MICCAI 2018 Daily - Monday

because you are really free to do some good research. What do you like the most about the Netherlands? The people! The people are very nice in the Netherlands. They are very polite, and they are very good at English. What do you miss the most from back home? Do you regret anything? Family, but in general, during my bachelor’s study, I was always far from my family and my hometown. I got used to being far from home. I like to explore new things, new countries. I don’t regret anything. It’s nice to be close to your family, but I cannot stay for a long time. I like to travel. In what kind of town did you grow up? Was it a little town? No, I am from a very big city. That was actually a contradiction from the Netherlands. I came from Mashhad in the northeast, a very big city with traffic and cars. When I arrived to the Netherlands, even the biggest city was super quiet. It’s always super small. I got bored, but now I really like it. I don’t like big cities anymore. I feel very good in the Netherlands. Do you feel at home? Yes, I feel at home, of course, but I mean, I feel very relaxed. Comfortable? Yes, comfortable, especially now that we are living in a small city close to Delft. I like that I can go to work by bicycle. It’s very green. It’s quiet. Very different from Mashhad. Yeah, there you cannot go anywhere without a car. Here, I can go every day by bicycle to work. It’s great! So home is not in Iran anymore? No. How can a person change the place where they feel at home? On one of my neighbor’s doors, it is written, “Home is a place where you have love and you feel comfortable.” So it’s not a geographic position. It’s just like when I’m in the Netherlands with my husband in our own house, we feel that it is home. So if your husband goes to the moon, the moon would feel comfortable for you! Yeah! That’s true. Tell me something about little Hoda when she was a kid in Mashhad. What kind of girl were you? [ laughs ] I was a very energetic girl! I remember I was always one of the top students at the school regarding the education. My parents were always coming to school. All the teachers said, “Hoda is great in all the courses! Everything! She is super energetic!” [ laughs ] Are you the only scientist in the family? 20 Women in Science