Category: 3. Academia
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It Does Exist!
During a trip to Porto’s Ceija I was able to confirm that one of the professorial caste’s most cherished yet elusive objects does exist: The conceptual machine. In this case, it is a 3D metal printer, and it printed this piece of hardware (and many others); this one took about 12h to finish.
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Sunday’s Ultra Short Story: That’s so Crazy!
At the doctor’s office, the nurse said: “Oh, you are a professor! That is so crazy!” I had to agree. PS: I understand that this post may feel facetious to some. To me it is comic relief that I want to share with similarly inflicted colleagues.
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Is Elsevier Getting Desperate?
I received five somewhat random review requests this morning, from the same journal, suggesting to me that the editor finds it hard to acquire reviewers for submissions. I pity the editor and feel bad for them (but they really should stop working for Elsevier). In any case, I five times essentially provided the same response,…
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How Academics Spend Their Time? Not Me.
I just read this review of how professors spend their time while working. It struck me that a key component that I spend a substantial amount of time and energy on is missing: Fund raising. Here is a visual summary of the article courtesy of someone on reddit: I first looked through other practices like…
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German Universities to Take University Rankings Serious
Germany is the best place I know to be a professor if you value your independence. Your rights have been codified in the German Basic Law (Constitution) and no dean can tell you what to do. You are your own person. On the downside, German professors and universities have been (for the most part) blissfully…
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The Economics of Financing Ph.D. Students as Company Contractors
Occasionally companies approach me with the following proposal: If I’m willing to supervise one of their employees for an external Ph.D. thesis, they’ll pay into my University budget an annual lump sum, typically something like EUR 10000. I almost always reject such proposals, unless I can change some of the critical terms, because these proposals…