30 March 2012
By Sarah Davies
My current job is in Arizona, in what is, allegedly, the world’s most unsustainable city, right in the heart of the Sonoran desert. Unsustainable or not (it is), the weather here through the winter is truly delightful by European standards: 20C, sunny, and almost constantly dry. I first arrived some years ago as a visiting researcher, for an initial trip of three months, in January; had I visited in August (when temperatures top 45C) I’m not sure I would have been so keen to stay.
Whatever the reason, it’s certainly the case that, every spring, my department has a steady stream of international visitors – students or faculty on research visits, sabbaticals, or study-abroad programmes for anything from a few days to a few months. I love this time of year. Suddenly the department is busy with an influx of interesting people, all of whom are keen to collaborate, engage and discuss, and who bring different kinds of research interests and projects. It’s a breath of fresh air; a chance to stretch your mind out of the routines of immediate colleagues’ – and your own – concerns and questions.
Few of these visitors are funded by my department, but it’s certain that we get a lot of benefit from them. They come on fellowships, such as the Fulbright scheme, or on funding from PhD programmes, or through their own departmental or travel funds. All sorts of things result: talks and seminars, longer term collaborations, or – as in my case – jobs and research projects. I can’t see any disadvantages to these kinds of exchanges: it’s a model I’m keen to repeat when I get the opportunity.
Have others experienced international travel and visits in this way? How did you find it? And is it better to be the visitor or the visited?
Blanka Sengerová01 April 2012 at 09:31 AM
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It seems to be quite a common occurrence in many labs/groups I've been a member of, even if it is not necessarily limited to the spring season.
I suppose I was a visitor in a lab when I was doing a 9 week 3rd year undergraduate project (followed by a summer stint of five weeks in the same lab) and later a longer 4th year Masters project so I have certainly benefitted from such exchanges myself. The labs were always very welcoming and it was nice to be included in things such as lab meeting rotas.
In our current lab, we've just had a Japanese undergraduate medic visiting, which made me pick up some nice things about places to visit in Oxford and South East England (when someone is here for a limited period of time, they often discover the places that you as a long term resident don't know about!). For two terms, we've also just had a 4th year undergraduate project student that I was supervising - his questions and work has certainly made me think about some of my own work, which can only be of benefit, and it was also nice from a purely social side of things.
So yes, visiting season is great, but I suppose that is one of the things that is crucial to academia, because it leads to collaborations, discussions, etc., as you yourself suggest.
I guess the downside (like with the rest of academia, which is so transient due to short term contracts) is that you meet some lovely people that you might like to see a bit more of as friends, but they often end up at the other side of the world in not too long.
Sandrine Berges03 April 2012 at 01:30 PM
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Arizona sounds like a vibrant place to be! We do get people coming for Fulbright etc, (in our department, it's mostly people passing through, giving a paper - I just wrote a post about this, scheduled to come out later this month). I've met some really nice people that way too, and made some very fruitful professional contacts (I think this is pretty much how I got book contract number 2!). As to the downside, Blanka is right and they do end up on the other side of the world often, but, surprisingly, that doesn't mean we never see them again. As I get older, I find that there's very few people I care about that I never get to see - it's just a matter of waiting for the time when you're both in one place at the same time, but that comes around. Have a lovely visiting season, and I hope you meet some great people and hear interesting papers!
Sarah Davies08 April 2012 at 11:28 PM
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Yes, I think one of the benefits is that you end up knowing people all over the world. These days it's easy enough to keep in touch, if you want to, and you often see people at conferences. And it means that you have an excuse to visit lots of interesting places!