Posted By:  Hossenfelder Posted On:  Jul 8, 2008	Research and Teaching
A main topics in today's issue of the Frankfurter Rundschau (one of the major German newspapers) is dedicated to the quality of teaching at universities. Page 3 features an interview with Thomas Metschke who founded the page www.meinprof.de where students can rate their prof's teaching...... [view]

Posted By:  Hossenfelder Posted On:  Jul 11, 2008	Scientists and the Mass Media
The recent issue of Science has an article about Interactions with the Mass Media Science 11 July 2008, Vol. 321. no. 5886, pp. 204 - 205 which summarizes the result of a survey of 1354 researchers in the United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, and France. The results show that...... [view]

Posted By:  Hossenfelder Posted On:  Jul 13, 2008	We have only ourselves to judge on each other
Last week, I was talking to a string theorist. We were talking about black holes at the LHC , but I am admittedly presently somewhat tired of the topic. So, since I will be on the market again this fall, I asked how the job situation presently looks like for string theorists. Not good, he...... [view]

Posted By:  Hossenfelder Posted On:  Jul 14, 2008	The German Academy of Sciences
The UK has its Royal Society , France the Institut de France with its Académie des sciences , Italy has the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei , and the US the The National Academies with the National Academy of Sciences , which bring together committees of experts in all areas of...... [view]

Posted By:  Hossenfelder Posted On:  Jul 21, 2008	Openness in Science
In a recent blog post on The Future of Science Michael Nielsen (co-organizer of our upcoming conference on Science in the 21st Century ) puts forward an interesting hypothesis. The reason, he speculates, that scientists are so slow with adapting Web 2.0 tools is a "reluctance to share...... [view]

Posted By:  Hossenfelder Posted On:  Jul 26, 2008	Blogging Heads: Woit and Hossenfelder
Some weeks ago, David from bloggingheads.tv asked whether I'd be interested in contributing to their program by chatting with Peter Woit . During the last years, I found that Peter and I, we share some interests when it comes to the problems of the current academic system, the role of the...... [view]

Posted By:  cherrie Posted On:  May 14, 2008	Fid Week 2 (and Graduation)
Graduation Graduation last Friday was totally awesome. So now I officially have a BSc and BSc(Hons) - whoop-dee-doo! The whole shebang really started on Thurs, which was a bit hectic with PC driving me to pick up the vacuum cleaner, me stressing about the revisions (and the "sloppy"...... [view]

Posted By:  cherrie Posted On:  May 6, 2008	The Fid
Everywhere I turn, people are telling me how hard academia is and how hard a Phd is - and to tell you the truth, when I decided to do a PhD - I hadn't believed them. I thought, 7th form wasn't that bad - and people had said it was horrible, 3rd year wasn't that bad - and people had said it...... [view]

Posted By:  cherrie Posted On:  May 5, 2008	The Academic Enterprise
I find it sort of ironic that the University, in want of a "business model" or "strong enterprise" (whatever they actually mean to the people doing the paper-pushing), seems to have completely lost sight of its priorities ... or "core business". What devastating effects this... oxymoronic...... [view]

Posted By:  KarstenWenzlaff Posted On:  Apr 12, 2008	Life in Academia?
Last week and this week, I attend conferences about International Finance here in Cambridge. This has led me to think a lot about whether a career in Academia is really what I want. Certainly, as a Phd-Student life is very nice, you get to travel, meet interesting people, attend conferences, get...... [view]

Posted By:  cherrie Posted On:  Mar 20, 2008	What I'd Say If You Were Here
That I have to choose between the Academic and Corporate worlds is not worrisome. I have chosen. That the choice has moved from a significant to arbitrary chapter is unsettling: that is, knowing that if I had come here first or if I stayed another (mere) 3 months I could be perfectly...... [view]