About the work-culture

The University's Silhouette

In my last few articles, I wrote that the work culture is really awesome or work is fun. This attracted lots of questions from the curious minds of my friends. So this article is for those who want to peep into the work-culture of a foreign university. Again, bullets will prove to be easily readable, so here are they:

• My Professor's name is Johannes Courtial. He is young(about 29-32 years of age), dynamic and adventurous. He comes to the college on his mountain-bike daily. His hobby is rock-climbing, swimming, travelling, jogging and mountain-biking. He is fit and looks younger than his age.
  
  He is originally from Germany, but has taken education in Britain, so has a perfect British accent. He has published over 100 research papers, currently he is working on the topic called METATOYs, a word coined by him which is the acronym for METAmaTerials fOr light raYS. You can search wiki for the same word and get an introduction which is written by my professor. He is very passionate about his topic and his passion is visible in his personality. He gets excited like a child while talking about metamaterials, his expressions suddenly blooms whenever I come out with a result that he hoped for.
  
  His frequency of publishing research papers is very high - almost 15-16 papers per year. And this is the culture here. People are fast and professional in their approach.
  
  
• The timing of work generally is 10 am -5 pm; 5 days a week with an hour gap for lunch from 1-2 or 12:30 to 2, as you wish. But the timings are flexible. I had my timing shifted from 10-5 to 1-8 to give me ample time in the morning for any kind of homework.
  
  
• The professor gives sufficient time daily to every individual working under him, and asks about their work, their doubts and checking their progresses. He has lunch common with the whole group. On a sunny day, we have our lunch outside in the garden of the campus to let sun tickle our skin. The professor goes for swimming and jogging every two days of the week before the lunch. He invites us along but I haven't accompanied till now.
  
  
• On Friday, the whole group goes partying. If it is a sunny day, we go to a park, play football and relish the barbecue. The people out here take the weekends too seriously. They don't do any work in the weekend, neither my professor, they just chill out. My professor made my travel plans to the Troon beach last Friday.
  
  
• Everyone treats me so dearly. I(as well as Sharvil) are the youngest one in the group presently, so any of our problems gets solved in a minute with everyone turning to our help. The professor is so enthusiastic that in just a small mathematical breakthrough we achieve; he showers perfectly crafted praises to us.
  
  
• The best thing I like about the whole optics group is they are very fun-loving. Unlike the serious, ghastly professors of IIT; they are very friendly and helpful, as well as very adventurous. The word 'professor' was such a heinous word for me before I came here and suddenly the same word has become so amazing.

If we all had perfect mentors like Prof. Courtial, the whole world would be a collection of people with utmost passion.

P.S. It is an amazing thing that in a new environment it is only the nice things that appeal to us.