Gregory's Got a New Job on His Event Horizon!

We have enjoyed our year and a half in CT. Greg got to help improve cancer diagnosis by doing research for Yale’s Therapeutic Radiation Department while also teaching the physics course at a small private college. During our time here we have loved taking advantage of:

• Yale’s incredibly generous health insurance plan
• Living next to the bike path (~10 mile commute, one way)
• An awesome elementary school for Victoria
• Friendly, helpful neighbors
• Living near some Hart family
• A wonderful ward with delightful friends and many opportunities to serve
• Our giant main living area (great for fort building, gymnastics and dance shows, family dinner/movie nights, etc.) 
• Having the bus stop near a friendly doctor’s office where we regularly took shelter from the elements and adopted a grandma for Victoria named Pat
• Discovering a love of the Atlantic ocean and its sea shells

January and February were a bit crazy for our family because Greg was travelling quite a bit for job interviews (all while still trying to work full-time and maintain a regular class schedule for his students!) Twice the weather significantly affected his flights and extended his time away from us, but the funniest bit of craziness came the week after Valentine’s Day. We had an offer from BYU-Idaho for a 3 year visiting professor of physics position. We were trying to get an extension on our acceptance deadline for Illinois State University so Greg could interview at High Point University. Just after buying his tickets for that last interview he heard back from the Institute for Disease Modeling who wanted to fly him out to WA for in-person interviews that would overlap with the NC interview and occur two days after we needed to respond to ISU! After praying and fasting we decided to go ahead with the IDM interview in Washington, cancel our ticket to North Carolina, and tell ISU that we were sticking to our time table even if that meant telling them no on Wednesday because they couldn’t wait until Friday for us to tell them yes. We were also trying to figure out how to negotiate the several month gap between our current job and an academic one (no income, no health insurance, etc.)

After blood, sweat, and tears, Greg said yes twice and no twice in a single weekend to three offers! How's that for mixed-up math?

We love BYU-Idaho and Greg has always wanted to work there, but we’re ready to break our moving streak of not living somewhere for more than 5 years. Both IDM and ISU offered great pay and are near family and a temple; there wasn’t a wrong choice to be made. We are so grateful for the generosity and patience of BYU-Idaho, Illinois State University (especially Dan Holland), and those at IDM. We are also grateful for the strong support we've received from family and friends. We'll leave here June 1st (though Greg will likely begin work sooner so we'll get a visit from his mom.)

We chose the Institute for Disease Modeling!

Frequently Asked Questions:

Where will you be moving? The job is in Bellevue, WA but our new mailing address will likely be in Issaquah.

When will you move? Though Gregory's availability date is May 6th our whole family won't move out until June 1st.

Is this a teaching job our a research job? This is an industry position rather than an academic one. His position title will be Research Scientist.

Could you switch from industry to academia in the future? Yes.

Do you know anyone there? Yes, Greg's sister and her family live quite near there. Danielle has two aunts and several cousins that live an hour or so south, near where she grew up.