Fćrsluflokkur: Vísindi og frćđi

Nobel Prizes in Science 2007

It's prize time.

 

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in scientific subjects to th following scientists. 

  • Chemistry for 2007 to Gerhard Ertl (Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany) "for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces". The press release is here.
  • Medicine for 2007 jointly to Mario R. Capecchi, Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies for their discoveries of "principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells". The press release is here.
  • Physics for 2007 jointly to Albert Fert (Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/THALES, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France) and Peter Grünberg (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany) "for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance". The press release is here.

It has been a good Nobel vintage for German science. 

 


Reverse Age Discrimination in Italian Academia

Every now and then, I read articles about Italian academia. I do this because of the strong ties I have with my country (or in typical Italian fashion I should say "well, actually, with my region Abruzzo" or even "with my home town, Pescara" :-)) , and because I am saddened by the frustration I sense in the Italian colleagues I meet at conferences or I exchange emails with.

The latest installment of the saga of Italian academia I read is the commentary Reverse Age Discrimination written for Nature Physics by Francesco Sylos Labini and Stefano Zapperi, two physicists based in Rome. Their piece paints a rather bleak picture for young Italian scientists and reports on what they call "Lo Tsnunami dell'Universita' Italiana" (The Tsunami of Italian University). I encourage you to read their opinions and to look at the statistics they report on here.

The figures are amazing. Italian universities have an unusually large fraction of old professors. In Italy, 41% of the university professors are aged 60 or older and only 4% are below 40. If we consider full professors only, we discover that overall in Italy more than 47% are aged 60 or older, but for physicists this percentage reaches a hefty 64%!

Add to this picture that Italian universities have a very irregular recruitment flow, with sudden bursts of hiring based on seniority rather than on merit, and you will see that the only option
left for several talented young scientists is to move to other countries. The commentary reports that this year the French National Research Council (CNRS) selected seven young researchers (CR2) in theoretical physics, out of whom four were Italians! If we look at CS, let me go on record once more as saying that Italians in Paris would form a very strong TCS department by any measure.

Let me close by quoting from the last paragraph in the article.

To conclude, we acknowledge that some older scientists are active and productive, and that European countries should do something to keep them engaged. .... The broad question of how to use the experience of older faculty without hindering the advancement of the younger generation remains an important challenge.


I hope that this is a challenge that Italy's academic establishment will face very soon. The future of Italian science depends on it.

Question to the locals: Are there any similar statistics for Icelandic academia? If so, could anyone post them on this blog?

P.S. The ink has not yet dried on the news announcing that the 2007 Nobel prize for medicine has been awarded to Mario R. Capecchi, Sir Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies "for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells". I notice that Mario Capecchi is yet another Italian expatriate who, like Fermi and Segre before him, has become a US citizen Frown

 

 


En ekki hvađ?

Gaman vćri ađ vita hvađa tölur er veriđ ađ vísa til og hve áreiđanlegar ţćr eru. Er líka nokkuđ ađ marka ţetta, auđvitađ er startkostnađur menntakerfis svipađur en hlutfallslega miklu hćrri hjá smáríki en hjá stćrri ţjóđum ?? 
mbl.is Útgjöld Íslendinga til menntamála langt umfram međaltal OECD
Tilkynna um óviđeigandi tengingu viđ frétt

Ísland - ađlađandi námsland?

Um grein Svövu eđa í framhaldi:

Ég las ţessa grein og hún er athyglisverđ (í NW meina ég). Skv. henni má ćtla ađ ţađ sem ađ mest vinnur gegn ţví ađ hćgt verđi ađ fá marga erlenda nemendur til Íslands, sé tungumáliđ sem talađ er utan skólans. Ţannig sćkja nemendur helst ţangađ sem ađ ţeirra eigin tunga er töluđ t.d. Kínverjar ţangađ sem ađ kínverska er töluđ, eđa ţá ţangađ sem ađ ţađ mál sem ađ kennsla fer fram á (yfirleitt alţjóđamáliđ enska) er líka töluđ í umhverfinu (allur hinn enskumćlandi heimur).  Er eitthvađ ađ gera viđ ţví, kannski ekki en ţađ undirstrikar ađ háskólarnir verđa ađ leggja sig sérstaklega fram viđ ađ integrera erlenda nema. Skv. frétt í Mogganum fyrir um mánuđi og sossum ţví sem ađ mađur kannast viđ er ţessu veittur lítil gaumur.  Ef ađ háskólar ćtla ađ gera út á ţennan markađ, sem ţeir hljóta ađ ćtla, verđur ađ hugsa út í ţetta.

 


Article by Svafa Grönfeldt

 

See this PDF file.  

Source Markađurinn (Frettabladiđ, 29 August 2007).  


Hátíđafyrirlestur um Ţróun háskóla á 21. öld

 Hátíđafyrirlestur um Ţróun háskóla á 21. öld í tilefni 30 ára afmćlis
félagsvísindadeildar mánudaginn 10. september, kl 16-18 í stofu 101 í
Odda, HÍ.


Erindi og málstofa um ţróun háskóla á 21. öld á vegum
félagsvísindadeildar Háskóla Íslands. David F. Labaree, sem er prófessor
viđ mennatvísindadeild Stanford háskóla rćđir um ţróun háskóla í
Bandaríkjunum í erindi sem hann nefnir: Reflections on the development
of the modern university. Í erindinu dregur hann fram atriđi sem verđa
grunnur umrćđu á málstofu í framhaldi af erindinu.

Páll Skúlason stýrir síđan almennri umrćđu um ţessa ţróun og hvernig
Evrópsku háskólarnir og ţeir íslensku sérstaklega spegla hana.

David F. Labaree hefur skrifađ bćđi bćkur og greinar um ţróun menntunar
á háskólastigi, ekki síst starfsmenntunar almennt, en einnig
kennaramenntunar sérstaklega, í umhverfi sem leggur ríka áherslu á
rannsóknir og frćđi.

Međfylgjandi er um málstofuna á ensku, ţar sem nánar er sagt frá
hugmyndum hans og ritverkum.

An event in a series where the faculty of Social Science celebrates its
thirtieth anniversary.

Faculty of Social Science
University of Iceland

September 10th 2007, 16:00-18:00, Oddi 101


The match and mismatch between the idea and the pragmatics of the modern
university.
Reflections on the development of the modern university.

Ólafur Ţ. Harđarson. Dean of the Faculty of Social Science

Reflections on the development of the modern university. A view from the
US.
David F. Labaree, Professor and Associate Dean for Student Affairs,
School of Education, Stanford University

16:40-18:00 Discussion with the audience
A reflection and discussion lead by
Páll Skúlason, former rector of the University and Professor, Department
of philosophy, University of Iceland.

Topics for discussion:

The development of professional education within the research culture
Teacher education, engineering, business, …
Liberal vs professional education, do they have a life together?
The issue of governance and management of a research university
The issue of academia, e.g. research, academic freedom, competition, …
The issue of financing of academia
Who is in control? Academics, administrators, students, governments,… ?

Perhaps also:
What are the universities for?
Where are they heading?

David Labaree and Páll Skúlason: Concluding remarks

David Labaree is Professor and Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the
School of Education, Stanford University. Having held the post of
professor at Michigan State University, in 2003 he moved to become a
professor at Stanford. He has recently also held the posts of president,
History of Education Society, vice president of Division F (History of
Education), AERA and been a member of the AERA executive board.

Among his interests is the pressure exerted by markets on democratic
education; also the peculiar nature of education schools as they have
evolved over the years in the U.S. Currently he is working on the
historical roots and continuing consequences of America’s distinctive
structure of higher education.

He has published the following books:

2006. Education, markets, and the public good : the selected works of
David F. Labaree. New York: Routledge, 2006. with the introductory
essay: “Getting It Wrong”

2004. The trouble with ed schools. New Haven: Yale University Press.

1998. The making of an American high school: the credentials market and
the Central High School of Philadelphia, 1838-1939. New Haven : Yale
University Press, c1988.

1997. How to succeed in school without really learning : the credentials
race in American education. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.

In the present context three of his recent papers, accessible on the
web, are particularly pertinent.

Understanding the Rise of American Higher Education: How Complexity
Breeds Autonomy.
Abstract: This essay shows how the peculiar structure of American higher
education helps explain its success in world rankings. This structure
syncretizes contradictory goals, constituencies, sources of funds, and
forms of authority in a creative tension. One tension is between the
market and the state. Another is across three visions of higher
education – the undergraduate college (populist), graduate school
(elitist), and land grant college (practical). A third is the system’s
combination of traditional, rational, and charismatic authority. In
combination, these promote organizational complexity, radical
stratification, broad political and financial support, partial autonomy,
and adaptive entrepreneurial behavior.

An Uneasy Relationship: The History of Teacher Education in the
University.
From the introduction: “For better and for worse, teacher education in
the United States has come to be offered primarily within the
institutional setting of the university. … Since the 1970s, teacher
education has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the university.

“Mutual Subversion: A Short History of the Liberal and the Professional
in American Higher Education”.
>From the introduction: “The initial argument is that over the years
professional education has gradually subverted liberal education. The
counterpoint is that, over the same period of time liberal education
subverted professional education. ... [and argue] that the professional
has come to dominate the goals of higher education while the liberal has
come to dominate its content.

A Success Story for Icelandic (Computer) Science

 Íslenskur hugbúnađur sigrađi í keppni alhliđa leikjaforrita

Íslenskur hugbúnađur bar sigur úr býtum í keppni alhliđa leikjaforrita sem haldin var í Vancouver í Kanada en keppninni lauk í gćr. Hugbúnađurinn er frá Háskólanum í Reykjavík og bar hann sigur úr bítum í úrslitaleik viđ Kaliforníuháskóla (UCLA) sem varđ heimsmeistari fyrir tveimur árum og í öđru sćti í fyrra.

Ţetta er í fyrsta skipti sem Háskólinn í Reykjavík tekur ţátt í ţessari keppni, en dr. Yngvi Björnsson, dósent viđ Háskólann í Reykjavík og Hilmar Finnsson, meistaranemi í tölvunarfrćđum viđ Háskólann í Reykjavík, hönnuđu leikinn. Úrslitakeppnin fór fram á AAAI ráđstefnunni sem er önnur tveggja stćrstu og virtustu ráđstefna á sviđi gervigreindar í heiminum. Undankeppnin, sem stóđ yfir í 8 daga, fór fram í fyrra mánuđi í Stanford háskólanum í Bandaríkjunum og ţar bar íslenski hugbúnađurinn einnig sigur úr býtum.

Source: MBL National News.

Congratulations to Hilmar and Yngvi! 


Dapurt ástand raunvísinda í Bretlandi?

Í enska dagblađinu Guardian birtist nýveriđ grein eftir Nóbelsverđlaunahafann Harry Kroto sem fjallar um dapurlegt ástand grunnmenntunar í vísindum í Bretlandi. Hann tíundar nokkur atriđi sem íslenskir valdhafar og stjórnendur menntastofnanna gćtu notađ sem viđmiđ bćđi hvađ varđar menntastefnu ţjóđarinnar og skipulag háskólastofnanna. Röksemdafćrsla Krotos er í stuttu máli. Vísindalega ţjálfađ fólk er nauđsynlegt til ađ finna lausnir viđ vandamálum nútímans, hvort sem um er ađ rćđa umhverfismál, orkubúskap mannkyns eđa hćttu frá hryđjuverkamönnum (sem er raunverulegt vandamál í Englandi).Menntakerfiđ virđist ekki rćkta forvitni nemenda, eđa kenna ţeim leiđir til ađ seđja forvitni sína um starfsemi lífvera eđa tćkja. Í sumun tilfellum einblína hćstráđendur í Háskólum á ađ draga úr kostnađi viđ kennslu, sem kemur sérstaklega niđur á vísindum, sem krefjast oft tćkjabúnađar og sérhannađara kennslustofa. Kroto leggur samt hluta af ábyrgđinni á ensk stjórnvöld, sem virđast hafa gleymt grunnhugmyndum um ađskilnađ ríkis og kirkju, og opnađ bakdyr fyrir allskonar “sápukúlu”vísindi (t.d. sköpunarsinna). Slíkt er einstaklega óheppilegt, ţar sem ungir nemendur eiga oft í fullu fangi međ ţađ ađ byggja upp sína grunnţekkingu. Vissulega er hćgt ađ nota samanburđ á raunverulegum vísindum og “sápukúlu”vísindalíki, í kennslu til ađ undirstrika hina vísindalegu ađferđ, en ţađ verđur ađ vera gert undir réttum formerkjum.Kroto skefur ekki utan af hlutunum, og sendir velvaldar gusur bćđi til enska verkamanna- og íhaldsflokksins, sem hafa ađ hans viti gert fleira rangt en rétt undanfarin 25 ár. Hann telur ađ hnignun vísindamenntunar í Englandi gefi tilefni til örvćntingar, samanboriđ lokaorđ pistilsins “Do panic”. 

Ţess má geta ađ Kroto vann í 37 ár viđ University of Reading, í fínni deild sem státađi međal annars af tveimur öđrum Nóbelsverđlaunahöfum. Engu ađ síđur lagđi stjórn skólans til lokun á deildinni, sem var reyndar afstýrt eftir mikla baráttu. Nýveriđ ţáđi Kroto stöđu í Bandaríkjunum.

Samantekt Arnar Pálsson


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