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Recent Posts
- Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann 1945-2022
- UBC Campus Vision 2050, in a word, lacks vision
- Louis Nirenberg (1925-2020)
- UBC: The ill-fated revolt of those who ought to know better
- Shiny, happy, oblivious science
- NSERC has lost its bearings … again
- The Learning & Research of the UBC Board of Governors (II)
- The Learning & Research committee of the UBC Board: What a difference a year makes (I)
- UBC: Failures in governance are slowing down the pace of academic renewal
- A research community at the mercy of a leaderless NSERC
- A busy first four months on the UBC Board of Governors
- Academic publishing in the time of sanctions and boycotts
- Maurice Sion: 1927 – 2018
- Robert M. Miura: 1938 – 2018
- When the Walls of Governance Come Crumbling Down
- Why I am voting against the tuition increases for domestic students
- Resignation of the director of the Wall Institute: The reaction
- Why I am resigning from the directorship of the Wall institute
- Accountability and Governance at UBC: Budget
- NSERC corrects a mistake, but many remain unaddressed
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Author Archives: Ghoussoub
Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann 1945-2022
My friend and fellow mathematician, Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann, passed away peacefully on the 17th of June. She had been suffering from Parkinson disease since 2007. Nicole received her Master’s (1968) and Ph.D. (1974) degrees from Warsaw University, where she held … Continue reading
Posted in Banff International Research Station, Honouring friends
Tagged Mathematics
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UBC Campus Vision 2050, in a word, lacks vision
By Professor Christopher Rea June 22, 2022 Dear Ms. McKenzie, President Ono, and Members of the Board of Governors: This is our “I have a dream” moment on campus housing. It is an opportunity for UBC to solve its existential … Continue reading
Louis Nirenberg (1925-2020)
By Professor Ivar Ekeland, le 17 Avril 2020 Nous sommes nombreux, en ce jour de janvier, à avoir reçu le message : « Louis est mort cette nuit ». On ne parlait pas encore du COVID-19, qui était encore confiné … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends, Uncategorized
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UBC: The ill-fated revolt of those who ought to know better
“We the undersigned are writing to express deep concern with the lack of transparency regarding the decision on the renewal of the Provost”. This looks like an ordinary enough preface to a standard petition signed by the usual “rebellious” suspects at a North American university. … Continue reading
Shiny, happy, oblivious science
by Dr. Jim R. Woodgett The government of Canada released a budget on April 19th, 2021, the first for two years. It was, as anticipated, a high spending, deficit projecting budget that clears the ground for pandemic recovery with its centre … Continue reading
NSERC has lost its bearings … again
The last time I used this title was in 2012. Canada’s Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) had grown embarrassed by the dwindling success rate in its postdoctoral fellowship program, the latest having clocked in at 7.8%. So, Suzanne Fortier, … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy
Tagged cihr, EDI, NSERC, postdoctoral fellowships, Tri-council
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The Learning & Research of the UBC Board of Governors (II)
(This post is a slightly updated version of an article that appeared on October 10 in The Ubyssey). On September 12, I resigned from the Chair of the Learning and Research (L&R) Committee of the Board. I chose to do … Continue reading
Posted in Board of Governors
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The Learning & Research committee of the UBC Board: What a difference a year makes (I)
“You had demanded to chair the Learning and Research Committee,” the Chair of the Board proclaimed at last week’s open meeting of a Board’s committee. You bet I did, I replied, “because the reason I ran for the Board one more time … Continue reading
UBC: Failures in governance are slowing down the pace of academic renewal
I had promised many things to those who elected me to the Board of Governors as a faculty representative for UBC-Vancouver. But as I mentioned in a previous post, a data dump from the faculty association last October opened my eyes … Continue reading
A research community at the mercy of a leaderless NSERC
The bureaucrats of a leaderless NSERC have extended the 5-year grants of three research institutes by two years. This amounts to assigning awards exceeding $7,500,000. They have done so without peer review and against the wishes of one of their … Continue reading
A busy first four months on the UBC Board of Governors
Things are different from my earlier 2008-14 term on the Board of Governors, but I still don’t know exactly why. The 2015-17 “revolt of the faculty” has surely been a factor. The UBClean campaign was triggered by questionable actions of … Continue reading
Posted in Board of Governors, Op-eds
Tagged Faculty headcount, Housing Action Plan, Tuition, UBC, ubc board of governors
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Academic publishing in the time of sanctions and boycotts
On December 7th, the academic publisher Taylor & Francis informed two authors that they are unable to publish their mathematical research paper, even though it had been accepted by the editorial board of one of its journals two years after submission … Continue reading
Maurice Sion: 1927 – 2018
Maurice Sion was a very dear friend and a distinguished colleague in the mathematics department at the University of British Columbia. He died peacefully in his sleep on April 20, 2018. Maurice retired from UBC in 1989, after a career … Continue reading
Robert M. Miura: 1938 – 2018
I just got word that my friend and colleague, Robert Miura, passed away on November 25th. Robert was born in Selma, California, to an immigrant family from Japan. When he was three years old, he and his family were sent … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends
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When the Walls of Governance Come Crumbling Down
“We are deeply disappointed that Janis Sarra has had to step down as Director of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies … Like her, we will all work to secure the academic independence of the Institute and its programs, … Continue reading
Posted in Board of Governors, R&D Policy
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Why I am voting against the tuition increases for domestic students
During my previous two terms on the UBC Board of Governors from 2008 to 2014, I always voted in support of the administration’s maximum government-allowable 2% increases in tuition fees for domestic students. But things are different this time. The … Continue reading
Resignation of the director of the Wall Institute: The reaction
The Board of Trustees of the Wall Institute is trying to reach out to a revolted UBC community by announcing a one-year moratorium on the changes they had dictated, only a week ago, to Director Philippe Tortell. This had led to … Continue reading
Posted in Board of Governors, Op-eds
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Why I am resigning from the directorship of the Wall institute
By Professor Philippe Tortell Universities are places where imagination and unconstrained thinking converge to produce major advancements in fundamental knowledge. Intellectual breakthroughs hide in unusual places, and often appear when they are most unexpected. For this reason, the University must … Continue reading
Posted in Board of Governors, Op-eds
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Accountability and Governance at UBC: Budget
By Professor Mark Thomson Mac Lean Over the past months I have become increasingly concerned about the disparity between UBC’s growing tuition revenues and enormous budget surpluses, and the struggles that many academic departments face in meeting their teaching and … Continue reading
Posted in Board of Governors, Op-eds, R&D Policy
Tagged Budget model failures, Faculty’s enrolments, Governance, UBC, University Act
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NSERC corrects a mistake, but many remain unaddressed
No, I am not talking about the sudden and probably more consequential recent change in NSERC’s leadership, but about an accounting mistake. Yes, it looks minor, but it speaks volume. As I mentioned in a previous post, I resigned last … Continue reading
Posted in Banff International Research Station, R&D Policy, Uncategorized
Tagged AARMS, BIRS, CRM, CTRMS, EG, Fields, LRP, Mathematics, MSLC, NSERC Discovery, PIMS, research, science, Statistics
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Piece of Mind 