Hello all! I was wondering if I could get some advise, suggestions, comments or the such like? I had my viva in October 2010 and was awarded my PhD in November (3 months corrections, but I did them quickly) from a UK university. I'm currently applying for post-doctoral funding, looking in particular (but not exclusively) at Germany or Austria.
Anyway, my PhD supervisor just resigned out of the blue and sent me an email saying they won't be able to referee me as they will be difficult to contact and expect their reputation to diminish significantly as they will no longer be in academia. I do have a second supervisor, but they are based in a different university (and has been throughout my PhD, that is they haven't just upped and relocated). I have been advised (by a friend who is an Austrian professor) that the German and Austrian funding bodies would expect to see a strong and detailed reference from somebody involved with the PhD research based at the university where I did the research.
So, if anybody has any thoughts on how best to proceed I would love to hear them! please!!