scholarly journals How academic sabbaticals used and how they contribute to research – a small-scale study of the University of Cambridge using interviews and analysis of administrative data

F1000Research ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Becky Ioppolo ◽  
Steven Wooding
Keyword(s):  
Academic Research ◽  
Research Direction ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Time Series Approach ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The University ◽  
Method Approach

Background: Academic sabbaticals are seen as an important aspect of academic life and require considerable resources, however, little research has been done into how they are used and whether their effects can be measured. We explored these issues at the University of Cambridge. Methods: A mixed method approach including 24 interviews with academics, eight interviews with administrators; alongside analysis of administrative and publication data between 2010 and 2019. Results: Academics underline the importance of sabbaticals in providing uninterrupted time for research that is used to think, explore new ideas, master new techniques, develop new collaborations, draw together previous work, set work in a wider context, and provide personal discretion in research direction. They also highlight sabbaticals’ contributions in allowing the beneficial effects of combining teaching and research, while mitigating some of the disadvantages. However, it is difficult to detect the effect of sabbaticals on publications using a time series approach. Conclusions: Sabbaticals provide manifold contributions to academic research at the University of Cambridge; however, detecting and quantifying this contribution, and extending these findings requires wider and more detailed investigation.

Charles Henry Brian Priestley. 8 July 1915 — 18 May 1998

2011 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 349-378
Author(s):  
J. R. Garratt ◽  
E. K. Webb ◽  
S. McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Industrial Research ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Convection And Heat Transfer ◽  
Atmospheric Sciences ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Industrial Research Organization ◽  
The University

Charles Henry Brian Priestley was born and educated in England. After completing the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge, he joined the Meteorological Office in 1939. For the next seven years he was engaged mostly in wartime work, including a two-year spell in Canada (1941–43) and three years with the Meteorological Office upper-air unit at Dunstable, UK (1943–46). In 1946, aged 31 years, he took up an Australian appointment with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (later to become the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)) to establish and develop a group to undertake research in meteorological physics. Thereafter he was based in Melbourne, Australia, with his career in the CSIRO extending to 1977. Priestley’s own early research focused on large-scale atmospheric systems, including substantial work on global-scale transport, and later on small-scale atmospheric convection and heat transfer, in which he established some significant results. He had a leading role in the development of the atmospheric sciences in Australia, and was strongly involved in international meteorology.

scholarly journals Innovate or perish: a new paradigm for academics in the biosciences?: Commercialization of academic research

2004 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Pure Science ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Skilled Manpower ◽  
Science Base ◽  
The University

Europe is striving to become the world's most competitive knowledgebased economy by 2010. The higher education sector will play a key role by providing the ideas and skilled manpower to effect this transition, but will require organizational and cultural change to be truly effective. The Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge is used as an example of how these issues can be addressed in a single organization that is able to provide a seamless mechanism to exploit its pure science base to create knowledge-based business spin-offs.

scholarly journals University of Cambridge Natural Radiocarbon Measurements IX

Radiocarbon ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 590-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. R. Switsur ◽  
M. A. Hall ◽  
R. G. West
Keyword(s):  
Solid State ◽  
High Voltage ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Cosmic Ray ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Plastic Scintillation ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Solid State Devices ◽  
Proportional Counters ◽  
The University

The University of Cambridge Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory has been completely rebuilt and modernized, incorporating new techniques developed here for the various stages of measurements. Sample radioactivity is measured in gas proportional counters after conversion to highly purified CO2. Four counters are mounted within a single anticoincidence shield consisting of plastic scintillation material. This is surrounded by a graded cosmic ray shield of low radioactive steel, boron loaded wax, and finally, about 16 tons of ancient low radioactive lead blocks. The electronics are all solid state devices except for the stabilized high voltage supplies.

scholarly journals Introduction: Advances in Palaeogeography

2019 ◽  
Vol 156 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-181
Author(s):  
G. MEINHOLD
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Huge Impact ◽  
Famous Paper ◽  
Geologic Time Scale ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
The University ◽  
Of Greece

This special issue of Geological Magazine is dedicated to the memory of Dr Alan Gilbert Smith, Fellow of St John's College and Emeritus Reader in Geology at the University of Cambridge, who passed away on 13 August 2017 at the age of 80. I first met Alan at the 5th International Symposium on Eastern Mediterranean Geology in Thessaloniki, Greece, in spring 2004 and later on several occasions when I was working on the Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme (CASP) in Cambridge. The palaeotectonic evolution of Greece was one of our common interests. Alan was one of the pathfinders in palaeogeographic research in the 20th century. Together with Sir Edward Bullard (1907–1980) and Jim E. Everett, he published the first computational approach in palaeogeography in their famous paper ‘The fit of the continents around the Atlantic’ (Bullard, Everett & Smith, 1965), which shows a very accurate geometrical fit of the circum-Atlantic continents using the early Cambridge University EDSAC 2 computer. Later, in a contribution in Nature entitled ‘The fit of the southern continents’, Smith & Hallam (1970) presented the first computer fit of the contour of the southern continents forming Gondwanaland. Worth mentioning also are his detailed palaeogeographical maps of the entire Earth, down to epoch level (e.g. Smith, Briden & Drewry 1973; Smith, Hurley & Briden 1981) and his work on the first three editions of A Geologic Time Scale (Harland et al.1982, 1990; Gradstein, Ogg & Smith 2005). Alan's great achievements in the Earth sciences have stimulated new ideas and had a huge impact on geological research, including palaeogeography.

Frederick Tom Brooks, 1882-1952

1953 ◽  
Vol 8 (22) ◽  
pp. 340-354 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Science Teaching ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Emeritus Professor ◽  
Nature Study ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
The University ◽  
Innate Interest

Frederick Tom Brooks, Emeritus Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, died at his home in Cambridge on 11 March 1952. A West- countryman by birth and upbringing, he never lost his innate interest in the countryside or his love of Somerset, and his robust figure, purposeful gait, marked west-country ‘burr’, and infectious, hearty laugh remained an outward sign of this to the end. Brooks was born at Wells on 17 December 1882, the youngest in a family of five children, three of them girls. At the age of twelve he entered Sexey’s School, Bruton, and there the traits that later typified his life were either implanted in him or were brought to light under the influence of a youthful headmaster, Mr W. A. Knight, who was to prove himself so truly a pioneer of nature study and of science teaching in secondary schools. The school, like its headmaster, was young—it had been opened only three years previously— but new ideas were already being put to the test. Botany rambles, for instance, formed part and parcel of the school curriculum, as it was right they should do in a district so richly endowed with a wealth and variety of flora. Small wonder, therefore, that inspired and guided by an unusual headmaster, Brooks became the first of a long succession of pupils from the school who subsequently made their mark in the botanical world. He was never slow to attribute his abiding interest in botany and his ardour as a field botanist to this early encouragement. Knight was, in fact, the first of three men who profoundly influenced his interests and career, for it was not only a love of nature that was stimulated in him during his schooldays. He, like all his fellow pupils, was taught, among other things, not only to work but also how to work, even at unpalatable tasks; to play as well as work with zest; to overcome difficulties and become self-reliant; and to be thorough: and these are the qualities, together with determination and resolution, that later stood out in Brooks for all to see.

Small-scale mixing in stably stratified fluids: a report on Euromech 51

1975 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Linden ◽  
J. S. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Small Scale ◽  
Stratified Fluids ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The University

The 51st Euromech Colloquium, on mixing in stratified fluids, was held at the University of Cambridge from 24-27 June 1974, with one of the present authors (J.S.T.) acting as Chairman of the Organizing Committee. There were fifty-two participants from twelve countries, and thirty-two contributions were presented and discussed during the four days of the meeting.

Charles Henry Brian Priestley 1915 - 1998

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 126 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Garratt ◽  
E. K. Webb ◽  
S. McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Lower Atmosphere ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Convection And Heat Transfer ◽  
Atmospheric Sciences ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The University ◽  
Csiro Division

Charles Henry Brian Priestley (known as Bill) was born and educated in England. After completing the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge, he joined the Meteorological Office in 1939. In 1946, aged 31 years, he took up an Australian appointment with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, later to become CSIRO) to establish and develop a group to undertake research in meteorological physics. Thereafter he was based in Melbourne, Australia. The group earned world recognition, particularly for its investigations of turbulent transfer in the lower atmosphere, and evolved to become the CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research. Priestley's own early research focused on large-scale atmospheric systems, including substantial work on global-scale transport, and later on small-scale atmospheric convection and heat transfer, in which he established some significant results. He had a leading role in the development of the atmospheric sciences in Australia, and was strongly involved in international meteorology. His career with CSIRO extended to 1977, and he finally retired from all professional commitments in the mid-1980s. After several years of declining health, he died on 18 May 1998, seven weeks before he turned 83.

Towards an interdisciplinary knowledge exchange model

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago DE FRANCISCO ◽  
Diego MAZO
Keyword(s):  
Design Research ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Design Environment ◽  
Interdisciplinary Knowledge ◽  
One Year ◽  
The University ◽  
Common Situation

Universities and corporates, in Europe and the United States, have come to a win-win relationship to accomplish goals that serve research and industry. However, this is not a common situation in Latin America. Knowledge exchange and the co-creation of new projects by applying academic research to solve company problems does not happen naturally.To bridge this gap, the Design School of Universidad de los Andes, together with Avianca, are exploring new formats to understand the knowledge transfer impact in an open innovation network aiming to create fluid channels between different stakeholders. The primary goal was to help Avianca to strengthen their innovation department by apply design methodologies. First, allowing design students to proposed novel solutions for the traveller experience. Then, engaging Avianca employees to learn the design process. These explorations gave the opportunity to the university to apply design research and academic findings in a professional and commercial environment.After one year of collaboration and ten prototypes tested at the airport, we can say that Avianca’s innovation mindset has evolved by implementing a user-centric perspective in the customer experience touch points, building prototypes and quickly iterate. Furthermore, this partnership helped Avianca’s employees to experience a design environment in which they were actively interacting in the innovation process.

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