Academia
drorzel | May 30, 2008I spent a whole bunch of time running around between talks on Thursday, and at one point was grumbling to myself about the way the organizers had scheduled all the good stuff at one time. Only later did I realize that it really wasn't their fault-- it's all good stuff, and there are only a few sessions here and there that I have absolutely no interest in seeing.
We need more sessions with names like "Boring Inscrutable Theory II," so I don't feel like I need to be in three places at once.
Anyway, a handful of highlights from Thursday's program:
I started off at the ultracold atoms session, to…
jstemwedel | May 29, 2008Since I read it last Friday I have been meaning to say something about this article in Inside Higher Ed about why female academic appear to have lower birthrates than male academics and than female professionals in other fields. Of course, between work and family obligations (and grinding fatigue) it's taken me until now to get to it.
Is this a clue of some sort?
Luckily, Sciencewoman has written a thoughtful and detailed rumination, and she links to Dr. Crazy's, Mommy Prof's, and Dean Dad's fine discussions, too, so I can keep it brief.
From the outside, academia looks like a perfect…
scientificactivist | May 28, 2008Oh, the things we do in the name of "the global war on terror." And, not just in the US. Here's an example from the UK. From The Guardian:
A masters student researching terrorist tactics who was arrested and detained for six days after his university informed police about al-Qaida-related material he downloaded has spoken of the "psychological torture" he endured in custody.
Despite his Nottingham University supervisors insisting the materials were directly relevant to his research, Rizwaan Sabir, 22, was held for nearly a week under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading the materials…
evolgen | May 28, 2008Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), will be stepping down from that position in August. Collins has overseen the sequencing of the human genome, the HapMap project, the ENCODE project, and many other large advances in genomics. The NHGRI has had a major impact in the field of genetics while Collins was at its helm.
Collins also has a history of putting his foot in his mouth -- not that it's a bad thing to do so (lord knows my foot's spent more time lodged in my face than on the ground). He's been incorrect about morality and human evolution, to name…
terrasig | May 26, 2008Let me say from the outset that I am too close to this issue, in many ways, to be fully objective. However, this issue is likely to be of interest to those in the academic community and especially anyone who followed the now-discredited 2006 Duke lacrosse case.
On 15 May Duke graduating senior and guest columnist, Kristin Butler, wrote an editorial in The Duke Chronicle entitled, "Summa cum loony." Her editorial addressed the fellow graduation across town of Solomon Burnette, convicted in 1997 of robbing two Duke students, and Crystal Gail Mangum, the exotic dancer hired by Duke lacrosse…
drorzel | May 26, 2008Most of my reaction to this weekend's Emily Gould article in the Times was "Gosh, who knew that writing for Gawker might have a corrosive effect on your personal life...," but there were some interesting bits. She did a nice job explaining how blogging can be sort of addictive, and also had some good bits on the phenomenon of blog fame:
I started seeing a therapist again, and we talked about my feelings of being inordinately scrutinized. "It's important to remember that you're not a celebrity," she told me. How could I tell her, without coming off as having delusions of grandeur, that, in a…
jstemwedel | May 24, 2008
Yesterday, heading out to lunch with some colleagues, I noticed some of the other people out on the street were ... oddly attired. We saw these folks as we were passing by a cinema, so our first thought was, "Maybe this has something to do with the Speed Racer movie?"
And then we remembered the banners, and last year's Memorial Day weekend in downtown San Jose.
"Egad!" we exclaimed, "It's time for FanimeCon again!" By midday Saturday, the streets will be swarming with people dressed as anime characters.
Of course, that's not the only big happening in San Jose with oddly dressed…
jstemwedel | May 23, 2008In my faculty mailbox today:
After a review of the tenure evaluations and recommendations of the appropriate committees and administrators ... I am pleased to inform you that your service to the University merits the award of tenure. I am also pleased to inform you that you have been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, effective August 21, 2008.
One less thing to worry about while working through the grading.
jstemwedel | May 22, 2008Another dispatch from grading Hell (fourth circle), in which the reader gains some insight into circumstances which evoke my sympathy, and circumstances which do not.
I have this pedagogical strategy where I try to make my students think more than they have to write. One way this strategy manifests itself is in how I deal with case studies on finals exams.
We've spent the whole semester working up case study responses following a standard plan of attack -- identifying the interested parties in the case, the potential consequences for those interested parties if the protagonist in the case…
terrasig | May 22, 2008Well, things have changed in my life that have begun to impact my posting frequency so I really appreciate the support of readers when I last spoke of this change of life (no, not menopause).
I've even gotten so distracted that I have neglected to read the daily fishwrapper - that is until today's recycling when I stood outside on the street at 6 am rummaging through my blue bin to read Tuesday's paper (hell, it was news to me). At least I was courteous enough to the neighbors to throw on a pair of shorts.
In it, I learned that an academic physician settled with her employer for $200K after…
drorzel | May 22, 2008The pinhead filling in for Colin Cowherd (himself a pinhead of epic proportions) yesterday on ESPN radio was unduly proud of himself for coming up with the following hypothetical (paraphrased from memory):
Suppose that you had a choice between having your favorite candidate win the presidential election, or having your favorite sports team win a championship. Which would you pick?
Even by the standards of hypotheticals on sports call-in shows, this is pretty stupid. After all, it's not really a fair comparison-- whatever psychological boost it may provide, your favorite sports team winning a…
jstemwedel | May 21, 2008I am in grading Hell. I expect to be here until at least Memorial Day (Monday), and possibly through Tuesday. (Does that mean I'm actually in grading Purgatory? Please advise.)
Anyway, in a private communication, PhysioProf asked,
As you get grumpier from grading, do you grade harsher?
If I did, that would be an unfortunate situation for those whose papers I get to last, wouldn't it?
Thankfully for my students, I make serious efforts to apply a uniform level of harshness (or leniency) across the whole pool I'm grading. Here are some of my strategies:
Invest some time in formulating…
drorzel | May 21, 2008The Female Science Professor is musing about thank-yous at thesis defenses:
When I was in grad school, a prominent faculty member (who was department chair near the end of my grad years) made it known that he hated the "thank you" part of the thesis defense and strongly discouraged students from including any sort of personal thank you in their talk. If someone really wanted to, they could have a very brief and professional acknowledgment at the end of their talk (not the beginning). His reasoning was that the defense is an exam, and it is not the place for a long acknowledgment of the…
terrasig | May 20, 2008On 8 May after a six-month search by a 21-member search committee, 43-year-old chemistry professor H. Holden Thorp was named Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The search committee was unable to find anyone else nationally or internationally that could match Thorp's promise in leading the university.
Thorp is a pretty amazing guy for any age, having already achieved full, distinguished professor status, chair of the chemistry department, dean of arts & sciences, started a couple of companies, directed and rejuvenated the university's aging planetarium, and…
catdynamics | May 17, 2008" ...I am going to warn you one last chance I am going to ask I want a better than a B-," the e-mail read. "If I see this [grade] I swear to god I am going to fucking put you in a wheelchair when I see you..."
wrote an undergraduate student to one of my colleagues this week
the student was arrested and arraigned for terroristic threats.
Well, that's different.
I had been worrying that my "curve" was tipping too far, too many As and Bs, but this is not why - in fact student whingeing, if anything, would tip me towards harsher grading.
But, there do seem to be more high grades than I expect…
terrasig | May 16, 2008Terrible news out of Duke University Medical Center this week with the death of 63-year-old master steamfitter, Rayford Cofer, in a steampipe explosion under one of the university's largest research buildings. Not just any man, but one of the best at what his did:
Cofer, a Franklinton resident who began working with Duke's Facilities Management Department in 2001, was known by his co-workers as one of the "go-to guys" who overcame obstacles on difficult assignments. He was twice honored with one of Duke's top employee awards for meritorious service. (See, "A Generous Man and A Master…
jstemwedel | May 15, 2008The classroom I taught in this semester was fairly hot. Even when it was chilly outside, the temperature in the classroom was uncomfortably warm.
Of course, I think it might have been worse for me (pacing in front of the whiteboard, trying to keep things lively) than for the students most of the time. But today, we had the final exam in that room. And unlike most class meetings, every single chair in the room was filled.
And we experienced record highs, temperature-wise.
So, how hot was it? I give you the testimony of one of the students taking the final today:
"I blame any mistakes on…
neurophilosophy | May 15, 2008Four years ago this week, leading neuroscientists and psychologists convened at Columbia University for the Brain and Mind Symposium, "to discuss the accomplishments and limitations of reductionist and holistic approaches to examining the nervous system and mental functions".
Speakers included the Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel, developmental neurobiologist Thomas Jessell, who heads Columbia's new neuroscience research centre, and pioneering child psychiatrist Michael Rutter, whose reassessment of John Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation proved highly influential.
On the…