Friday, June 18, 2010

What does he do with his time?

I have to admit, being on chemotherapy, I am very fortunate with my employment arrangements. Since July 2008 I have been on a James Cook Research Fellowship, funded by the New Zealand government, to do full time research for two years. My Fellowship comes to an end in a few weeks, but my university, Victoria University of Wellington, has graciously allowed me another 6 months research and study leave until the end of 2010. For much of the time of my James Cook, I have been undergoing my cancer battle, with surgery in later 2008, adjuvant chemotherapy in the first half of 2009, and now 1st line chemotherapy at present. I often wonder how much more difficult my life would be if I were self-employed, or working in a labouring job. I have had the privilege of being able to organise my work around my illness, with slow starts in the morning, days taken recovering from chemo infusions, and long periods of lethargy, with less than peak work output.

But I have had a project. What I have been doing is writing a book, a technical book, "Translational Dynamics and Magnetic Resonance", to be published by OUP. I must have been crazy to take this on-it's been a huge task, but I am nearing the end. This week I finished chapter 11, somewhere in the pages 500-600, entitled "Translational Dynamics and Quantum Coherence". I have a likely Chapter 12, though it will be a less demanding denouement, and so in a sense, I think I have essentially completed the draft. Now my task is to parse through the book, improve, tidy, correct. I hope to get it off to the publisher in a few months.

Although it's been a marathon effort, I've been lucky to have this project. When I write I immerse myself and all other concerns vanish. And I have been so fortunate to be given the freedom and the time. I am so very grateful to the Royal Society of New Zealand who administer the James Cook Fellowships, and of course, to my employer, VUW.
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3 comments:

  1. Peter StilbsJune 18, 2010 at 11:37 PM

    Totally admirable effort, Paul - I just hope you will not have the same nightmarish situation that Bill Price got with his publisher's printing company with his recent book on this topic.

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  2. Vanessa LeungJune 20, 2010 at 11:27 AM

    I find it impressive that you managed to write a book during the last couple of years, Paul... that's a challenge at any time, but with a good dose of chemotherapy "on the side"... I'm flabbergasted as to how you pulled it off.

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  3. Paul CallaghanJune 20, 2010 at 3:35 PM

    Thanks Peter. It's all in LateX with eps figures embedded so it should be a challenge for them to stuff it up. However, I am sure they will manage to make my life difficult at some point.

    You are very kind Vanessa-to be honest, having the luxury of two years on the James Cook has meant I could just "plod away". Most people write books and have a real day job as well. I have to admit, one does have to climb a few formidable "intellectual mountains" at various points on the way-but you get to learn so much, and to expose where your understanding is weak and needs greater depth, and most enjoyably, to better appreciate the work of your colleagues and rivals. I am strangely lucky in that burying myself in this stuff is a pleasurable obsession and takes me into another world away from life's cares. Best best of all is to write in LateX. It is utterly liberating!

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