Chris Havergal reports today on Queen’s University Belfast plans to axe 236 (note the precision in their count) jobs and reduce student numbers by 1,010. James Field reports that the University of Surrey is to cut 100 jobs and scrap its politics department, partly using the Research Excellence Framework (REF) as a guide. Jack Grove reports that up to 165 jobs may be lost at London Metropolitan University. The University of Aberdeen is to cut about 150 jobs as part of efforts to save millions of pounds in the coming months (this item from BBC but see also my post over one protagonist).
Author: fanismis
I was born in Canada, grew up in Greece, where I studied Biology. My Ph.D. was at the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, in conjuction with the University of Guelph; I worked on reactive oxygen species within cells of the little Drosophila fly. I then moved to its handling of iron at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda Maryland; added copper, zinc, manganese and molybdenum during my first independent position at Queen Mary University of London; Presently my metal biology lab at the CINVESTAV del IPN in Mexico City is extending to the study of phosphorus, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, sodium & potasium thanks to the generosity of the Conacyt that enabled us with an inductive coupled plasma optic emmission spectrometer :)
Τώρα, μάλιστα, διπλασιαστήκαμε | Now, indeed, we have duplicated
I read today poems to Danaé (ποιήματα στη Δανάη) by Elizabeth Delgado Nazario and particularly liked this one, which I translate in English and Greek below. (more…)
Sir Christopher Snowden vs University of Surrey
Let us “refocus on current strengths”. Perhaps we were currently somewhat unfocused but nevertheless strong. Or perhaps we can “reduce” our current strengths (“staff”) to gain a more viable “student-to-staff” ratio. After all students pay more now, they need fewer teachers. (more…)
Μανταρίνια | Γιεσένια Γκαρσία
Να γράψω για ποιό σκοπό; Αυτό που έχω, ναι, είναι επιθυμία μεγάλη να πεθάνω. Κάθε μέρα την ώρα που πλένω τα πιάτα σκέφτομαι πώς να τα συμμαζέψω όλα στη θέση τους για όταν θα βρουν το πτώμα μου. Τα μάτια μου δε συναντούν κανενός άλλου πια. Βλέπω τα πάντα απομακρυσμένη σα σε ένα από εκείνα τα όνειρα που θωρείς τον ίδιο σου τον εαυτό. (more…)
Thank you Dame Marina Warner for sharing the lesson
I recommend, if you haven’t done so already, to read Marina’s new article in the London Review of Books – Learning My Lesson (also available as a podcast if you prefer). To someone injured from the rough discovery that Queen Mary was successfully turned from a community of scholars advancing knowledge into a money-making enterprise (its Principal stating in a letter to all staff a few days ago “Given this context, it is encouraging to report that our audited accounts for the last Financial Year (2013/14) show an operating surplus (after removing one-off items) of just under £14.9 million…”) finding out that there are like-minded individuals who expose the crude barbarism of the sector’s appalling clique of bankers (as in most principals, vice-principals and their private aids) sounds like Orphic music, like reaching the peak of the Alps and gazing down the view, an eagle flying beneath reflecting the sun. I write to express a silent feeling of gratitude to you Marina.
Αλέξης Τσίπρας: τα σύμβολα, οι ελπίδες, η πολιτική, η αριστερά
Σύμβολα
Ο νέος πρωθυπουργός της Ελλάδας
την πρώτη μέρα άφησε ένα λουλούδι
στο σκοπευτήριο της Καισαριανής
τιμή στους εκτελεσμένους Κομμουνιστές.
Ο ραδιοφωνικός σταθμός το Κόκκινο
παίζει κάθε μέρα σιγανοσφύριγμα
τη μελωδία της τρίτης διεθνούς.
“Στο nein των Γερμανών
πρέπει ένα όχι των Ελλήνων.” (more…)
I know more dead people than alive
This poem is about two scientists
who live in different countries
work under different conditions
———-on different problems
—-and with different ideological perspectives
————————————of the world
A visit to the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences
Last week I visited colleagues that continue to work at my former department. I and others had our affiliations severed following the restructuring of SBCS in 2012. My trip coincided with the publication of the names of individuals (and their contributed papers) representing SBCS in a major UK government evaluation, known as the REF. It is therefore unsurprising that conversations centred, amongst other things, to an evaluation of the REF outcomes for the department and the effects the restructuring had on its performance. Some of the comments I heard are difficult to transmit without placing valued colleagues or myself at risk of further reprisals. In this category I place important matters such as the wellbeing (health) of friends who have been put under “performance management” or subjective views on the dramatic shift in what is being valued and rewarded within the restructured department.
πολιτικοποιημένη μυγοσκοτώστρα
Είναι σωστό και λογικό
μερικά δικά μου προβλήματα
αδιάφορη να σε αφήνουν.
Κι ούτε σε ποίμα σύνηθες είναι να γράφονται
τέτοιου είδους σκέψεις
που εδώ ακολουθούν.
Μα, ελπίζω το γνωρίζεις ήδη,
στους συνηθισμένους δε συγκαταλέχθηκα ποτέ.
New facet of scientific illiteracy
In Mexico, bean-counting is also referred to as puntitis (Jorge Quevedo) or cuentachilismo (Marcelino Cereijido). My local colleague and celebrated author has created with his student Claudia Edwards a three-paragraph gem on the stupidity of bureaucratic managerialism in science. You can read it in Spanish here. The text is so good that I have translated the 5 concrete examples of “modern” stupidity below. The international reader will instantly see that the crisis Pirincho (as Marcelino is also known to his friends) describes is by no means a “third world” problem.
fanismissirlis 