University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

“I am back on duty after a refreshing, although too short, sabbatical at the University of Arizona, just in time to wish many of you well as you go off to field seasons or to catch up in the lab,” said Professor and Chair Deborah Goldberg.  

“I want to thank Mark Hunter for doing a stellar job shepherding the department during the last semester and leaving me free to think about science and to enjoy the desert. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted (does anyone?!), but did manage to finish a number of projects and to catch up on some literature in a few areas.” 

Besides Tucson, she spent some time in France, Prague, Mexico, Nebraska, New York, and Florida, and even made one trip back to Ann Arbor. “I refreshed my desert botany (it was a good bloom of winter annuals), spent time learning about trait-based macroecological patterns and analytical approaches with colleagues at the University of Arizona, got involved in analysis of data from several different long-term studies of desert vegetation, and, most important, I worked through a considerable backlog of manuscripts with colleagues so that I was no longer the rate- limiting step. Oh, and I got some sleep.”

"I spent four months pretending to be Deborah Goldberg,” said Professor Mark Hunter. “I was amazed by all the different activities that Deborah has to keep track of. She does a great job for our department.

"I'm looking forward to the sabbatical.To be able to focus on just one or two research activities will be a wonderful change."