Such a crazy time we’ve had over the last two years with us being made acutely aware of our mortality. Unlike some who could write a lot and be productive during this time, I could hardly write a blog post! (I could do Youtube cooking videos and discover gardening though). However, with life seemingly intent on bowling legspins and googlies (e.g. the Ukraine crisis) like the legenday Shane Warne who’s departed too soon, I think it’s time to revive the blog!
The major thing I did professionaly during the pandemic was change jobs and get promoted in the process – In October 2021, moved to Durham University Computer Science as an Associate Professor. The recruitment process froze during the middle of the pandemic (like normal life itself) but luckily the offer did come through a few months after the interview.
In that new role, I got the exciting opportunity of establishing a new research group as part of the rapid growth and restructuring of the department. We call this group NESTiD (Network Engineering Science and Theory in Durham) (happily, I suggested exactly the same name during my job talk :). The group first met informally in November 2021 with the first version of the website coming up in January 2022.
As maybe guessed from the name, the idea of the group is to explore hopefully fascinating research under the general umbrella of the network theme.
Our mission statement reads hence:
This is a broad-based research group with research foci including: Network design and algorithms, Distributed and parallel computing and algorithms, Networked systems and applications, Security and resilience, Network science, Dynamism and processes on networks, Mathematical theory underpinning networks and communication, Social network design and human interaction, Cloud, edge, fog and wireless networks.
We have grown to a strength of 17 academic staff with the recruitment of four new colleagues last year and are growing further with with job applications being assessed right now.
Looking forward to exciting (well, even, normal pre-pandemic pre-war) times!
Hunt for the towel 