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Dr. Mike Cahill
Michael A. Cahill,
Institute for Cell Biology,
Department of Molecular Biology,
University of Tuebingen,
Auf der Morgenstelle 15,
D-72076 Tuebingen, Germany.
Tel: (+49-7071) 297 8896
Fax: (+49-7071) 29 53 59
Email: michael.cahill@uni-tuebingen.de
I was born and raised in the small town of Wellington, in the middle of the central western slopes and plains of New South Wales, Australia. Wellington is about 5 hours by road inland from Sydney and has about 5000 inhabitants (9000 including the surrounding rural region). You know just about everyone in town (well...), the good and the not-so-good, which is nice. Wellington gets hot in summer and never snows in winter, with a temperature range of about -8 to 45 degrees Celsius, an annual rainfall of about 60 cm, and beautiful summer nights. It is a sheep and wheat area, just a little too dry to be a good dairy region. I feel at home with the cricket on the radio and a warm breeze on the face, surrounded by blue hills, rolling yellow slopes, and gum trees.
After finishing High School, like most of my classmates, I moved to Sydney. There, after a few years working at various jobs (bankclerk, barman, truck owner-driver, brewery labourer, Hilton waiter) to qualify for student support, I did a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Zoology at the University of New South Wales, followed by a Ph.D. in Hannover, Germany. Life in a small town rural environment was a little more laid back than in the big city. Tuebingen resembles a big country town more than a small city in many ways. The locals are really friendly, even if their German dialect is unintelligble to me sometimes. I have a German wife and two girls (born 1993, 1995), and all of us enjoy it here. Life in Tuebingen is all right.