City of Science--Göttingen

This past weekend I went to Göttingen, a university town, with Lena, a PhD student in my lab. Lena's family lives in Göttingen, so I lived in her house. Therefore I had the chance to meet her parents, her boyfriend, and her good friend from high school. Her family showed me around the historical downtown area, and we also had a nice walk in the Harz mountain in Lower Saxony.

The air in the town is extremely "academic." Even though it's not as large and well-known as places like Cambrige (in England and in the US) and Oxford, the university town actually has a very long tradition that it can be proud of. The story can begin in the 18th century, when Gauss, nick-named the "prince of Mathematics," became a Professor at the University Göttingen. In the 19th century and the early 20th century, the town was called the Meca of mathematics because of those stars such as Hilbert and Landau. What's more is the number of Nobel prizes the university produced. Max Planck, Otto Hahn, Nernst and Max Born were all professors here. In fact, there was even a grave yard and a memorial for all these Nobel prize winners.

There was also a woman from Texas who lived in Lena's house. She was the host Mom for her brother when he was an exchange student in Texas. Therefore she has a good relationship with Lena's family. She invited me to visit her when I'm back in the States.

I think the trip this past weekend was very good because I got to interact with German people outside of working place and established some valuable contacts. They are all extremely friendly and hospitable.