The Path To Productivity

Lynn Riddiford, a professor of zoology of the University of Washington, exemplifies how to keep your spirit alive and your research fresh--and, perhaps, your funding rolling in. Delving deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the hormone ecdysone, which controls the molting process of the tobacco hornworm, Riddiford has progressed from whole-insect work, through work with cell cultures, all the way to the molecular biology level. One of the ways she learned these new skills was in sabbatical

Scott Huler

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One of the ways she learned these new skills was in sabbatical years. In fact, using sabbaticals creatively has been a special talent of Riddiford's.

"My first sabbatical was at Harvard" in 1971, she recalls, noting that while there, she "visited a couple labs and learned new techniques."

In 1979-80, Riddiford went to Stanford University "to learn molecular biology. That was just in the beginning days of recombinant DNA research.

"My next sabbatical, in 1986-87, I went to Cambridge, England, working on Drosophila to see if I could find a good hormone I could work with" to augment her own research. "We got something out of it, but it wasn't the thing we needed."

Still, a venture that didn't provide her with an essential new skill was hardly a disappointment to Riddiford. In fact, possibly as a result of her enjoyment of the work she did in Cambridge that was ...

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