My last annual round of crème brûlées ended in June 2022, just as the new post-pandemic normal was starting to take hold. July 2022 was remarkable not only for my lack of crème brûlées but also because I managed to spend the whole month at home in Boston. But I was on the road again in August, this time driving to Montreal (in an EV, of course) with Nick Gotelli for the Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America. I was attending the ESA meeting on behalf of the British Ecological Society’s journal, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, which, as its newly-appointed Executive Editor, I was helping steer towards gold open access—a goal that was reached in January 2023. I also got to reprise my role as roadie and maestro of the sound board for Nick & Company’s annual performance at the ESA meetings.

September was another month at home, gearing up and packing for what has turned out to be a full year of travel—away from home at least part of every month since last October, and which looks to continue unabated through mid-February of 2024.

Continue reading →