We are Kings - Graduation day thoughts

On May 21st I attended my son's graduation at UCBerkeley, from the physics department.  Nick is a goofy kid.  One of the things I love about him, and my daughter, is they leaven their serious/science sides with the circus arts.  Cassandra does acro-balance (think Cirque du Soleil) and Nick does Parcour.  They both juggle - though Cassandra is the far more practiced juggler (and in fact runs a circus camp in Prescott Arizona during the summer months).  And one is studying dark matter and the other teaches middle school science.  I definitely have a mother's bias and tons of pride.

Two things struck me about the graduation.

First:  One of the PhD recipients carried her very young son in her arms as she walked the stage to receive her diploma.  The loudest cheers were for her and the wee one.  Given that the statistics from Mary Ann Mason et al.'s work indicate a child is a hindrance to a women's career, particularly in the physical sciences (while, interestingly, leading to slightly higher tenure rates for men), it is interesting that the crowd loved the image and act of this young PhD recipient - an opening of arms or show of love for children and the act of creation, as it were.

The other thing that struck me was the 'we are kings' (and perhaps queens) attitude, which was replete in the talks.  The department chairs and deans were clear that these students were tops dogs, and would achieve greatly, as representatives of the pinnacle of the scientific heap.  Even as they mentioned, multiple times, that many of them would not go into physics or astrophysics for careers.  A deft way of handling the lack of jobs they face at the professorial level.  I currently believe in innovative choices on the job market (you know, like all the physics PhDs that went to Wall Street to work, and the many entrepreneurs currently emerging).  But I wonder.  Are we moving fast enough in giving grad students the training they will really need for working well with others, in the new flat structures emerging in some of the most innovative and successful start-ups?  Will this end up being the pinnacle of their own careers for many of them?

On the flip side of that, I was also sitting with a new appreciation for the love of knowledge that was so visible to me in the room.  These students, especially the PhD recipients, have been through dark times, almost surely (see Uri Alon's great talk here).  And are emerging onto an uncertain job landscape (it's estimated that a full 60% of current PhD students and post-docs in science will have to leave science for lack of jobs).  Yet the pure love of what they get to chew on, think about, understand and explore just shone through.  I was in love with it.  I could feel the joy.  I was renewed in my feeling for 'pure thought' and intellectualism.  Hmmmm.... something to think about.

Science Headfirst

I'm Kennan Kellaris Salinero, and I'm on a mission.

The mission is to see that science takes its best - the beauty of the discovery, our love of understanding bits and pieces of the universe, creating new capabilities in the world - and elegantly outgrows its worst - the tournament model for success, arrogance, and our attraction to pedestals (and standing on them).

Why?  Several reasons. 

I have two sisters that have chronic illnesses.  Chronic illness is on the rise in general, from what I see.   

Indeed there seem to be several mysteries on the rise..... 'out of balances' that could use an elegant understanding of the whole system.  And I suggest that many of these 'out of balances' come, unintentionally and inadvertently, from science and technology itself.  Think plastics and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  Who better to deal with the outcomes of science than scientists?  We have terrific opportunities to jump in a make a difference, and I see our younger generation, and passionate 'elders' of science, doing so.  But is it enough?  Fast enough, big enough, visionary enough?

Science itself, as an industry, is experiencing fairly cataclysmic stressors.  Some say we don't have enough scientists and engineers in this country, some say we have too many.  And it's likely that your mind immediately jumped to funding and the mantra "Science needs more funding."

Ok, yes, maybe, more money is always a nice thing.

But the change I'm wishing to see and help along is in the realm of 'being.'  How are we 'being' as scientists?  And what sort of 'doing' is this prompting?

Because it's in the 'doing' of science that major change is being called forth.  How do we work together?  How do we interact with society?  How do we raise our 'young' (the next generation of scientists)?  How do we teach science?  What do we study, and what do we fail to study?  What is our reward system, and what does that promote?  What do we reward?  All of these are things we are 'doing.'  And I see a huge opportunity for a major shift in the 'doing' of science.  And I think we are ready.

So I'm out here, in a space that Michael Margolis, evangelist for narratives to get work done, describes as the heretic calling back to the tribe.  I believe we, as a community have the ability to actively create how we want science to 'be.'  By learning where we really are right now, by being present to the costs of the current way of doing things, and by calling out our best vision of what we want to be.

And really, as I do this, I'm not going Headfirst so much as I'm traveling Heartfirst.  And I invite those of you ready to do so to join me in following our hearts.  And hey, we can still use our heads.  We're scientists, right?