The Scientist Sabbatical Advice, Part 2

Sorry for the long delays between posts. A month ago I started a post about an article from The Scientist on Sabbatical Advice. Since I need a break from grading I am back to finish what I started.

Tip: Think outside the box

Tip: Home improvement

All of this tips from the original article made me think about how the sabbatical I took made me think about the direction my research projects and career had taken before the sabbatical. I did a lot of reflecting on were I was in research over the months I was away from my home institution. As I wrote early on (The Hammer Problem) I realized that I had become a slave to the limitations of my institutional resources. If was limiting the experiments I was doing and my thinking about the problems I would pursue. Getting away got me out of the box I was in and helped me think outside the box. I have made contacts who can make available to me the resources I lacked. I returned to my home institution with new ideas and new directions to my research program. My discussions with my RO1 colleagues helped me reprioritize my time and monetary resources toward being more productive in publications and grants.

Tip: Absorb new approaches

Related to the above. I may be old, but I still got hands. On those techniques that I mastered in graduate school and used since I am as good or better than the youngsters working on PhDs or postdocs. But I do still do things in old fashioned ways. My young colleagues taught me much about modeling and advanced NMR and MS techniques that were not around when I was last at and RO1. Sure I had read about these things, but there is nothing like doing them to bring them home into your toolbox of approaches to problems.

Lastly, my own advice. The sabbatical is about renewal. In my case it was about renewal of my research program. To renew one must begin with reflection. I designed my sabbatical around building from the program I have to a stronger, more productive (papers and grants) program. I associated myself with successful people and their students who are also trying to become successful. I did lots of chemistry, but not day went by that I did not ask myself how I was going to bring back to my home institution a more productive program.

Time will tell how successful I have been.

T.S. Hall

Timing is everything

I got back from class this morning to find the daily e-mail from The Scientist including an article titled "Can Unresponsive Brains Learn".

Based on the level of class participation this morning, I guess we will find out on next week's exam.

Monkey See

The news wires are abuzz about the use of gene therapy to correct colorblindness in a monkey named Dalton. Yes, named after the famed chemist, who in addition to inventing the miners safety lamp, training Faraday, being the first to isolate a few alkali metals, writing books about his travels and fishing, also studied colorblindness. (And I can't teach, do research, do some service, and keep this blog up!)

Way back when I took quant my colorblindness was a challenge that cost me more than a few points on precision. The one titration I could do was Bromocresol green. A bear of a titration for most people since the endpoint is at the green point between yellow and blue colors. Not being able to see the green I could titrate from color to clear to color. Unfortunately my instructor suggested that no one could achieve the precision and accuracy I attained and failed me on the lab anyway. I pointed out my colorblindness advantage and offered to titrate a sample of her choosing any time she wanted to test me but she never took me up one the offer.

I wonder when the human gene therapy for colorblindness trials start.

T.S. Hall

College, it's all about the lifestyle

One morning on my way into the building I noticed a pile of those fluff mags that appear near the student newspaper box. I noticed that it contained an article on the twenty things a student wished they know before they went to college. Now I realize that I have strange views about higher education being about education, so in the interest of presenting more enlightened perspectives I will share some of my favorites from the article.

"Grades don't really matter. . . . College is more about finding yourself and learning about who you are and what you believe in than what you achieve on paper."

"You don't have to read everything. . . . generally professors have read the required book and just lecture on what you need to know from it. . . . if it's a class that has a general textbook, chances are you don't have to go in depth and you can just use it as a reference tool."

"Scheduling is important. . . . Factor in the best nights to go out and the best time you'll be to listen to hours of lectures the next day when building your schedule. Also, once you discover the beauty of not having class on Friday's, it'll change your life."

Most of the rest of the list provides sage advice on issues of drinking and sex.

For many students college is more a lifestyle choice than an educational experience. Hey that's what I want my tax dollars spent on!

T.S. Hall

What do you mean it's been 2.5 weeks?

Well, if you have not guessed the Fall Semester has started. I have neither posted or read any blogs in the last couple of weeks. Sorry! In spite of not reading others blogs I have accumulated a number of articles to discuss once I get my head above water, so hang in there dear reader.

T.S. Hall