EMBL alumni travel all over the world when they leave, but Martin Senger found himself a more unusual new home than most – King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Martin, how did you end up in Saudi Arabia?

After leaving EMBL, where I was a scientist in Graham Cameron’s group from 1996 to 2005, I started at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. My job was interesting, useful and not yet over when I made the difficult decision to go to the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) to be closer to my family, who are in Europe. And the place was challenging, so I took my chance.

What do you do at KAUST?

My title is Senior Bioinformatician, and I work at the Computational Biosciences Research Center. I develop new software tools, particularly those that help with data integration and access, and I provide data and software support for the biologists and bioinformaticians both here and elsewhere in the Near East.

What’s it like living in Saudi Arabia?

It’s exotic, challenging, sometimes surprising – but generally very safe and inviting. I can’t begin to explain the thousands-year-old culture and environment in just a few sentences, though.

Are there other EMBL alumni there?

Funnily enough, I’m in the same group as Heikki Lehvaslaiho, who was also working at EMBL-EBI when I was there!

Are you still in touch with EMBL-EBI staff or alumni?

Sure. I started at the EBI in its early days, and was part of creating something new and challenging. It was like moving into a new house where the furniture is already there but still needs some rearrangement. I was lucky to work with such great directors – both Paolo Zanella and Graham Cameron were very motivating and supportive. Also the project for which I was hired, the Industry Programme, showed how respected and useful the EBI can be for the ‘big’ industrial players – and it added to the challenge of my job there.

I still have personal and work-related contacts at the EBI. I believe in the open source ideology – where your work can continue even if you’re physically in a new job. I still maintain some of the software tools I was involved with while at the EBI, and of course I’m using EBI databases – who wouldn’t?