what is the one thing that you will bring back with you from the States? Oh, I think many things! [she laughs] I hope so. Maybe one thing is this attitude that things are possible, that you have to stay optimistic and push hard for things to happen and be determined. I really value that. I am going to ask you the opposite now – what did you bring to the Americans that they did not have before you came from Romania? Oh, hmm. [laughs] I’m not sure. Let’s see. Maybe some food! [she laughs] The national food, sarmale, maybe. Soup! I really miss the soup from back home. I wish in the US, there would be more soup places. [laughs] It’s very healthy! Where are you from in Romania? I’m from Botoșani. It’s a small city in the northeast of Romania. In the direction of Ukraine? Exactly, yes. We’re at the border with Ukraine. Wow. I am very fond of Odessa. Not very far from you guys. Yes, yes. I hear stories about Odessa all the time from my parents, but I’ve never been there. Were they in Odessa? No, but maybe my father visited or some friends of his. I don’t know, but I heard the name before. With this dichotomy between industry and academia, is there a chance that you might find yourself in a position one day that bridges the two? Yes, that’s what’s been on my mind. It took me a long time to decide what I wanted to do after the PhD program. Whether to go into industry or to go as a professor into academia. I had a few internships in industry, and I got to experience it also before the PhD. When I came back as a postdoc, I really enjoyed the mentoring aspect of postdoc. I think that was the last straw that made me decide to go into academia. I really like to mentor students and work with them. In industry, there’s not much opportunity for that, or things are much more product-oriented. It would be nice to have maybe some collaboration between those two. Can you see how that could happen? What would be the setting? 17 DAILY WACV Friday Oana Ignat
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