David Pattison moved to Denmark with his wife after living in Sydney for 20 years. His wife was offered a Professorship at the University of Copenhagen. It was a position she could not refuse and led to the relocation of the family in the beginning of 2017. After a few months helping the family find their feet in Denmark, David got a job at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen as the Facility Manager of the Core Metabolomics Platform.
David, when did you and your family decide to move to Denmark for you and your wife to pursue your careers? Both my wife and I have worked in academia for many years. In 2016, she was offered a job as a Professor at the University of Copenhagen (KU), which she could not refuse. She started working at the university last February, and I helped the family settle into our new lives while looking for a job in Denmark. After a few months, I got a job at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at KU as well.
How was relocating to Denmark? The physical relocation was okay, packing up our belongings and shipping them to Denmark went quite smoothly, but was very tiring and stressful. We got a lot of support and advice from International Staff Mobility at KU, such as how to get a social security (CPR) number, finding somewhere to live and a school for our girls, and advice on finances and banking – all important things to know when moving a family to a new country. We felt supported and well informed. In contrast, it has been quite a culture shock moving to Denmark after we’ve been living and working in Sydney, Australia for 20 years. The language is very different and quite hard to learn, and of course we find it hard to adjust to the Danish weather. We’re both from the UK originally, but it’s been a long time since we’ve had regular weather like this.