Petr Liška is a mechanical 
engineer. But the world he works in is almost unimaginably small: he studies materials so thin they are only a few atoms thick, exploring how they can manipulate light through quantum phenomena that continue to work even at room temperature. The vision behind his research sounds almost futuristic, creating an electrically controllable optical component thinner than a strand of human hair by a factor of one hundred thousand. Originally from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Brno University of Technology, Petr is currently spending the academic year at Stanford University in California as a Fulbright Visiting Student. Yet this story is not only about cutting-edge science. It is also about moving across the world with a wife and a newborn daughter, adjusting to life under the Californian sun, discovering how everyday kindness can shape one’s state of mind, and perhaps unexpectedly realizing what people back home in the Czech Republic often take for granted.
When we landed in San Francisco by the end of August, we were greeted by warming sunshine, cloudless blue skies, and endless palm boulevards. It was your typical intro to a Hollywood movie and the only thing we were missing was an upbeat song from the 70s. However, our deep feelings were not as sunny and optimistic in the beginning. This adventure was supposed to be not only the first big adventure of our lives, but we were also heading off to this adventure as a family with a four-month-old daughter, so it was a huge leap into the unknown. 
The first day that we arrived at Stanford, we were taken away by the sheer size of the campus. Stanford University is a beautiful oasis sitting right next to Silicon Valley and an enormous urbanization belt spanning from San Francisco in the north to San Jose in the south. It is also very close to the California Highway 1 – one of the most beautiful roads that I have ever taken. If you are arriving to Stanford campus through the Palm Drive, you are welcomed by a mile-long alley of palms with a view of the Stanford Memorial Church and the mountains of Santa Cruz spanning over it on the horizon. It is a beautiful view that I had the privilege to be enjoying every day when I was biking to the university.
It is incredible how California’s sunny weather influences your mood. When it is beautiful outside almost every day and you can lie down into a grass next to the arcades, Green Library or water fountain at the Old Union you can sometimes forget about the work and your struggles at least for a second. People at Stanford are very focused, hardworking, and keen to network and talk about their passion. I was taken away how some people literally took hours from their day and spent it explaining their projects or even helped me compassionately with my own. I think, that when people are kind, it impacts your experience significantly.
Both Fulbright and Stanford have one incredible ability and that is to connect people. Whether it was meeting fellow fulbrighters from all over the world and different fields, getting to know scientists, researchers, and specialists over the campus and working on a multidisciplinary project, or getting to know other internationals through Bechtel international center, we as a family were inspired by numerous people and their life stories during our nine months stay. However, I also realized that no matter where you are, there are always issues or problems, especially in academia, and that people struggle everywhere everyday with either imposter syndrome, feeling of not belonging or feeling alone in their endeavors. But there is also one other thing that I learned through Fulbright. It does not matter from which corner of the world are you coming from, we are all the same. We all have the same beating heart full of desires, head full of dreams, hands full of problems, and we are driven by our love for our family and friends.
From the academic standpoint, as it often happens, nothing ever worked in a way I anticipated it to work. Sometimes it was for better, sometimes for worse. I was incredibly lucky that I could be hosting not one but two groups simultaneously whereas the second has taken me in almost as an adoptive family. It was a beautiful synergy of one group specializing in optics and the other specializing in chemical engineering and light emitting devices fabrication. At the same time, they did not adopt only me but my family as well. Especially, my baby daughter was a tiny superstar of the whole squad – also probably because she was the only baby around. We have spent numerous evenings playing volleyball, frisbee or just talking about life but maybe more than this, we have tirelessly worked side by side in the laboratory, which was even more important to me.
During my time in California, I could have attended several extremely enriching events. Whether it was a casual meeting with a Nobel laureate, talking to journalists on the JSK Fellowship, attending countless invited lectures from professors and researchers around the globe or attending events of Stanford optical society together with their excellent photonics retreat in a Monterey aquarium, I have been constantly inspired and learned more things in several days than I could have learned anywhere else. However, I have also made friends on literally all continents. I think it will take us a lifetime to visit them all and I am very much looking forward to that. I guess there is something special about a connection with other people when you are visiting a different country together. Something about not feeling exactly at home at a certain place but finding home in certain people.
At home, we would typically escape to nature on every weekend. However, if you live in the USA in one of the biggest urbanizations and don’t have a car, it is rather tough. Public transportation simply does exist only in certain places and the same applies for sidewalks. Once we got our car, a completely different world has opened in front of us. We traveled through the whole coast of California from the Redwoods National park near the borders with Oregon through San Francisco, Big Sur to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. We have seen blooming Death Valley, grandiose Grand Canyon, flooded Zion, snowy Sequoia, roaring Yosemite, and sleeping Lake Tahoe. Through visiting these places, I have also learned to appreciate more what places we have in Czechia. You really can establish a special type of connection with the nature when you see trees so large that you almost have to lie down to see to their top when you are standing under them.
Most importantly, my Fulbright experience was not only mine but my family’s experience as well. I am very grateful that I could have shared this adventure with them. We have survived in a distant country across the ocean with nothing more but two suitcases and a stroller. We have managed to discover food that contained no sugar and salt simultaneously (which really took a great effort!). We have learned how to convert gallons to liters and probably will miss the convenient milk packaging. And we have learned to appreciate even the little things in life just a bit more than before.