What is a sabbatical? Pix added Oct 9

The best comment I have gotten when talking to people about being on sabbatical is something along the lines of "how nice that you get a year off from work" or "what a nice vacation". I feel the need to dispel these false notions, even though it is pretty likely that the majority of the people reading this blog are those who know the truth already. A sabbatical is NOT a vacation. Got it? Good.

Watson with Rosa and Elsa in our hammock in the back yard - a favorite spot!

So, now...what is it? Of course, every sabbatical is different. My sabbatical comes after working my tail off for years and years as a PhD student and professor. I hardly ever work just a 40 hour week, work many nights and weekends, and hardly ever take a vacation that doesn't include my laptop and fitting in work. Thus, sabbatical is a year when MSU pays me half of my salary (I had to secure funding for the other half of my salary) to do research with no teaching or service/committee work. Many professors choose to spend their sabbatical either learning and applying new research tools, building new research collaborations, or revising curricula and developing new classes (or a combo of those). Others do what I am doing - conducting data analysis and interpretation that can lead to grant proposals and peer-reviewed manuscripts (scientific papers), and writing those proposals and papers.

Jamieson in his baby legs being entertained by the front-loader wash...

Really, what I want most from this year is to have time to THINK and REFLECT. Sounds wonderful, right? In some ways, this plan is like a vacation for me - I went into academia with the idea that I would spend loads of time thinking and I really miss it. Although I am not spending the year at the beach or sleeping in every day and going out at night, I am planning on working only 40 hrs/wk, I am planning to take vacations that do not involve a laptop or work, and I am hoping that at the end of the year I will feel intellectually and personally recharged.

How cute is that?

My sponsor at QUB (person who helped me become a QUB Visiting Research Fellow) is Dr Paula Reimer, a renown expert in carbon dating who recently won a Lyell Medal from the Geological Society. You can visit her webpage here: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/gap/Staff/AcademicStaff/ProfPaulaReimer/.Since this is my first sabbatical, I've decided to do this personal blog, but also to do a professional blog that is linked to my MSU website that will keep track of what I experience professionally during this year abroad. This personal blog will have everything from that one in it, but will include more details, more pix, and personal stuff. But, if you want to check that one out, go to my webite (www.fw.msu.edu/~ksc) and then click on the link to my sabbatical blog on my homepage.

Anyway, so far, my day-to-day schedule looks something like this: deliver one of the boys to school or childminder at 9am, go to office at QUB and work independently until mid-afternoon, Skype with colleagues in the U.S. in the mid-late afternoon (multiple research projects at various stages), and then head home around 5pm. Pretty great, really! Also while we are here, I will serve on an NSF panel in D.C., I will give a couple of invited research talks (you'll hear about them after I've done them) and I will extend my local and regional professional networks by attending QUB seminars and by attending European conferences and meetings. I kicked off this effort back in July by attending the Symposium for European Freshwater Scientists in Munster, Germany (http://www.sefs2013.de/), and head next to Scotland at the end of this month (Oct).

I'm being attacked!!! Like our crazy purple bean bag? ;)

So, the next time you overhear someone say that academics get a vacation every 7-10 years, how will you respond? :)