The quest for a faculty position
In the month of October, 2008, I hatched a plan to leave IBN after having served out my four year bond with A*STAR. A brand new university, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, was to be set up near Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and they were recruiting faculty. In this endeavour, KAUST was collaborating with Imperial College, London, in particular, in setting up the Materials Science and Engineering Department, as the latter was quite an established institution in that area. I sent out my application in early October, and it was not until January that I received a response proper. An administrator named Zoe Whitlaw was arranging for me to interview at Imperial College. I was excited at the prospect. I was also asked to send in 5 publications that I was the most proud of and a statement of Research Interest. I remember that the trickiest, most challenging aspect of the interview was how to attend it without raising any suspicions. It had been arranged on the 10th of F...