Author Archives: Antonia

It’s been Tennessee, Georgia (briefly) and now North Carolina today! I had a really super lazy day yesterday, which was great. I had a late morning and then headed out for a bit of a walk (it wasn’t raining at last) and some lunch. Went to Ruby Tuesdays and had something to eat, but theContinue reading “Odyssey through the Southern States”

is true!! I had a night on my own in the hotel last night, which was fine. In fact, it was great lying in bed watching telly -I love it. This morning I got picked up and taken to today’s meetings. We had a full day, including Bonnie taking me for a nice lunch downContinue reading “Everything you heard about Southern hospitality”

Today was Oak Ridge National Lab day. I got picked up this morning by Bonnie Hebert of the US ITER office and met with the director and deputy there. We talked about a whole range of issues around the future of ITER, how to communicate it and some of the challenges of managing a large-scaleContinue reading “Tennessee Day 2”

Internet was down yesterday so I wasn’t able to update things. Which is a shame cos yesterday and today were very full and so in order to stop anyone reading this falling asleep, I’m going to have to really condense them! My first session was at the Center for Clean Products at University of Tennessee-Knoxville,Continue reading “Tennessee Day 1”

All sorts of network problems yesterday so I wasn’t able to write anything last night. Or send e-mails, read the news, check my bank account or do any of the things I needed to. Makes you realise how much you are relying on it to stay in contact with the world – especially when you areContinue reading “The internet lets me down”

Washington DC is full of squirrels. They are all over the place, it’s like Seurasaari in Helsinki! Of course I will now always think of them as rabbits, thanks to a joke Gil told me. It was a nice place, with nice quiet areas as well as downtown bustle and it was pretty green. GoodContinue reading “Leaving Squirrel City and heading South!”

Day 2 started slightly later than Day 1, with an 11 am meeting at AAAS with their Public Policy Director Ginger Pinholster. I was particularly interested in their programme of science and technology fellows, post-doctoral researchers who spend a year working in government agencies or Congress. Several of the people I met on Capitol Hill hasContinue reading “Washington Days 2 and 3”

So, we’re having fun in Washington! Sunday I did some work and then met Gil and went for Kosher food. We then headed down to the mall for a little light sightseeing, which was fun. I then met Peter Whitehead and we went for dinner at DuPont Circle, after the altercation with the man inContinue reading “Pounding the streets of DC”

So, off we go. I had a very busy day today, starting with Susan Butts of Dow Chemicals. I had actually met her before, as she was at the lunch for Janez given by the Slovenian Ambassador when we were in Washington in February. She deals with external science and technology programs – basically university/industryContinue reading “Washington – Day 1”

So the whole thing has started in earnest. I’m here in Washington getting ready for a busy few days in the capital of the free world next week. We arrived in a limo-minibus this afternoon, which was quite fun. We couldn’t all check in as our rooms weren’t ready, so we walked into Georgetown. DeemaContinue reading “Hitting the road”