Posts in category Research
Citations
The merits of a primitive warrior are measured by a number of enemy scalps he/she is able to demonstrate. The merits of a bisnessman are perhaps measured by the total of his/her bank accounts, but this is usually not demonstrated. The quatifier of scientific merits is relatively easy to access, at least with TU Delft subscribtion. You’d go to ISI web of knowledge, www.isiknowledge.com, and ask for somebody’s citation report. They give numbers that show how many times the creative works of prof. X have been cited by his/her colleagues. Nobody would pretend that this quantifies scientific excellence or usefulness or creativity of an individual. Yet the latter three are rather subjective, while the number of citations: here it is. This kind of vanity is more for mature researches, the number stays low while you work hard on your research and grows steadily while you hardly work. There is a certain similarity with a bank account.
So I consulted ISI to check the number for my favourite researcher (shamefully, his name is Yuli Nazarov). And look: I’ve found a nice round number of 6,000. Something rather satisfying: not that it is exceptionally high for my age, not that I find it corresponding to time and energy invested into recearch, yet it shows that the reasearch has been noticed.
The only phrase in the backgound of my mind irritates me, the phrase I have recently heard from a much more merited colleage : "Most theoretical papers are either cited or read". The irritation comes from the fact that I can not decide upon my papers: do I pferer them to be read or to be cited?
It was so much simpler to demonstrate some dried enemy scalps…
Florence – Firenze
This is of course my wife to decide where to go for a vacation. Yet I could not choose a better destination to investigate the links between science and faith, Firenze citta magnifica, that has been decaying mightly for last four houndred years but has not even reached the steepest moment of decay. Thereby presenting a good example to all Western civilizations.
Take Duomo. This is a multi-functional bulding. One of the main functions is kept from tourist crowds. To access it, you need to cross several barriers: some being in your soul, some in the Duomo. For the latter, you subsequenty talk to three guards. Those are responsive, although not in English. Finally, you get close to the relics, speaking scientifically, remains of human beings preserved for veneration. For us Orhodox the most important object was the head of St. John Chysostomos. The relics are difficult to see through jewelry of vessels and boxes. No board helps to recognize them. At some stage you recognize that the whole Duomo
is just a shell, an outer box to keep the boxes with relics. Heavenly perfect and humaly unperfect. Perhaps this is why the Florentians hardly cared about finishing it: its facade has been a painted piece of canvas for three centuries. On a more phylosophical note: are we not just shells to keep our faith in?
And now we want more science. Hit the Museum of History of Science, by far the eldest one: it has been started in 1562. Owing to endless restauro, you can see only a third of the collection ( so the entance fee is very scientifically reduced by a third). Still there is a large amount of old sci instruments from XVI to XIX century, much more than here in Delft. Yet no the original telescope of Galileo promiced. There is another thing missed on display. By tradition of times of relative harmony between science and faith, they keep the middle finger from the right hand of Galileo. Perhaps I should have argued with the guards that I am a professor of physics and ought to venerate the remain. I did not dare and also wanted to spare my wife. She has been alreary slightly confused about motivations of researches by an eldest exposure in the museum. That was a functional celestial globe. As a detail, it is being erected by a satyr, and the globe is not the only thing the satyr has erected.
Let me finish with better example of the harmony passed. In old sacristy of San Lorenzo, the eldest church in the town, one finds a detailed fresco that reproduces stars and planets in the sky with scientific accuracy. From the planet positions one reads the date: its Jule 4, 1442. Yet the significance of the date is not clear yet: more research is needed in this direction…
Kavli day
Several years ago I’ve came to Delft to work in the Department of Applied Physics. That sounded almost as Department of Physics and the organization of it was similar to that of a conventional department. There have been many changes. If the organizational changes manifested itself in morfological modifications of the subjects of organization, I would have looked like a violet-pink flying octopus.
What used to be solid-state part of department of physics is now Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, which is commonly misspelled as Kavli Institute of Neurosciene. Kavli is a rich person who likes sciences as much as helping them financially. He kindly gave a donation to us, this is why we are called Kavli Institute.
So Kavli day is kidna birthday of our organizational unit and also a way to make use of the donation. It was centered around a lecture of Michael Roukes. The title contained "Biological Integration" but it was not that bad. He just explained how to sniff with a mechnanical resonator (a kind of nano-violin) which is potentially important for drug development (I guess). It was a high-level presentation with amusing side stories.
There were activities typical for a "bedrijfsfeestje" including lunching, barbequing, exercising, biking etc. Unfortunately I had to prepare a lecture for Friday and had to skip most of it including beef well-deserved. Yet I was on time to take part in hight-light of the evening: teasing a young (Dutch) bull. Lieven Vandersypen has emerged as an unbeatable torero: newer knew him from this side.
Everything has been organized by Hans Mooij. He’s made it very instuctive by demonstrativing us hidden treasures of Delftland,real pearls not known even to Delftenaren. The lecture itself was in a 16th century church that has been used as a warehouse since 1963 and promoted to a cafe two years ago ( I recall prosecution of Chirstians by Communists, the cities of my childhood had many warenhouses of the type). A bike ride from Delft to Maasland is a pure pleasure where you discover many such treasures: just make sure that you are on the right (western) side of the channel.
A very big day today
Today was a really big day: Ph. D. defence of Jeroen Danon where I happened to be a promotor.
The day has passed in an unbelievably smooth fashion. I got up early and finally have had time to read the thesis and devise a question. The commitee members who had to come from five different cities today all did it on time and have gathered in a correct place. The rector has been very considering. The only really foreign guest we have had has managed to understand and perform all complicated manipulations with hat, did not stamp on his gown and has uttered "waarde promovendus" without any hesitation. All commitee members had polite and sensible questions. The candidate has not collapsed in the course of the event nor he even got pale. Contrary to expectations, he was polite with commitee members even in cases he did not know the answer. In last several minutes, he was kind enough to outline a theory of ideal goverment: thing we all miss. To make my day prefect, he complimented me on my speech.
So it was all good. The only sad thing is of course that Jeroen has finished. We have been working together for five years, and I will miss him. He will go to Berlin to proceed with post doctural studies and thus become a real German Beamte. We still have unfinished projects, most importantly, a textbook on Advanced Quantum Mechanics.