during final exams, the summer campus after they left was a ghost-town to me - warm and bright, but melancholy. It took a few years for me to really shake that feeling off.
So it’s a strange situation for me to be in now, as I’m also leaving Daresbury after having worked there for quite some time. Even stranger, I’m going to work back at Manchester University, this time in the Particle Physics Group. Whilst I’m sad about leaving the lab, especially after the professional investment I’ve made in the projects I’ve worked on, I’m pretty excited about moving, and the opportunities at the University. Four days at Daresbury left!
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