In 1998 I was invited to apply for the position of Vice President for Research and AdvancementU of A, Vice President for Research and Advancement at the University of AlbertaUniversity of Alberta, in Edmonton. Being a graduate of the U of A, I saw this as an excellent opportunity to give back to my alma mater, which gave me an excellent start to my five-decade academic career. I had completed my terms as founding director of the climate centre (C2GCR) at McGill and president of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada. These positions provided me with administrative and team-building experience and gave me exposure to many leading scientists and scholars across Canada. I ended up as finalist for the position; the president of the U of A chose the internal candidate instead. Although very disappointed with this result, it did prove to be another turning point in my life. I got into new and exciting challenges in climate modeling and paleoclimate researchPaleoclimate research, and I built up an outstanding group of graduate and postdoctoral students. Over the next decade, my research and that of this group was recognized with many awards and prizes, which would never have happened had I gone to the U of A in 1998.