Stack Exchange
log in

Wolfgang Bangerth

 Discussion between cgb5436 and Bryan …

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Jan 18 04:25
As far as it being a professional obligation to respond to emails: I think nearly everyone here would like to see it that way too. And perhaps some actually do, but it's a chore: For example, I get about one to two emails a day from someone asking to join my research group as a PhD student or postdoc. I actually do answer these emails, but it eats 5 minutes of my every day. I do understand those of my colleagues who think that's too much.
 

 Discussion on question by lee jia she…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Sep 10, 2024 15:33
The short answer then is that your paper is "quack science", and I would suggest you take a look at this question on this forum, along with the many highly rated comments and answers: academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18491/… My suggestion therefore would be to critically consider whether the problem could, just perhaps, be with you instead of the professor you've been interacting with.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Sep 10, 2024 15:33
In fact, just skimming the rest of the paper, I see that it continues along similar lines: Short arguments that seem to prove wrong much of what people have believed to be correct for a long time, and have put a lot of work into -- it is of course conceivable that they were all wrong, but it does not seem very likely and even less likely that relatively straightforward considerations like yours are all it takes to upset the course of mathematics.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Sep 10, 2024 15:33
But I can say something about the documented you posted at researchgate.net/publication/… . You get straight to the point that the claim Cantor made some 150 years ago about the cardinality of the integers is wrong. I do not need to check the details: If the best mathematicians, over the course of these 150 years, have accepted Cantor's argument as true, a two-paragraph statement to the contrary cannot be true.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Sep 10, 2024 15:33
There is a lot to unpack in this question and in the comments on @buffy's answer. In particular, you don't give any details on the interaction with the professor who you claim "lied" to you and "cheated". As a consequence, we cannot say much about what that person did or didn't do, and whether that was ethical.
 

 Discussion on answer by Wolfgang Bang…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Apr 25, 2024 16:29
Let's just all agree that we disagree about this. It is certainly common for faculty to have dinner parties. If @Trunk doesn't see value in those, they're welcome to neither host nor participate. The rest of us can enjoy occasional social interaction.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Apr 25, 2024 16:29
@trunk There is a difference between having a close social connection (or, god forbid, an affair) and coming to someone's house for a ten minute inspection of a kitchen. In any case, all of my graduate students have been to my house for dinner (not individually, but as a group), and that is pretty typical. I don't think anyone would consider this inappropriate.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Apr 25, 2024 16:29
@AgniusVasiliauskas Indeed having a comparable quote that illustrates typical going rates for kitchens attached to the email is even better.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Apr 25, 2024 16:29
Yes, like @Brondahl says. The department head (or whatever other official at the university you may want to choose) is only there to receive the document and archive it, with a time stamp.
 

 Discussion on answer by Wolfgang Bang…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Dec 1, 2023 22:42
@justhalf The table you link to states the following median salaries for Computers/Mathematics: 73000 (Bachelor), 90000 (Masters), 90000 (Professional degree), 104000 (PhD). I think this supports my thesis amply.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Dec 1, 2023 22:42
@Pronte The point I'm trying to make is that the only person being harmed by this protest is the OP themselves. Nobody will care very much about someone choosing not to graduate, because (as other answers have pointed out) many students do not actually graduate. There are other forms of protest that do not incur a substantial life-long cost (monetary or otherwise) to the OP.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Dec 1, 2023 22:42
@user111388 The statement is perhaps not individually true, but statistically it is.
 

 Discussion on answer by Anonymous Phy…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Oct 14, 2023 20:39
@CaptainEmacs I'll also add that while academia should still be a refuge for the less well adapted (as you say), that's not at all an excuse to behave poorly. Every abuser you excuse and shelter means a dozen victims whose life you make miserable.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Oct 14, 2023 20:39
@CaptainEmacs Pretend for a moment that he was terminated because he didn't just make a junior colleague cry, but sexually harassed others. You're not likely going to hear about it -- it's a personnel matter. You can express your regret, and you can tell that person that, but in reality unless you're the one that filed the complaint that caused the issue, whatever you do is not likely going to have any kind of impact.
 

 Discussion on answer by tedder42: Why…

Imported from a comment discussion on aviation.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Jun 26, 2023 21:33
I will note that people working with Uranium (depleted or not, but pure) handle substantial volumes of the material routinely with just rubber gloves (=zero shielding for gamma radiation). The stuff really isn't all that radioactive. It is, for example, widely used for tank-penetrating ammunition. All of this is of course vastly different for the uranium that comes out of nuclear reactors, which is contaminated by stuff with far shorter half-lives (=far higher radioactivity).
Wolfgang Bangerth
Jun 26, 2023 21:33
@Chris-RegenerateResponse Separately: Your argument isn't quite right. Ab absorption coefficient of 0.81/cm means that after 1/0.81=1.23cm, radiation will have decreased to a fraction 1/e=0.37. So the radiation from the far side of your half inch will have already been reduced by 63%.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Jun 26, 2023 21:33
@Chris-RegenerateResponse Of those 68% of radiation, approximately half is emitted in a direction that points into the interior of the object where it is absorbed. Of course, if you happened to have several of these objects next to each other, that fraction may be even larger.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Jun 26, 2023 21:33
The shielding for the beta and gamma radiation is ... the uranium itself. What matters for radiation is the density of the matter shielding the radiation, which is why we typically use lead for the purpose. But given its density, uranium turns out to be a very good shielding material as well. In practice, the vast majority of the 100 mCi mentioned above are well shielded; only a rather small fraction from a thin layer of material close to the surface will be able to escape. In other words, what matters is the dose that escapes, not the dose the uranium produces.
 

 Discussion on question by Timmy: What…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Apr 20, 2023 17:05
I'm with @JochenGlueck on that last point. The average 9-month salary of a full professor in mathematics at R1 universities is $120k or so -- about twice the median 12-month salary in the United States. Surely that does not qualify as a "very low" salary, and to claim that it is is whining at a rather high level.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Apr 20, 2023 17:05
I don't think this is an Academia question. Basically, it is a question of the sort "I am unemployed for a few months, how should I make some money?"
 

 Discussion on question by Confused: M…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Feb 18, 2023 23:38
@BobJarvis-СлаваУкраїні Comparisons with Einstein almost universally fail to be useful.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Feb 18, 2023 23:38
Taking a "gap year" is only useful if you had a reasonable expectation that the outcome of your job applications would be different next year than this year. How are you going to make sure that that is the case?
 

 Discussion on question by user166593:…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Jan 10, 2023 19:42
Suggestion: Whenever you say something like "has become increasingly central to higher education in the United States", make sure that that is actually true. Is DEI really central? I don't think so.
 

 Discussion on question by elite: A ra…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Dec 31, 2022 16:41
It is impossible for me to discern from this long list of comments what is going on. If you want answers, write it all up in one, well-worded post that contains all of the information you have. It is not possible to get this information from a long back and forth in the form of comments.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Dec 31, 2022 16:41
As others have already mentioned, you need to say more about the reasons for retraction. I take it from your description that the supervisor is not a co-author on the paper, but is requesting retraction -- that is odd, and one can only assume that the journal retracted the article because the supervisor had good reasons to suggest retraction based on fraudulent data, research misconduct, or similar. But we really don't know, and unless you tell us, we cannot suggest anything.
 

 Discussion on question by Hassan Abed…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Dec 6, 2022 00:51
Surely it must be a troll question to ask whether you can let a machine write part of your publication.
 

 Discussion on question by Evgenii Gad…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Oct 21, 2022 04:58
@Lodinn Yes. Sanctions are ethically fraught. So is not imposing sanctions.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Oct 19, 2022 19:42
Personally, I have great sympathy for OP. (In parts because the university of Stuttgart is my hometown uni, and I think it'd be a great opportunity for them to learn and work there.)
Wolfgang Bangerth
Oct 19, 2022 19:41
The same goes both ways, of course: Russia turning off gas deliveries to Western Europe hurts innocent bystanders. The goal of these sanctions is to turn the population in Western Europe against their governments and to force them to adopt policies that are less against Russia. In all of this, Russia has no animus towards individual Europeans. Likewise, the German government might not care personally about OP, but wants OP to complain to the Russian government about the loss of opportunities.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Oct 19, 2022 19:40
Second, sanctions are not based on personal considerations. While OP here may very well have sentiments against the current Russian government, sanctions are targeted both at those who currently support a government, and those who might change it. That's why so many Russian oligarchs have lost control of their yachts: If they get mad at the current government because of the loss of money, then good: That's what the sanctions were intended to do.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Oct 19, 2022 19:38
I'll add to my comment way up there the following: First, quantum computing must be considered sensitive technology due to its applications in (or against) cryptography. Whether or not Russia is interested in supporting research in this direction is a secondary consideration, and I think it is not unreasonable for Germany to decide that it doesn't want to support Russian nationals to develop such technology.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Oct 19, 2022 14:06
The problematic part, of course, is that (i) Germany's concerns about spies, information that is sensitive from a military perspective, etc, are all completely legitimate, and (ii) there is no right to obtain a visa of any kind anywhere in the world. Granting a visa is completely within the purview of the state, and that state does not generally have to explain its reasoning when denying a visa. It can also not be forced to reconsider.
 

 Discussion on answer by EarlGrey: How…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Sep 14, 2022 02:40
The second position description is indeed for a full-time book editor position. This is not comparable to a journal editorship.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Sep 14, 2022 02:40
@EarlGrey I'm also not paid as the editor-in-chief of a mathematical journal, and I don't know anyone else who is. We're all just volunteers. But even if we were paid, it is just a job. People don'e DROP EVERYTHING AND RESPOND RIGHT NOW even if they are paid for a job. You've got to give people time.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Sep 14, 2022 02:40
The editor is no more likely to DROP EVERYTHING AND RESPOND RIGHT NOW if the email is from an administrative assistant at the publisher than if the email is from an author. People have other things in their lives going on as well.
 

 Discussion on answer by Wolfgang Bang…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Jan 26, 2022 23:24
No, it does not. Some advisers may be unreasonable, but most advisers are not in fact unreasonable. I think I can say that without equivocation after 15 years on the faculty.
 

 Discussion on answer by Ian Sudbery: …

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Jan 13, 2022 16:41
It's at least a case study in "choosing words that are not controversial" for things that one considers important.
 

 Discussion on answer by Wolfgang Bang…

Imported from a comment discussion on academia.stackexchange.c...
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 19, 2021 02:41
"long-term positions" -> "long-term faculty positions".
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 19, 2021 01:21
@Szabolcs You accuse me of not caring, but that's just not true. I've mentored six postdocs, all of whom I greatly care about. Of those, two are in long-term positions and three others have long-term stable jobs for which they are outstandingly well qualified. The sixth is on the right track. I just don't believe that we should only take in as many postdocs as there are faculty positions, primarily because I don't see taking any other job than a faculty job as a failure. There are many other rewarding and satisfying careers you can get into from a postdoc position.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 19, 2021 01:21
@jhin Moving money from graduate students to postdocs also requires changing budgets. It's not like a university gets a single bucket of money and can then decide what it wants to do with it. Universities get dozens or hundreds of different buckets, all associated with restrictions on how and on whom they can be spent, from state governments. Then universities get thousands more buckets in the form of federal grants (talking about the US at least), each of which also have restrictions whether money can be spent on graduate student, postdoc, or faculty salaries.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 19, 2021 01:21
@Szabolcs I went through the system too, with all of its uncertainty. I didn't enjoy it. But I don't think that it is fundamentally unfair. I think that by and large, the best postdoc candidates get faculty positions, substantial issues with diversity notwithstanding. I see no reason to believe that every postdoc deserves a faculty position or would even be qualified for a faculty position. I've seen many applications that simply weren't competitive.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 19, 2021 01:21
@jhin I think it is wrong to focus on the ratio of phd vs postdoc positions. A better question to ask is whether there are too many or too little of either.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 19, 2021 01:21
@jhin But why would we need more postdoc positions? And what would be the societal benefit for reducing the number of training spots for graduate students? Companies very much like to hire them, at very good salaries. States benefit if their universities educate them.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 19, 2021 01:21
@Kvothe Selection happens at every level. Second-level managers are also already highly selected, yet there are many more of them than CEOs. Only a few of them become CEO themselves, even though they are all already highly selected and qualified.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 19, 2021 01:21
@Szabolcs It would be a weird system where every postdoc actually gets a faculty position. That means that even those who turn out to be unqualified get a job. You would expect that supply is higher than demand so that employers have a choice. (Similarly, you wouldn't expect every student with a 2.0 GPA to get a job that requires a college education.)
 

 Discussion on "state support for scho…

Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 11, 2020 21:11
Ah, interesting!
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 11, 2020 20:42
Separately, do you happen to know whether these balanced budget requirements are relatively recent inventions (say, the last 40 years) or substantially older?
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 11, 2020 20:42
@BryanKrause -- right, which is why so many states are all in the same pickle right now. A consequence of the requirement of balanced budgets is that you need to have a sufficiently large rainy-day fund. But it turns out to be politically far easier to pass a budget that slowly pays back past debt in good times than sock away excess tax revenue into a rainy-day fund. Thus the problems states have every time we have a recession.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 11, 2020 19:42
So if one complains about the job market, the accurate description isn't really (assuming I'm right with my numbers) that there are fewer jobs around, but that there are more people wanting these jobs.
Wolfgang Bangerth
Aug 11, 2020 19:41
What has also changed is that universities graduate more PhDs than they used to: nsf.gov/news/mmg/media/images/fig_1a_FINAL.jpg