My first publication was like climbing Mount Everest

In 2009 I completed my master at IMAU and liked it so much that I knew for sure that I wanted to pursue a PhD. At that time, PhD positions were pretty scarce, so I had to wait for my chances to come. Meanwhile, I worked as a secondary school physics teacher in Amsterdam. After a couple of months, Huib de Swart got funding for a PhD position; I applied and was very happy to get the position. During my PhD that started in July 2010 I learned a lot, from presenting at international conferences to writing scientific journal papers.  I still vividly remember presenting at my first big conference in Beijing (China) in 2011.  I was a bit nervous: presenting in front of so many people….well…pretty scary, isn’t it? What really helped me to overcome my nerves was telling myself: “Abdel, come on man…this is show time…you’ve been working so hard for so many months ..show them what you got”. About scientific publications….my first one was like climbing Mount Everest. Each time you think you finally reached the summit, you realize it is still far away. After my first paper got published, the next ones were much easier. Even though it was hard work with lots of dedication, for sure my PhD time at IMAU was one of the best times of my life…it was wonderful and I really enjoyed it.

After my graduation in late 2014, I started a new job at the consultancy firm Flanders Hydraulics in Antwerp (Belgium). Because I live in Amsterdam, my life changed dramatically. Of course I do not commute every day, but nevertheless, it can be pretty tiring.

Working at a consultancy firm is very different from working in academia. I had to get used to the totally different way of thinking, for instance when it concerns numerical models. Here, models are treated more like black boxes, whereby a strong believe exists that the more processes you include in the model the better it will perform. I still remember the day of my first meeting with a client, the Flemish government. I spent the entire meeting defending my so-called idealized modeling approach against many flying bullets (i.e., questions!), I was literally a sitting duck! Now, after two years, the idealized modeling approach is not only accepted, but even very much appreciated.

And YES, even though the Netherlands and Belgium are neighboring countries, they differ in many ways. While the Dutch are more direct and spontaneous, the Belgians are more closed and more “mysterious”. And NO, Belgians are not dumb as is sometimes believed in the Netherlands.

And YES, I miss beautiful IMAU and beautiful UTRECHT!

Abdel Nnafie