In the neverending debates about the current state of physics– see, for example, Bee’s thoughtful post about The trouble With Physics, you will frequently hear it said that the academic job market in physics sucks. But what, exactly, does that mean in quantitative terms? It’s job hunting season in academia now– still a little early… Continue reading The Academic Physics Job Market
Category: Academia
Dark Skies and Security
I’m in a Department of Physics and Astronomy, so several of my colleagues are astronomers. We also have a rather nice on-campus observatory, used for student research projects. Unfortunately, the combination means that we have a running argument with the rest of the campus regarding lights. The rather nice observatory is basically useless if there… Continue reading Dark Skies and Security
Looping in Education
Wednesday was a Day of Meetings for me, starting at 8am, which means I didn’t have time to type up a bunch of blog posts and schedule them as usual. Having just clawed my way out of Meetingville, though, let me take a few minutes to throw up another Academia post, before the topic gets… Continue reading Looping in Education
Academic Poll: All or Nothing Questions
A philosopher at McGill University has stirred up a controversy by requiring students to get perfect scores on a quiz about the Greek alphabet or drop her class on Plato: The course, which at times refers directly to original texts, requires students to gain a familiarity with the Greek alphabet. To make sure that would… Continue reading Academic Poll: All or Nothing Questions
Welcome to Grad School, Here’s Your Angst
Via Matt McIrvin, Total Drek’s Unhelpful Hints for Graduate Students: (1) It is important to realize as soon as possible that you are not an undergraduate any longer. In fact, you’re not really even a student. Grad school is more like an apprenticeship program than traditional schooling. As such, you’re here to learn by doing.… Continue reading Welcome to Grad School, Here’s Your Angst
Particle Physicists Have All the Blogs
The particle physics community in the US has rolled out a new site promoting the Large Hadron Collider, because, you know, there was a danger that we might forget that it’s there. As part of the site, they’re featuring four new physics blogs, by Monica Dunford, Pam Klabbers, Steve Nahn, and blogosphere veteran Peter Steinberg.… Continue reading Particle Physicists Have All the Blogs
Student Sustainability Video
One of our senior physics majors has made a video promoting sustainability to students, and posted it on YouTube. I need to figure out the best way to link it from the department web page, but it occurs to me that I have this big Internet platform I can use to plug it: It’s a… Continue reading Student Sustainability Video
The Clothes Make the Faculty Member
Via Steinn, the Incoherent Ponderer ponders academic clothing: For some strange reason, whenever it is not clear whether the attire is formal or informal, I am much more concerned about overdressing, than dressing too informally. I think that this is because it’s very difficult to be dressed too informally in academic environment – unless of… Continue reading The Clothes Make the Faculty Member
The Job Hunt
Now that I’m back in College Station, it’s time to start getting applications ready for the great job search. I don’t know how it is in other fields, but in math/physics, this generally involves three to four letters of recommendation, a CV, a research statement, sometimes a teaching statement and maybe an annotated bibliography. In… Continue reading The Job Hunt
Fundamental Research Funding
Michael Nielsen, who’s so smart it’s like he’s posting from tomorrow, offers a couple of provocative questions about the perception of a crisis in funding for basic science: First, how much funding is enough for fundamental research? What criterion should be used to decide how much money is the right amount to spend on fundamental… Continue reading Fundamental Research Funding