My name is Piet van Vliet, born in Nieuwegein (NL), studied Biology (Fundamental Biomedical Sciences) in Utrecht and, like any other PhD student, worked like an underpaid maniac for four years in order to obtain my grade. I got my PhD on 'Cellulae Progenitores Cordis' at the lab of Experimental Cardiology, UMC Utrecht. During these years, I studied mechanisms that regulate the proliferation and differentiation of human cardiomyocyte progenitor cells.
In February 2009, I started as a postdoc at the department of Anatomy & Embryology, Leiden UMC. Here, my project focused on mechanisms that alter susceptibility for atherosclerosis development.
In spring 2010 I left for San Diego, USA to work on yet another topic: early heart development. Already during my Biology study, I knew I wanted to do research abroad. I like travelling and meeting foreign people, but never got around to do an internship in another country. I therefore feel very lucky that I am now finally able to work in a highly esteemed laboratory for some years as a postdoc.
Science is all about solving puzzles and, for a big part, satisfying your own curiosity. As a blogger for PCDI's Postdoc blogs, I will entertain you with posts about solving these puzzles and the personal life I try to have next to it. Keep tuned!
Don't see, don't hear, don't speak
12 August 2010
posted by Piet van Vliet
Hi again, this one is going to be about the thing you would not expect or hope to see in a scientific community. It strongly reminds me of my time as a PhD student when a post-doc at our lab responded with "You don't want to know" every time I asked a question about the topic of today. I was considered too young, too early in my career to be involved in this phenomenon. It's about the thing you are not supposed to see (as a junior researcher at least), not supposed to hear about (again, as a junior researcher) and not supposed to talk about (as a senior researcher). Interested? Read on then. Go on. You know you want to.
Well, this blog is long overdue. The plus side of that is of course that I can give you a good impression of my first month at the University of California, San Diego. This month started with a depressingly slow beginning due to all the bureaucracy that was involved, but at the same time made me even more enthusiastic about doing research.
I promised to tell you about my preparations for San Diego, so here is the visa application part. My most useful tip here is: prepare in time. With sufficient time, everything will be ok. In the end. In my case, I not only had to arrange all the documents for myself, but also for my wife and baby son. This doesn't change which documents you have to fill out, but it does increase the number of them and the amount of supporting documentation you need to collect. And that takes time. A lot.
My name is Piet van Vliet, born in Nieuwegein (NL), studied Biology (Fundamental Biomedical Sciences) in Utrecht and, like any other PhD student, worked like an underpaid maniac for four years in order to obtain my grade. I got my PhD on 
Hi again, this one is going to be about the thing you would not expect or hope to see in a scientific community. It strongly reminds me of my time as a PhD student when a post-doc at our lab responded with "You don't want to know" every time I asked a question about the topic of today. I was considered too young, too early in my career to be involved in this phenomenon. It's about the thing you are not supposed to see (as a junior researcher at least), not supposed to hear about (again, as a junior researcher) and not supposed to talk about (as a senior researcher). Interested? Read on then. Go on. You know you want to.