As a wandering scientist I have worked, lived, and traveled in all six inhabited continents on this planet. In some countries I lived for several months or years for an actual job or research project. In other countries I spent a few days or weeks for a research visit or just to travel and hike around.
Below is a map with where I have been based and/or wandering since January 2025. After that follows a list of countries I have been to so far (in alphabetical order), with a short description of when/where/what.
May-Jul 2004: Spent 3 months traveling around the eastern half of the country, including 2 weeks in Tasmania. Lots of hiking everywhere.
Dec 2001-May 2002; Mar 2016-Dec 2017; May 2019-Feb 2025: Lived in Vienna for several months for a project at the Wirtschaftsuniversität, and then for several years for a research fellowship at the Konrad Lorenz Institute and other (feelance) projects. Got "stuck" here for a while though, due to the lockdowns and then a need for a break from academia and travel.
Various: Mutiple trips to Brussels, the Ardennes, and other places at various times.
May 2015: A week traveling around, visiting Sarajevo, Visiko, and Mostar.
Jun 2002-Feb 2003: Lived in São Carlos, SP, for 6 months while working at the Universidade de Sao Paulo thanks to a FAPESP scholarship. Then traveled around the entire country for 3 months. Learned some basic Portuguese, but unfortunately forgot almost all of it again...
Sep 2007; Sep 2010: Visited family on Vancouver Island, BC, twice and also family in Hamilton (near Toronto), ON, once. Did several nice hikes in both areas.
Mar-Apr 2014; Dec 2015: Two month-long research projects at the University of Santiago. During the first visit I also spent 1 month traveling and hiking around in Patagonia, including 4 days in Torres del Paine.
Nov 2009-Apr 2010: Lived in Shanghai for 4 months while working at Fudan University, made a short research visit at the Chinese Acadamy of Sciences in Beijing, and then traveled around the country for 2 more months.
May-Jun 2015: A 6-week trip along the entire Croatian cost, from Dubrovnik in the south to Pula in the north, with many hikes everywhere along the way.
May 2016; Apr 2017: Attended a week-long scientific conference in Valtice. Visited Prague and Brno on another trip.
Sep 2013: A 2-week research visit at the Bioinformatics Research Centre of Aarhus University, plus a weekend in Copenhagen.
Feb 2004: Spent 2 weeks traveling and hiking around, mostly on the main island.
Apr 2012: A month-long research visit at Tampere University, with weekend trips to the Arctic circle (in Rovaniemi) and to Helsinki.
Dec 1996-Jan 1997; Oct 2004-Jun 2005; various: Spent a couple of months in Calais for a short research project, and 6 months in Montpellier to work at the LIRMM followed by 3 months traveling and hiking around in southern France, including Corsica. Been back many times for research visits or hiking trips, including Paris, Marseille, and Grenoble.
Various: Multiple (short) research/workshop visits in Berlin, Leipzig, Jena, Düsseldorf, Tübingen, Pullach, Wadern, plus several personal visits also to other places around the country.
Sep-Oct 2018: Attended a week-long scientific conference in Thessaloniki, followed by 2 weeks of traveling and hiking, including Litochoro (Mt. Olympus), Athens, and the island of Hydra.
Various: Attended various scientific meetings in Budapest and in Sopron.
Jul 2005-Jun 2006; Oct-Dec 2006; Jan-May 2009: Lived in Karunya, near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, for 6 months while working at Karunya University, followed by 6 months traveling around the country. Also lived in Bangalore, Karnataka, for 3 months for a consulting project at Abstract Algorithms, and again for 5 months while working at the Ambedkar Institute of Technology.
Feb 2019: Spent a long weekend on the little island of Bintan, doing some sightseeing and hiking.
Nov-Dec 2017: A month-long research visit at Ben Gurion University in Be'er-Sheva, with weekend trips to the Dead Sea and Jerusalem.
Nov 2013; various: A 2-week research visit at the European Centre for Living Technology in Venice. Also multiple hiking trips in various places such as the Dolomites, Gran Paradiso, Cinque Terre, etc.
Jun 2010; Oct 2017: Spent 1 month traveling around the country, including a hike to the top of Mt. Fuji. Also was in Tokyo for 3 weeks for a research visit at the Earth-Life Science Institute of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
July 2007: A day hike in the Drakensberg, starting and ending in South Africa, but spending several hours hiking on the Lesotho side.
Mar 2003: A weekend visit to Luxembourg city.
May 2015: A few days in Kotor.
Mar 2012: Spent 3 weeks hiking around in the Himalayas with 2 Swiss friends, including a multi-day hike to the Anapurna base camp and back.
Birth-Dec 1994; Feb-Apr 2015; Jan-Jul 2018; Mar 2025-current: Born and raised in Rotterdam, where I obtained a degree from the Erasmus University. Was back for 3 months for a research project at the University of Groningen, for 7 months for a research fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study (University of Amsterdam), and then again for several months for a research project at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam.
Mar-Dec 2003; Mar-Apr 2004; Nov-Dec 2012: Lived in Christchurch (South Island) for 9 months while working at Canterbury University, with also 2 short research visits at Massey University in Palmerston North (North Island), and assistance with ecological fieldwork in the NZ mountains. Went back for 2 months to travel and hike around the entire country, and another 2 months for a research visit again at Canterbury University.
Apr 2017: Visited a friend in Krakow for a few days.
Oct 2016: A week-long research visit at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science in Oeiras, near Lisbon.
Jan-Apr 2019: Lived in Singapore for 4 months for a research fellowship at the Complexity Institute of Nanyang Technological University. Traveled and hiked around the entire island.
Dec 2016: A weekend trip to Bratislava.
Feb 2002; Feb 2017; Jul 2020: Attended a week-long scientific meeting in Bled twice, and visited Ljubljana, the Postojna caves, and Maribor on another trip.
Feb-Aug 2007: Lived in Cape Town for 5 months while working at the National Bioinformatics Network, followed by 2 months traveling and hiking around part of the country.
May 2010: A 2-week research visit at HanYang University in Seoul, and another 2 weeks of traveling and hiking around the country.
Jan 2014; Oct 2016; Mar 2017: A 3-week hiking trip on Tenerife, then short research visits to the University of the Basque Country in San Sebastian and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, and finally a 3-week hiking trip on Mallorca.
Apr 2017: Was invited to present a seminar at the University of Uppsala, and spent a weekend in Stockholm afterwards.
Oct 2007-Dec 2008; Oct 2010-Feb 2016: Lived in Lausanne, VD, twice while working at the University of Lausanne, both times for one year. After the second time I decided to keep a home base in Lausanne for several more years, while still going elsewhere for one or more months at a time for research projects or to travel and hike. Also assisted with ecological fieldwork in the Swiss Alps twice, and attended several scientific meetings at CERN in Geneva.
Sep 2004; Nov 2007; Jul-Sep 2009; various: Spent 1 month in Norwich for a project at the University of East Anglia, 1 month in Cambridge for a research visit at the Isaac Newton Institute, and 3 months in Oxford for a project at the University of Oxford. Also various other research visits and workshops at other times in London, Sheffield, and Newcastle.
Jan 1995-Oct 2001; various: Lived in Santa Fe, NM, for more than 6 years while working at the Santa Fe Institute and obtaining my PhD degree from the University of New Mexico. Also spent 2 months in New Haven, CT, for a small project at Yale University, 1 month in Durham, NC, for a project at NESCent, and a summer in Las Vegas, NV, while working as a mountain bike tour guide for Escape Adventures. Traveled and hiked extensively, especially all over the US Southwest. Been back frequently for research or personal visits.
Mar 2019: Attended a week-long scientific meeting at the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Science and Education in Quy Nhon.
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