When taken?
This picture was taken recently in my office, which I share with two other PhDs.

What do we see?
We see some objects in our office. There’s an icosahedron; a brilliant geometrical object I made myself out of magnetic sticks and little balls. Furthermore there are some presents that the group members took from their home countries to give each other: a dragon toy from China, Dutch Wilhelmina Pepermunt, an evil eye from Turkey and an Eipsi egg-shaped timer. Everything is to do with the nice theme of the TU/e Christmas box, with the slogan ‘It all starts with U’. I liked the painting on it a lot because it is a modern allusion to the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Last but not least there’s half a cup of coffee, a permanent resident of almost all math offices.

Why this picture?
Because I think this colorful picture somewhat summarizes what it is like to be where I am as an international PhD, and a researcher. (SK)