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Monthly Archives: January 2012
“The council should be restructured with an unfaltering focus on scientific excellence, or be replaced”
… And the government should then appoint Mike Lazaridis to lead it, I may add. But first he has to be appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire! You guessed it. This is not the kind of talk that … Continue reading
A close encounter of the classy kind with Preston Manning
The place: The Doug Mitchell Hockey arena at UBC. The occasion: The University of Alberta Bears vs. the UBC Thunderbirds. Why? It’s great hockey and for a fraction of the price of Canucks tickets. The instigators: Ed and Karen Perkins, my friends … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends, Op-eds
Tagged arthur carty, Doug Mitchell, Hockey, NRC, NSERC, Preston Manning, Stephen Harper, UBC
1 Comment
It may be crunch time for the Presidents of Canada’s Research Councils
The government will continue to make “key investments in science and technology” that are necessary to sustain a “modern competitive economy,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Davos today. He then added, “but we believe that Canada’s less-than-optimal results for those investments is … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy
Tagged cihr, corporate canada, prime minister stephen harper, research pipeline, sshrc, suzanne fortier
4 Comments
Timothy Gowers: A leader for our times
Timothy Gowers is much more than an outstanding mathematician. A Fields medalist, Tim is a global thinker, an eloquent and prolific writer, a pioneer among scholars, and a leader. “Un grand homme”, the French would say. Tim is an innovator in scholarship and also … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends, Op-eds
Tagged banach space theory, scientific publishers, stefan banach, timothy gowers
3 Comments
The Business Development Bank gets into the “NSERC Act”
“First, I want to reassure you that we did not take this decision lightly. This is a decision that is made by NSERC staff, independent of the peer review process. Every year we reject applications based on mandate ineligibility. This … Continue reading
Grade inflation, instability and uncertainty in Discovery Grant competitions
It is reported that in a still embargoed presentation to the 2011 Canadian Mathematical Society meeting in Edmonton, NSERC’s President, Suzanne Fortier, cited “Grade inflation” as one of the factors for the disastrous collapse of grant levels in mathematics in the 2011 Discovery … Continue reading
Posted in R&D Policy
Tagged canadian mathematical society, grade inflation, suzanne fortier
1 Comment
You are not alone!
Yet, that’s exactly what bureaucrats want you to feel. “You are the only one complaining. You are isolating your community…”. That’s what they said when 336 mathematical scientists, 27 Canada Research Chairs and 35 fellows of the Royal Society of Canada wrote NSERC’s President … Continue reading
My opening remarks at the UBC housing forum
Various and somewhat distorted versions of my statements at yesterday’s UBC housing forum were published on several websites. I am therefore posting here the full text of my opening remarks.
You have been awarded a research grant of $1.4 billion
“How come I haven’t been reimbursed yet?”, I wrote to the organiser. More than three months have already passed since that glorious conference in Nice. Long enough to feel the pinch on the purse, but not enough to forget this luscious … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds
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My name is “Small Number” and I was born in Banff, Alberta
I am not a character from a Stanley Kubrick movie. I am “Small Number” and it was exactly on November 22d of the Year 2009, that I was born in the Canadian Rockies at the intersection of three glacial valleys at a … Continue reading
Posted in Banff International Research Station
Tagged mark maclean, sharon friesen, siksika nation
1 Comment
“Campus as a living lab”… for sound governance and common sense
Review committees for Deans and VPs should not comprise direct aides and immediate subordinates of the person under review. Besides fueling –often unwarranted yet prevalent– skepticism vis-a-vis the evaluation process, current practices have the potential to undermine it by shutting … Continue reading
Posted in Board of Governors
1 Comment
New perspectives on functional inequalities
No, this blogpost has nothing to do with social stratification and class struggle nor does it address gender or racial inequalities. It is about Mathematics. The occasion? I have finally finished a book, which has been 3 years in the … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds
6 Comments
Don Fraser, Officer of the Order of Canada
“There are too many of my students on the dance floor”. That was at a wedding party (mine!) more than twenty years ago, and Don Fraser was resisting efforts to make him dance. Many of the guests (on the dance … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends
Tagged don fraser, putnam competition, statistical researchers
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“A no-brainer, if you ask me”
That was in an email from a colleague at one of UBC’s better departments. “Gents, In your capacities as …, and BoG-dude (AKA faculty representative on the Board of Governors), have a look at these two links. A no-brainer, if you ask … Continue reading
Piece of Mind 