[Pollinator] Bernhardt, Retirement (June 2019)

[Peter Bernhardt]

My official retirement from Saint Louis University was June 30, 2019.  This will surprise some of you as you know I planned to retire at age 67 in June 2020.  Here is the explanation.



Saint Louis University is experiencing its third financial crisis in a decade  and remains in the red for at least 20 million.  Like the last crisis, the administration hoped to ease the burden by offering a special buyout (known as a VERP) to older faculty.  The VERP included a full year's salary, $25,000 for medical expenses and a bonus pay-out for every year the professor has been at SLU.  There's even a clause for expedited Professor Emeritus status.  With only one more year to go this seemed to be the better option.



Following a negotiation with my Biology chairperson and the current Dean of Arts & Sciences I keep my office, this computer, email address, my lab, landline phone and my last PhD student for another 14 months.  This includes remaining in charge of the John Dwyer Public Lecture in Biology until May 2020. Time is needed to finish the Australian midge orchid project, write up another two or three scientific papers for submission and take my last PhD student, Alan Moss, through his thesis defense scheduled for July-August 2020.  If there are no emergencies this could be like a year's sabbatical with all expenses paid.



Please continue to contact us via our e-mail and snail-mail addresses or our telephone numbers.  The current plan is for Linda and me to sell-up, pack up and move to her house in Bundoora, Victoria (a suburb of Melbourne) by the end of 2020 or early 2021.  Retirement in Australia should be active with Research Associateships in the Hoebee lab at LaTrobe U. and the Melbourne Botanic Gardens.  This includes an adjunct professorship at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia and probably more programs for "The Science Show" on Radio Australia. Perhaps there will be a return to Yunnan as the Himalayan summer is the Australian winter.



Believe it or not, official retirement occurred just a couple of days before my 100th, peer-reviewed paper (coauthored with Drs. G. Camilo and Peter Weston) was  accepted by the Journal of the Singapore Botanic Garden.  It's part of a Festschrift honoring the career of David Mabberley.





Sincerely,

Peter
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