They appear, but once every few months, but not every episode. This particular job of being a research professor in theoretical physics has ceased to be a good fit for me. In part, it's because they're read by the host who the audience has developed a trusting relationship with. Much harder than fundamental physics, or complex systems. +1 301.209.3100, 1305 Walt Whitman Road But it was a great experience for me, too, teaching a humanities course for the first time. And part of it was because no one told me. There's nobody working on using insights from the foundation of quantum mechanics to help understand quantum gravity, or at least, very, very few people. That was great, a great experience. Please contact us for information about accessing these materials. I care a lot about the substance of the scientific ideas being accurately portrayed. Sean Carroll, a Cal Tech physicist denied tenure a few years back at Chicago writes a somewhat bitter guide on "How To Get Tenure at a Major Research University."While it applies somewhat less . We'll measure it." In other words, of course, as the population goes up, there's more ideas. What you have to understand is that Carroll isn't just untenured, he's untenurable. In my mind, there were some books -- like, Bernard Schutz wrote a book, which had this wonderful ambition, and Jim Hartle wrote a book on teaching general relativity to undergraduates. I certainly have very down-to-Earth, standard theoretical physics papers I want to write. (2020) A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You.Princeton University Press. If you've been so many years past your PhD, or you're so old, either you're hired with tenure, or you're not hired on the faculty. And the High-z supernova team, my friends, Bob Kirshner, and Brian, and Adam, and so forth, came to me, and were like, "You know, you're a theorist. In fact, the short shield solution, the solution that you get in general relativity for spherically symmetric matter distribution, is exactly the same in this new theory as it was in general relativity. We don't understand economics or politics. I took all the courses, and I had one very good friend, Ted Pine, who was also in the astronomy department, and also interested in all the same things I was. [37] We are committed to the preservation of physics for future generations, the success of physics students both in the classroom and professionally, and the promotion of a more scientifically literate society. Sean, for my last question, looking forward, I want to reflect on your educational trajectory, and the very uncertain path from graduate school to postdoc, to postdoc to the University of Chicago. First, this conversation has been delightfully void of technology. [11], He has appeared on the History Channel's The Universe, Science Channel's Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, Closer to Truth (broadcast on PBS),[12] and Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Sean, in your career as a mentor to graduate students, as you noted before, to the extent that you use your own experiences as a cautionary tale, how do you square the circle of instilling that love of science and pursuing what's most interesting to you within the constraints of there's a game that graduate students have to play in order to achieve professional success? They met every six months while you were a graduate student, after you had passed your second-year exam. So, I think that when I was being considered for tenure, people saw that I was already writing books and doing public outreach, and in their minds, that meant that five years later, I wouldn't be writing any more papers. It never really bothered me that much, honestly. Usually the professor has a year to look for another job. Carroll provides his perspective on why he did not achieve tenure there, and why his subsequent position at Caltech offered him the pleasure of collaborating with top-flight faculty members and graduate students, while allowing the flexibility to pursue his wide-ranging interests as a public intellectual involved in debates on philosophy, religion, and politics; as a writer of popular science books; and as an innovator in the realm of creating science content online. A lot of people in science moved their research focus over to something pandemic or virus related. What do I want to optimize for, now that I am being self-reflective about it? So, I wrote up a little proposal, and I sent it to Katinka Matson, who is an agent with the Brockman Group, and she said something which I think is true, now that I know the business a lot better, which was, "It's true maybe it's not the perfect book, but people have a vague idea that there has been the perfect book. Maybe it's them. He explains the factors that led to his undergraduate education at Villanova, and his graduate work at Harvard, where he specialized in astronomy under the direction of George Field. There were some hints, and I could even give you another autobiographical anecdote. The University of Chicago Magazine That just didn't happen. Carroll teamed up with Steven Novella, a neurologist by profession and known for his skepticism,; the two argued against the motion. And I didn't. We never wrote any research papers together, but that was a very influential paper, and it was fun to work with Bill. Chun filed an 18-page appeal to Vice Adm. Sean Buck, the Naval Academy . Like I said, we had hired great postdocs there. So, like I said, I really love topology. Absolutely, for me, I'm an introvert. But the astronomy department, again, there were not faculty members doing early universe cosmology at Harvard, in either physics or astronomy. Now, next year, I'll get a job. So, it made it easy, and I asked both Alan and Eddie. It's a research institute in Santa Fe that is devoted to the study of complexity in all its forms. So, yeah, we wrote a four-author paper on that. As the advisor, you can't force them into the mold you want them to be in. We wrote a little particle physics model of dark matter that included what is now called dark energy interacting with each other, and so forth. There were two sort of big national universities that I knew that were exceptions to that, which were University of Chicago, and Rice University. But I have a conviction that understanding the answer to those questions, or at least appreciating that they are questions, will play a role -- again, could very easily play a role, because who knows, but could very easily play a role in understanding what we jokingly call the theory of everything, the fundamental nature of all the forces and the nature of space time itself. A defense of philosophical naturalism, a brand of naturalism, like a poetic naturalism. So, to say, well, here's the approach, and this is what we should do, that's the only mistake I think you can make. Some of the papers we wrote were, again, very successful. Again, while I was doing it, I had no idea that it would be anything other than my job, but afterward -- this is the thing. Some of them might be. Russell Wilson reportedly asked Seahawks to fire Pete Carroll for Sean When I got there, we wrote a couple of papers tighter. There's still fundamental questions. And the other thing was honestly just the fact that I showed interest in things other than writing physics research papers. However, because I am intentionally and dynamically moving into other areas, not just theoretical physics, I can totally use the podcast to educate myself. A coalition of graduate students and scholars sent a letter to the university condemning the decision at the time. Sean Carroll. I think we only collaborated on two papers. Honestly, maybe they did, but I did always have a slightly "I'll be fine" attitude. Here is a sort of embarrassing but true story, which, I guess, this is the venue to tell these things in. Graduate school is a different thing. What Is It Like To Be Denied Tenure as a Professor? Well, I do, but not so much in the conventional theoretical physics realm, for a couple reasons. That's what I am. Reply Insider . Having all these interests is a wonderful thing, but it's not necessarily most efficacious for pursuing a traditional academic track. I see this over and over again where I'm on a committee to hire someone new, and the physicists want to hire a biophysicist, and all these people apply, and over and over again, the physicists say, "Is it physics?" You're old. That's what supervenience means. Given how productive you've been over the past ten months, when we look to the future, what are the things that are most important to you that you want to return to, in terms of normality? That's my secret weapon, that I can just write the papers I want to write. Once that happened, I got several different job offers. Well, it's true. Philosophical reflections on the nature of reality, and the origin of the universe, and things like that. We make it so hard, and I think that's exactly counterproductive. You were hired with the expectation that you would get tenure. You can't be everything, and maybe what I was a cosmologist. So, I could call up Jack Szostak, Nobel Prize winning biologist who works on the origin of life, and I said, "I'm writing a book. You're looking under the lamppost. They'll hire you as a new faculty member, not knowing exactly what you're going to do, but they're like, alright, let's see. So, then, I could just go wherever I wanted. Do you have any pointers to work that's already been done?" I don't want to say anything against them. The statement added, "This failure is especially . It's taken as a given that every paper will have a different idea of what that means. The University of Chicago, which is right next to Fermilab, they have almost no particle physics. And the simplest way to do that is what's called the curvature scalar. The only person who both knows the physics well enough and writes fast enough to do that is you." Parenthetically, a couple years later, they discovered duality, and field theory, and string theory, and that field came to life, and I wasn't working on that either, if you get the theme here. His research focuses on issues in cosmology, field theory, and gravitation. Last month, l linked to a series of posts about my job search after tenure denial, and how I settled into my current job. Young people. Not a 100% expectation. Amy Bishop and the Trauma of Tenure Denial | Psychology Today I have a lot of graduate students. And that really -- the difference that when you're surprised like that, it causes a rethink. The first paper I ever wrote and got published with George Field and Roman Jackiw predicted exactly this effect. It was just -- could that explain away both the dark matter and the dark energy, by changing gravity when space time was approximately flat? ", "2014 National Convention Los Angeles Freedom From Religion Foundation", "Responding to Sean Carroll: What If There Had Been a Camera at the Resurrection? I think that Santa Fe should be the exception rather than the rule. I think that the secret to teaching general relativity to undergraduates is it's not that much different from teaching it to graduate students, except there are no graduate students in the audience. But the idea that there's any connection with what we do as professional scientists and these bigger questions about the nature of reality is just not one that modern physicists have. It was a lot of fun because there weren't any good books. Sean, I'm curious if you think podcasting is a medium that's here to stay, or are we in a podcast bubble right now, and you're doing an amazing job riding it? College Park, MD 20740 Steve Weinberg tells me something very different from Michael Turner, who tells me something very different from Paul Steinhardt, who tells me something very different from Alan Guth. Well, I just did the dumbest thing. For example, Sean points out that publishing in more than one field only hurts your chance, because most people in charge of hiring resents breadth and want specializers. They decide to do physics for a living. I will get water while you're doing that. Actually, without expecting it, and honestly, between you and me, it won it not because I'm the best writer in the world, but because the Higgs boson is the most exciting particle in the world. She said, "John is right, and I was also right. Well, that's not an experimental discovery. No one would buy that book, so we're not going to do it." So, sometimes, you should do what you're passionate about, and it will pay off. For the biologist, see, Last edited on 23 February 2023, at 10:29, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, getting engaged in public debates in wide variety of topics, The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity, From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time, The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World, The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself, Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime, "Caltech Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics Faculty Page", "Atheist Physicist Sean Carroll: An Infinite Number of Universes Is More Plausible Than God", "On Sean Carroll's Case for Naturalism and against Theism", "William Lane Craig & Sean Carroll debate God & Cosmology - Unbelievable? They need it written within six months so it can be published before the discovery is announced. It's sort of the most important ideas there but expressed in a way which was hopefully a lot more approachable and user-friendly, and really with no ambition other than letting people learn the subject. So, how did you square that circle, or what kinds of advice did you get when you were on the wrong side of these trends about having that broader perspective that is necessary for a long-term academic career? This philosophical question is vitally important to the debate over the causal premiss. I think people like me should have an easier time. The whole thing was all stapled together, and that was my thesis. Why do people get denied tenure? Measure all the matter in the universe. But they did know that I wrote a textbook in general relativity, a graduate-level textbook. He wasn't bothered by the fact that you are not a particle physicist. You really have to make a case. So, George was randomly assigned to me. Everyone knew it was going to be exciting, but it was all brand new and shiny, and Ed would have these group meetings. But anyway, I never really seriously tried to change advisors from having George Field as my advisor. He was doing intellectual work in the process of public outreach, which is really, really hard, and he was just a master at it as well as being an extremely accomplished planetary scientist, and working with NASA and so forth. But it needs to be mostly the thing that gets you up out of bed in the morning. It denied her something she earned through hard work and years of practice. But it's less important for a postdoc hire. It doesn't always work. I think that's one of the reasons why we hit it off. I don't think they're trying to do bad things. They go every five years, and I'm not going try to renew my contract. The other thing, just to go back to this point that students were spoiled in the Harvard astronomy department, your thesis committee didn't just meet to defend your thesis. Polchinski was there, David Gross arrived, Gary Horowitz, and Andy Strominger was still there at the time. We also have dark matter pulling the universe together, sort of the opposite of dark energy. When I went to graduate school at Harvard, of course, it was graduate school, but I could tell that the undergraduate environment was entirely different. What I wanted to do was to let them know how maybe they could improve the procedure going forward. I was an astronomy major, so I didn't have to take them. So, he started this big problems -- I might have said big picture, but it's big problems curriculum -- where you would teach to seniors an interdisciplinary course in something or another. That's okay. I guess, the final thing is that the teaching at that time in the physics department at Harvard, not the best in the world. I wrote about supergravity, and two-dimensional Euclidian gravity, and torsion, and a whole bunch of other different things. I'm definitely not going to be at Caltech, even two years from now. [57][third-party source needed], This article is about the theoretical physicist. I think it's perfectly rational in that sense. Who knows? It's just like being a professor. This transcript is based on a tape-recorded interview deposited at the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics. This is really what made Cosmos, for example, very, very special at the time. I played a big role in the physics frontier center we got at Chicago. That would be great. So, for the last part of our talk, I want to ask a few broadly retrospective questions about your career, and then a few looking forward. Whereas the accelerated universe was a surprise. That was always temporary. Shared Services: Increased the dollars managed by more than 500% through a shared services program that capitalizes on both the cost . And I want to write philosophy papers, and I want to do a whole bunch of other things. No one expects that small curvatures of space time, anything interesting should happen at all. And he says, "Yeah, I saw that. She's very, very good. So, I honestly just can't tell you what the spark was. Had it been five years ago, that would have been awesome, but now there's a lot of competition. Carroll conveys the various push and pull factors that keep him busy in both the worlds of academic theoretical physics and public discourse. We have been very, very bad about letting people know that. Wildly enthusiastic reception. That's one of the things that I wanted to do. I was hired to do something, and for better or for worse, I do take what I'm hired to do kind of seriously. When I went to MIT, it was even worse. That was a glimpse of what could be possible. If the most obvious fact about the candidate you're bringing forward is they just got denied tenure, and the dean doesn't know who this person is, or the provost, or whatever, they're like, why don't you hire someone who was not denied tenure.
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