Abstract:
As the title may suggest, I am currently undertaking a sabbatical – this time at Pennsylvania State University in the
town of State College (Pennsylvania, USA). This sabbatical is the fifth that I have had the privilege to take during
my 30-year academic career. The first was in 1994 at Iowa State University in Ames (Iowa, USA), the second at
CSIRO in Canberra (Australia), the third at Murdoch University in Perth (Australia) and the fourth at the University
of California, Davis in Davis (California, USA). They have all been very different and have without question added to
my science, often in ways that I had not anticipated. I am reminded how important sabbaticals can be and take this
opportunity to share some thoughts, particularly with my younger colleagues who might have doubts in this regard.
