One of the most important values of academia is the notion of civilized discourse–where one may disagree substantively with one’s colleagues, but the tone of interaction always remains civil. This is particularly important at an institute for advanced study, where scholars from many, often disperate, backgrounds come together. And no where is this idea more important than the case where there is an implied power relationship between two individuals: be it faculty and support staff, senior faculty and more junior faculty, or faculty and trainees.

While this ideal, may be impossible to always achieve, it’s important to strive for it–because our reputation rests on this aspect of our daily work life, just as certainly as it rests on our scientific achievements.

For myself, I try to think very carefully before I hit the email send button–no matter how tempting it might be to send off something that was composed in anger (or with hurtful sarcasm). But more importantly, I try to think how the other person that I’m interacting with might feel–this in both direct conversations and electronic communications. It’s that manifestation of “theory of mind” that I think is crucial to civil society.

None of us is perfect in this respect, but by being concious and aware of these interpersonal details, we create a better place to do our science.

Cheers,
Jim

So I wanted to expound a bit more on why I am so enthused about CSC joining Krasnow. Perhaps the best place to start is with the notion that social complexity is an emergent of cognitive complexity. This notion: that the complex adaptive natures of social networks (from say families to entire cultures) is itself a product of the human minds that make up those social networks is not so farfetched. It certainly underlies the basic raision d’etre for the new field of neuroeconomics–where we are also now actively involved. It also to some extent subserved some of the Krasnow work with language in the Great Apes, and some of the very early interests in language development at the Institute. So I think we’re intellectually on very solid ground here.

I also think that the neuroscience at Krasnow can bring a level of biological plausibility which will be very helpful to the folks at CSC who are using agent-based modeling to study emerging social behaviors. One area that I’ve been involved with is a collaboration with Claudio Cioffi and Sean Luke to study how including mnemonic functions in agents might affect emergents in modeled social networks. I’m very hopeful that this line of research will eventually be fruitful.

In any case, I’d like to welcome our colleagues on board. We’re the better for their joining us….and we’ll plan some appropriate marking of this joining for the Fall.

Jim

Just a bit of a preview for news that will be released more formally this week: George Mason’s Center for Social Complexity (http://socialcomplexity.gmu.edu) will be joining the Krasnow Institute. The new center (Krasnow’s 4th) will be physically housed in Research I. I’m really pleased about this addition to the Institute and it certainly makes sense given the history of collaborations between us. The effective date was July 1.

Jim

I often recount the story of UC Irvine–which was born as a new University of California in 1965 and recently was ranked by US News and World Report as one of the very top research universities in the country. Interestingly, the school was initially considered primarily a commuter school, built around a ring with large parking lots surrounding the ring in lieu of dorms and research buildings. Irvine itself is in Orange County–a county with roughly similar demographics to Fairfax County Virginia–about a million people, adjacent to an important city (Los Angeles).

I’ve written a lot of Irvine, here is not perhaps the place to extoll their praises, but as a case study they are quite interesting. One of the themes to that school’s success has to do with being in the right place at the right time. They were born into a County that was, at the time, growing extrordinarily quickly, in a state, California, which if I recall correctly would be the seventh largest economy in the world, were it considered separately from the United States.

We’re in the right place at the right time also. Our area’s economy currently would put it (if it were a country) into the top twenty nations–ahead of Argentina, Austria, Dennmark, Ireland, Israel, Norway, South Africa and Turkey. The median household income here is second only to San Francisco-San Jose, while the annual employment growth as more than double that of any other metropolitan area last year.

In terms of education, our area has the highest percent of the population with an advanced degree. And of course, Northern Virgnia now can boast of having the largest public university and the largest hospital (INOVA Fairfax) in the Commonwealth. Add to that HHMI’s Janelia Farms complex, and I’d argue things are poised to be very fruitful for us at Krasnow.

My own sense is that in the not too distant future, we’ll be reading about Mason in a very similar fashion to the story I just related about a new university on the West Coast.

Jim

Well, we’re finally underway. The Krasnow RFP has been given to the three competing design build teams this afternoon. Fourty five days from now, we’ll begin the selection process. That’s great news and I’m particularly grateful to our Project Engineer at Facilities Planning, Mike Herman, for his help.

Also I had a pleasant surprise on the drive home tonight listening to All Things Considered on WETA–the Krasnow spot aired right at 5PM. It’s really great to hear about Krasnow science in the context of NPR’s wonderful news show. These are exciting times at the Institute.

Today the Krasnow Expansion Project RFP will be released to the competing design build consortia teams at 1PM. They’ll then have 45 days to respond. A big milestone and all the more important to be working closely with Meredith so that your input gets communicated to the design teams.

Second, per the request for motorcycle parking spots, I’m having some put in–I think two of them.

Cheers,
Jim

So one thing I get to see a lot of are CV’s. Applicants for jobs, and folks from Krasnow who need support letters. And….a really good CV is hard to find! There are specific things in a CV, which if they aren’t there, make life much more difficult for the person reading it–and of course that greatly reduces chances for success in whatever is at hand. Oddly enough, there are items which shouldn’t be included in CV’s–stuff that falls into the category of “too much information” (in the pejorative sense of the expression).

Hence, I’ve been thinking, it would be useful to give a CV workshop to our trainees. I’d be happy to spend about an hour or so, going over my version of do’s and don’ts. If you think this would be useful–just drop me an email.

Cheers,
Jim

This year the Society for Neuroscience meeting will take place here in DC. And this year, there will be a reception for those who have ties with Mason Neuroscience (writ large). I’ve sent out the date to the relevant email servers, but I’ll include the details here:

Location: Washington Convention Center
Room: 301
Date: 11/14/05
Time: 6:30-7:30pm

For those of you who aren’t registered for the meeting, it is possible to attend as a guest. I believe the cost in advance is $20. For those with difficulties in registering, please see me in person. We’d sure like to see everyone attend what should be an excellent time.

Yesterday studying the navigation habits of the rainbow trout in the eastern-most stream that eventually feeds into the Mississippi.

Related to “Upstairs downstairs”, refer to the “The Great Room” blog and other new posts at http://krasnowconstruction.blogspot.com/