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