I remember the first Apple computer I used was in graduate school at Michigan in the 1980’s. It was an Apple IIe and it seemed completely magical, even without the Internet. Today at Krasnow, Steve’s influence seems ubiquitous from servers to iPads.
Steve Job’s illness took him from us much too early. He will be sorely missed, especially among scientists who were certainly among his earliest adopters.
I’m a big believer in the public research university writ large. These institutions (of which George Mason is one) provide excellent affordable post-secondary education, act as economic engines to their regions, provide cultural enrichment and add to our knowledge through basic and applied research.
Currently, American public research universities are under real stress. This is a reflection of the economic challenges faced by the 50 states (to varying degrees) and is reflected in higher tuition, reduced financial aid, and salary stagnation for faculty. At the University of California, the enormous size of the State’s economic problems have led to faculty furloughs and a real threat to the overall health of what was for a time, perhaps the most prestigious public university system in the world.
One manifestation of the problem is that top professors are now routinely being “raided” from the publics by private institutions, especially those with historically large endowments. The issue is that the superstars, who once were teaching in the diverse affordable education environment of the publics are now, if they are teaching at all, applying their pedagogical skills in what might be considered a monoculture (this in spite of financial aid and diversity programs).
I fully recognize the critique that public research university superstars often don’t teach. But at Mason they definitely do. I’d also add that even where superstars aren’t teaching a full load, they often offer research and scholarship opportunities for undergraduate (and of course graduate) students as part and parcel of their own research.
What to do?
I’m not sure if I have a short answer, but surely there is a message here that the publics need to be appropriately valued by society.
He notes that the proscribed cuts the are supposed to kick in if the Super Committee can’t reach agreement are delayed into FY13 here.
Bottom line: the next congress can rewrite the rules.
It’s an interesting twist that supporting failure requires believing that your party will control both houses of Congress.
Stay tuned for a preview of the Institute’s new web site, our collaborative plans with the Santa Fe Institute here in the DC area and some insights into where we are hiring.
From one of the Institute’s breakout spaces. I can see a chicken, a fruit fly, some chromosomes and a slogan. No doubt the work of our trainees as they tend their experiments into the wee hours. In all seriousness, though, the White Boards throughout the Institute serve an incredibly important purpose as a means of catalyzing scientific discussions, very often across the disciplinary boundaries that characterize Krasnow. Even in the world of apps, the old fashioned white board can’t be beat for this purpose.
But then, this reminds me of the wonderful Intel ad that ran for a bit during the PBS new hour:
Yes, quantum mechanics is weird, but when Ball starts talking about tardigrades….
They say it might even work for tiny aquatic animals called tardigrades or water bears, which, unlike viruses, are unambiguously living or dead.
he should definitely talk to Harold Morowitz. Read the link, it’s still an amazing experiment.
It was a remarkable place to go to high school in the 1970’s, Pasadena Polytechnic (Caltech’s “University High”). Today, we congratulate Bruce Beutler, classmate and new Nobel Laureate.
From the London Review of Books, a review by Daniel Soar, here.
Money quote:
Of course, the better it gets at what it does the more money it makes, and the more money it makes the more data it gathers and the better it gets at what it does – an example of the kind of win-win feedback loop Google specialises in – but what’s surprising is that there is no obvious end to the process.
From ScienceInsider, here. There’s no doubt in my mind that a similar situation exists on this side of the Atlantic, and that it hurts doctoral eduation.
Discoverers and Discoveries 