Monthly Archives: February 2011

Is your body simply a means of transport for your head?

Posted on February 28, 2011 by

Michelle did it again the other day. I was in a meeting in Toronto when I received her text message:  “As a university professor, do you consider your body to be simply a means of transport for your head?” I … Continue reading →

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21 upcoming “Pieces of Mind”

Posted on February 26, 2011 by

Here are some of the issues I will be posting on in the next few weeks – not necessarily in the order below. Some are ready, others need to be polished and analysed further. Please chip in if you will. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

NSERC … A Senior Scientist Speaks Out

Posted on February 25, 2011 by

Don Fraser, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto has taught and trained several generations of Canadian statisticians, and he is still at it. He also continues to contribute high-level research. He was –as recently as last summer– an invited … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | 10 Comments

Guest Blogger John B. Walsh: Insidious buzzwords and all that jazz

Posted on February 24, 2011 by

Nassif Ghoussoub needs your help. Every time I go into his office to tell him what he should blog about, he simply tells me to write it myself. He is obviously desperate. Let me tell you how desperate he is. … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | 3 Comments

The Brand-Free Advantage-A student’s take

Posted on February 23, 2011 by

Submitted by a UBC student who wishes to remain anonymous How would you describe Canada’s Universities in a few words? U of T is huge, traditional, well established, and therefore academically credible. McGill’s where the party is at and located … Continue reading →

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Faculty representation: Here we go again!

Posted on February 22, 2011 by

A few weeks ago,  in an exceptionally professional and selfless act, Darrin Lehman declined to take his position as a faculty representative on the UBC Board of Governors. This is because of the potential conflict with his current administrative position … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors | 1 Comment

Assessing Science is hard! NSERC bureaucrats should know it, but then so do we!

Posted on February 20, 2011 by

Dozens of Canadian scientists are now back home from Ottawa after a week of “grant selecting” at NSERC. Many are self-satisfied by their 5 days of empowerment (the “Ottawa power trip”?). Others are embittered by the ever-tightening bureaucratic grip on … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | 4 Comments

A maverick on the Board of Governors? You ain’t seen nothing yet

Posted on February 19, 2011 by

Please meet Joe Peek, the faculty who was recently elected trustee on the University of Kentucky Board. “Now that you have foolishly elected me as your faculty trustee, I have lost all respect for you, thereby fully qualifying me to … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors | 1 Comment

20 years of NSERC funding for Discovery

Posted on February 18, 2011 by

Many thanks again to Queen’s Professor, David Wehlau for rummaging with NSERC’s search engine to come up with very useful historical data for the funding of the Discovery Grants program. David was of course interested in the historical trends for … Continue reading →

Posted in R&D Policy | Leave a comment

UBC and U of T: A tale of two student housing initiatives

Posted on February 16, 2011 by

Last week, both UBC and the University of Toronto announced major plans to increase student housing opportunities on their campuses. Two completely different approaches, both motivated by the same determination to “go even more global”, and by their respective government’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors, UBC Housing Action Plan | Leave a comment

Knowledge and Economics require different measuring sticks

Posted on February 16, 2011 by

Invention and Innovation are obviously closely interrelated.  But innovation is about economics, while discovery and invention are about knowledge. Innovation is about now, discovery is about now and the future. The problems arise when we start using the same measuring … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy | 5 Comments

Psst! Pass it on! Concerns about NSERC’s ways

Posted on February 15, 2011 by

An NSERC evaluation group member “who would like to remain in the background” has forwarded the following memo to a colleague “who should remain anonymous” asking him if  he would forward it to the “Piece of Mind” blog. Is this … Continue reading →

Posted in R&D Policy | 2 Comments

Tea partying is busting the NSF budget

Posted on February 14, 2011 by

US House Republicans released a continuing resolution (CR) bill proposing to cut $100B from FY11 budget. How did the National Science Foundation (NSF) fare?

Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy | 1 Comment

Are headhunting firms shaping the leadership of Canada’s universities?

Posted on February 14, 2011 by

Executive search agencies, also known as headhunters, are now engaged in the recruitment of most senior administrators in Canadian universities. How important is their influence on the pool of academic leaders, and are they worth their cost?

Posted in Op-eds | 1 Comment

Innovate or perish? Not so fast

Posted on February 10, 2011 by

Kevin Lynch is back lecturing in the Financial Post on what Canada’s researchers need to do to solve the country’s economic woes, and reminiscing about his own days in government, when he was essentially running the country’s S&T agenda before … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy | 3 Comments

Buying $190 million worth of excellence

Posted on February 9, 2011 by

At the invitation of U. Alberta’s President, Indira Samarasekera, the who’s who of Canada’s political, business, academic, and media elite converged yesterday on the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa to celebrate the establishment of the Canada Excellence Research Chair Program (CERC). The official … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy | 4 Comments

UBC President puts his money where his singing voice is

Posted on February 8, 2011 by

The students were the big winners at yesterday’s UBC Board of Governors meeting. Credits go to a disciplined, focused and resourceful UBC Administration that has come a long way, and to exceptional student representatives, notwithstanding the little help that both … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors, UBC Housing Action Plan | 4 Comments

Time for textbook tycoons to give students a break

Posted on February 7, 2011 by

Students, who are often vocal against rising tuition fees, are uncharacteristically silent about the prohibitive prices of undergraduate textbooks. It is time to also speak up against the schemes employed by authors, publishers and bookstores to minimize -if not prevent- … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors, Op-eds | 9 Comments

Drunk physicists and objectified mathematicians

Posted on February 6, 2011 by

Drunk scientists can make incredible discoveries. Researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan were testing a certain compound for its “superconducting” properties, while having a little party.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Poetry, Physics and Porn

Posted on February 5, 2011 by

An Oxford scholar discovered recently that “high art and low art were packaged, sold and read together in the 18th Century”. Indeed, it turns out that the secret of success for the poetry collection, “The Works of the Earls of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments