I haven't posted in over a year. Remarkable. It recently dawned on me how little time I seem to have for anything. The College of Science and Engineering was dissolved while I was away in the Galapagos so my position as dean (and associate dean) ended. Despite not having extra responsibilities (because I was teaching full-time as well) I feel like I have less time. Haven't been to the gym at all (and I feel and look it), I haven't sat down to do stamp stuff, and I haven't read a book.
I did
- get to the Galapagos and Ecuador in May with a number of students and that well very well.
- have pretty good research field seasons. In 2021, we focused on pollinator pans in burned, cut, and reference forests. In 2022, we focused on collecting specimens for an isotope study
- have a paper get accepted into Ecosphere - this was originally rejected from Ecological Application
- get promoted to full professor
So not a spectacular year but a good year. I'll try and post the best photos from the Ecuador trip at some point. So time to access who I am and my increasing limits (i.e., how long can I stay awake or stomp through the forest). So here's are my goals to 2023
I will
- Finish off the three chapters for the coffee book
- Submit an old data paper and a new data paper. Old data = my dissertation research from GA. New data is the yellow pollinator pan data. Would be great to get a third paper out but I don't want to be greedy
- Push to have a big STEM event at Wilkes in May
- Sort, sort, sort, and sort bugs. We're sitting on thousands of insects from dozens of samples. At worst, we will have samples for a food web study. At best... well... good question. Many jars are dried up. Not sure what the best scenario is.
- Apply for a sabbatical. Because, man, am I due.
- Start doing those things I miss doing - like this blog!
