Author Archives: Ghoussoub

Is NSERC’s matchmaking effort leading to too many free one-night stands?

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Ghoussoub

In order to fulfill its new self-imposed mandate as a pro-active matchmaker between academic researchers and industrial outlets, NSERC introduced three years ago a program that essentially picks up the entire tab for a “first date”, albeit blind or not, between … Continue reading →

Posted in R&D Policy | 5 Comments

When the appointed can fire the elected

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Ghoussoub

This is not another post on how the commissioners of the European Union proceeded to essentially “fire” the elected prime ministers of Greece and Italy. This is about the new state of affairs in British Columbia’s public institutions for advanced … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors | Leave a comment

Living out of a suitcase for so many good reasons

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Ghoussoub

It is only 4:00 am (Pacific time) on this chilly Sunday morning, yet I am surrounded by many of British Columbia’s academic elite. Actually, we are flying back home from Ottawa, all eager to get back early enough to catch … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | 1 Comment

How to build yourself a facility on campus if you must

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Ghoussoub

The process of getting “yourself” or your department a building at a university is an enigma to most. The projects can vary from being a complex to house a major academic unit, to an infrastructure that suits your own “pet … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors | 2 Comments

The wake-up call from a crumbling ceiling

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Ghoussoub

“Dear all, The east entrance, in front of the men’s washroom of Math Annex, a portion of the ceiling has come apart and fell to the ground. This area is now out of bounds and considered to be unsafe. We … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors | 7 Comments

The spoken word vs. modern-day centurions

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Ghoussoub

The best speeches are not originating these days from the Palace of Westminster, the French National Assembly, or the US senate. And they are definitely not features of Question Period in our own House of Commons. Strasbourg has supplanted Rome as the hotbed of oratory, and … Continue reading →

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I like the new “Google Scholar Citations”

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Ghoussoub

Using “Google scholar” has always been a most frustrating experience. My publications/citations got always mixed with those of a cardiologist cousin of mine in Paris, and those of a childhood friend who founded a publishing house in London. But who … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | 4 Comments

In praise of Mr. Goodyear

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Ghoussoub

The early days of Gary Goodyear as Minister of State for Science and Technology were on the rocky side. A well publicized stormy meeting with a CAUT delegation, and a reported attempt to intervene in a peer-review process may have been lapses in … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | 6 Comments

Berkeley: An intellectual crossroad between the 99% and the 1%

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Ghoussoub

Last Friday, I gave a talk at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley, California. That the talk was at 11:00 am on 11/11/11 was a pure coincidence. That it started 11 minutes late was not. But “numerology” is … Continue reading →

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Stop wasting researchers’ time

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Ghoussoub

“It might be high time for Statistics Canada to start collecting data and measure the thousands of hours wasted by Canada’s researchers in filling forms and preparing proposals that lead to nowhere.”  That’s what I wrote many posts ago in, “The … Continue reading →

Posted in R&D Policy | 5 Comments

Canada’s granting councils: “Mission drift” and inadequate governance

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Ghoussoub

“The granting councils have played a pivotal role in developing both talent and ideas for Canada’s innovation agenda. Their core raison d’être has been and remains investigator-initiated research of both a basic and applied nature, and each needs to continue … Continue reading →

Posted in R&D Policy | 3 Comments

The market for free money is infinite

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Ghoussoub

The latest issue of “Contact” announces that only half of the $15-million federal increase to NSERC’s budget is going to the “Discovery Grant” program, even though the number of applicants to that program keeps increasing –from 3300 in 2010, to … Continue reading →

Posted in R&D Policy | 6 Comments

Andy Rooney and the skills required for fame

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Ghoussoub

Andy Rooney, a fixture of CBS for over 30 years died on Friday at the age of 92. I confess that he had been one of my favorite American characters ever since I landed on this continent 35 years ago. … Continue reading →

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Orgasmic mathematics

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Ghoussoub

No, I am not talking about the ordinary tale of the love, passion and mathematics triangle. Nor am I talking about the film, “The Rites of Love and Math” where, having realized that they are seeing each other for the last … Continue reading →

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A bottle of wine for the mathematicians!

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Ghoussoub

The waitress suddenly interrupted our lively conversation. My discussions with Helmut -a fellow mathematician and a friend for more than 25 years, who looks like a cross between St John the Baptist and Attila the Hunt– are always loud, boisterous, … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends, Op-eds | 3 Comments

The Tri-Council and CFI show Flaherty three “key directions to prosperity”

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Ghoussoub

The joint pre-budget submission by NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC and CFI to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance is now public. Entitled, “BUILDING PROSPERITY, 
Research is building a brighter future for Canadians”, the document is supposed to be the 2012 manifesto of … Continue reading →

Posted in R&D Policy | 3 Comments

The real cost of non-affordable housing in and around UBC

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Ghoussoub

One colleague wrote, “I think you will find many [such] stories among recent hires at UBC who left us due to the real estate woes, or candidates we wanted to attract who took a look at the housing prices and voted … Continue reading →

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

Could this video also be about the rest of us?

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Ghoussoub

Sometime between 2500 BC and 2000 BC, humanity took a giant leap forward, as our ancestors started understanding that numbers were pure abstractions and that one system alone was enough to count everything, i.e., the same number can be applied to … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy | 7 Comments

The “dirty reality” of math and science

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Ghoussoub

“What were you doing in Montréal?” I asked. “I gave a plenary lecture at the Congress of the Mathematical Association of Quebec on ‘L’erreur en Mathématiques’ … and I cited you a lot :)”. My friend was only half-joking! What he was talking … Continue reading →

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Canadian universities will not be “occupied”

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Ghoussoub

… at least not by faculty, and assuming that the main trigger for the “Occupy.X” movement is the following –quite eloquent– table. Indeed, I learned recently that Canadian university presidents are not always the highest paid within their institutions, and … Continue reading →

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