| Do you know which country is represented in the map on the right? (Courtesy of Lademanns Leksikon, Copenhagen) If you do, then you now know where I come from, otherwise get the answer HERE! |
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You could say that I have followed in the footsteps of my old ancestors, the Vikings, by leaving my home country Denmark and travelling across the North Sea to conquer the UK! In this I have not succeeded, as I am not yet the King of the Castle....
How did I actually end up in St Andrews where I live at present? That is naturally a long story and I will only give you a few hints...
It all started when I was about 12 years old. One evening I went star gazing with my grandpa and he told me some of the stories about the constellations. From then on my interest in astronomy was assured and I started reading about it. I have even spent a complete lecture sitting in the window looking out for a partial solar eclipse (hidden behind the clouds..). Not much German was learned during that hour!
Astronomy is/was not my only passion! I have spent a lot of time on sports,
especially rowing. I managed pretty well when I was younger, achieved a few
Danish junior championships, and was selected for the Danish national team
twice -
for the Nordic championships and the junior world-championships. No medals
here though, the others were far to strong for us.
When I started at university I stopped my involvement in sport. I found that I could not manage both things at the same time, and I felt that my education was the most important thing for me. I have never stopped doing sport though, just altered my ambitions and the type of sport that I am doing. Right now I am doing tri-athlons. Here I can do the training without having to coordinate too much with other team members. This becomes important when you have a family to take care of.
I met my wife at the student residence where I lived just after starting at the University. She needed help to do her mathematics and physics... today we have got two daughters, 5 and 2 years old. You never know what an innocent question can lead to!!
Well, it wasn't that which lead me to the UK, so to find the answer to that, we have to head back to my time as a university student. Initially I was mainly interested in traditional astronomy - stars, galaxies, but when I had to choose the subject for my masters degree I jumped onto doing solar physics. I had two different subjects that interested me and at the end I chose the solar one because of the supervisor's personality (they were both very strong scientists) and I have never regretted doing that. I am now doing numerical (computer) simulations of basic problems related to different phenomena occurring in the solar atmosphere. This is why am in the Solar Physics group at St Andrews now.
Just another little tale. When I was in high school a friend of mine pulled off the tab of a coke can and on the back was a question that he told me that I should know! Namely, what is the Corona? I did not know the answer then, but all the work that I do today is actually related to the physical processes taking place in the Corona......Life is a strange thing!
Hope you will achieve some of the wishes that you have for your future!!
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