What a year!

A year of personal and professional exploration.

One year ago, today, I headed out the door for a year-long sabbatical. The professional core of that sabbatical was my Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellowship at Imperial College London, but I also enjoyed meeting colleagues at University College London, during visits to universities across the UK in England, Scotland, and Wales, and at conferences in France, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The year was academically very productive! And the year also presented incredible opportunities for travel, much of it described in this blog. Here’s a quick summary, with one photo per month. Each month’s heading is a link to the blog posts for that month, and the bullets link to a few travel highlights.

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Cross-country USA

Driving home from San Francisco.

I’ve always wanted to drive across country, that is, across the United States from west to east. In my mind, it was always a leisurely road-trip wandering from state to state, exploring the national parks, historic sites, and cultural touchstones along the way. So, I was pleased when a series of duties and events aligned, finally allowing me the opportunity to drive from California to New Hampshire. The schedule did not allow me to wander leisurely about the landscape – let alone to explore any place in depth, or to pause for serious photography – but the trip nonetheless presented a smorgasbord of scenery, a cross-section of roadside dining outlets, and brief glimpses of Americana.

High-level map of our route, excluding some small side trips; ignore the time labels, which are Apple Maps’ estimate of non-stop drive time. We drove 4,096 miles (6,592 kilometers)!
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