The long road home

This morning I was catching up with some old podcasts from Science, and came across a report by John Bohannon, about scientists in Turkey. The report discusses how the country is trying to “attract expat Turkish scientists back home“, and Bohannon also makes the statement that “[t]he expat Turks that I have spoken to […] have plenty of criticisms of the current political environment in Turkey, but they really clearly love their homeland.“ (from the 26 July 2013 Science podcast).

This statement touched a nerve, because that’s kind of how I feel about returning to my home country, Hungary. Honestly, I’d love to go back: I love the people and the lifestyle. I think the country is full of potential (creative people with great ideas), which could give rise to amazing research if someone would tap into this goldmine. But when I think about returning I also instantly see all the problems of the academic system, which had motivated me to leave in the first place.

Science for students by students: The Eötvös College Science Summer Camp

Do you remember that terrible week of your summer holidays when you were little, and your parents didn’t know what to do with you? When they would sign you up for a… Summer Camp? Without fail they would get everything wrong: your interests, which summer camp your friends attended, and when they wanted to send you to the cool-and-trendy camp, they were normally lagging behind the actual trends by about a year (or sometimes even a decade). This is a post about a different kind of summer camp, a summer camp that kids can choose to attend and actually enjoy: the Eötvös College Science Summer Camp, which was held this summer for the second year running.