Academic Crisis – Judges need to be judged

Judges are in need of judgments. Recently, my student participated at an undergraduate research symposium. Our project was in the competition. He is a freshman and he just started the project with me a few months ago. I did not expect him to win. However, I do think that he had enough stuff to present and I’d be happy if he just got an honorable mention.

I have noticed that I have always held a higher standard than most people. So for me to think that he had enough stuff to present might be an understatement to others. Nevertheless, he did not even get an honorable mention at all. I found it absurd. My student was disappointed. He being only a freshman was able to tell after viewing other students’ works that his was not too bad, if not the best of all. He could not understand why those projects beat his. I tended to agree with his sentiment. The more I thought about it the more furious I became. Mind you, there are 19 branch campuses in the Penn State University College. Only 4 projects are currently funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and mine is one of them. The student has been working with me on a project that is funded by NSF. None of the other projects presented at the undergraduate research symposium is funded by NSF or NASA or any other federal agency that I am aware of. The results of our work will be ready for publication in top peer-reviewed journals. I won’t comment on the significance of other participants’ works. Suffice to say that ours can be and will be published in a few months. By the way, I am to give an invited talk at an international conference on the same project in a few months. That tells you the caliber and the quality of that project.

So what is wrong with the judges? How in the world can those judges not see the significance of our work? Well, it seems to me that nowadays people are so limited to the knowledge of their own field that they know not a thing about other fields. The other thing is that people should not judge any project when their work is in the competition. Hello, this is called “Conflicts of Interest”. It never ceased to amaze me that the academic people with a Ph.D. fail to grasp that. You do not do things that will compromise academic integrity. Everyone knows it but most people become oblivious when it comes to their own interest.

Anyway, I feel sorry for my student. I thought this would be an honest competition. I was furious that he experienced the ugly side of the academic world. Sorry to vent. But it is a morale issue in academia. More and more academic people have become less honorable in issues related to honors and awards. I feel it is time someone stood up and said something to put a stop to it.

Good Eats – More Greens Please

I was in Vienna two weeks ago. I loved their pastry among other things. It is a beautiful city. One evening, my colleagues and I sat at a dinner table and we were discussing about food in different countries. Most of them did not find any American food worth mentioning. I actually like American Steak and a hearty salad. With a glass of red wine and a roll or two, I needn’t ask for more to please my taste buds.

One of the things I missed so much when I was outside the United States was a bowl of salad with Oliver oil and Balsamic vinegar. I’ve been to quite a few countries, and surprisingly people outside the US do not eat as much green leaves salad as the Americans. In Taiwan, they don’t have the greens as in the States and the choice of salad dressing is very limited. In Corsica, their salad is in a different context. I remember one time when I was with a colleague in a café for lunch at the Lightning workshop in Corsica in 2008. I was overjoyed when I saw salad on their menu. The menu was in French, but I thought salad should be universal. How different could they be? So I ordered a salad and a sandwich. When the server placed my food on the table, I was both speechless and disappointed. It was a dish of rice with tomatoes and some herbs. “That is not salad.” I blurted it out after my initial silence. Then my colleague, who can speak French, said to me, “It is. It is a rice salad. I thought you knew and I thought that was what you wanted.” Well, I saw the word “ritz”, but I thought it was not the main thing on the plate. So instead of one side dish (which would be the salad) and the main dish, I inadvertently ordered two main dishes. Naturally, the sandwich became my dinner. Essentially, it is very hard to find places that serve good green salads outside the States.