A primer ...

This is it. It is the first post on this blog. I hope that it will find its audience ... First of all, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alex, and I recently graduated from TU Berlin (Germany), where I obtained the German equivalent of a PhD. If you wonder why I start this blog with an ending (of my doctoral research), it is quite simple: I will continue doing research - in the beautiful city of Chicago (Illinois, USA), where I will join the Department of Chemistry at UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago), about which I will tell in this blog. I am very excited about going abroad - it is actually the first time I go beyond the shores of the Old World (a.k.a. Europe). I am sure it will broaden my horizons and teach me something about the Amercian Way of Life. While venturing out, I will report my experiences in this blog. Feel free to check it out regularly ... If you wonder why I called it "The Owl's Nest" - it refers to my last name ("Uhl", a dialect form of the German word for owl), and it adopts the style of "The Lyon's Den", which is the blog of my friends Heather and Jon. I hope you enjoy reading my posts, and you are encouraged to leave behind comments.

Bye for now ... Alex