On Wednesday there was a little gathering in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences to welcome me as the new Head. I had been told there would be tea and cakes, but had no idea that the cake would be in the form of a personalised crossword! It was a lovely touch, so thank you to everyone in MPS (especially Dorothy) for planning such a wonderful surprise.
The cake went down well – it vanished in no time!
So here I am, then, in the office on a Sunday afternoon,which I suspect is going to be a pretty regular occurrence for the foreseeable future. I mainly came in to sort out papers for tomorrow’s Senior Management Group meeting, which will be the first such meeting I’ll be attending in my new capacity. I have managed to prepare for it in fine style by losing my diary, which isn’t a very good start to my career as any kind of manager.
Yesterday was taken up with flat-hunting which, if all turns out well this time, was successful. I also had time to watch a bit of the opening match of the Six Nations Rugby between Wales and Ireland. For the last five years or so I’ve always been in Cardiff for Wales’ first home game of the competition, although I’ve never actually managed to get a ticket for the match. It felt a bit strange not being there anyway. It has to be said that Wales were pretty chronic in the first half, going into the break at 30-3 down, but they recovered in the second half and it was quite an absorbing match all considered. Ireland’s excellent defence held off a spirited Welsh comeback and Ireland won 30-22.
Although I’ve lived in Wales for a while, and have enjoyed the match-day atmosphere in Cardiff, I’ve never switched allegiance from England as far as rugby is concerned. Later on yesterday England beat Scotland in their opening match of the Six Nations, showing quite a bit of flair in doing so but also making quite a lot of mistakes. The 38-18 scoreline flattered England, I felt, and they’ll have to up their game a lot if they’re going to match Wales’ Grand Slam last season.
Football is another matter in which allegiances are difficult to change. Many’s the time I’ve thought of giving up being a Newcastle United supporter but I’ve never managed it. I disapprove of people who think they have an option concerning which team to support, actually. I was born in Newcastle therefore I support Newcastle United. That’s the end of it. We all have our cross to bear. Anyway, yesterday brought an unexpected ray of sunshine into a gloomy season for the Toon with a 3-2 victory over Chelsea. Following a first away win of the season against Aston Villa last week it may even be possible that they’ll avoid relegation. Perhaps.
Switching allegiances between universities is almost as difficult. In today’s academic world we’re supposed to think of higher education as a marketplace in which different institutions compete for funding for both teaching and research. I’ve never felt comfortable with the idea that opening up higher education to “market forces” is in anyone’s interests. Certainly on the research side, there are so many collaborations between groups in different universities that cooperation is more the rule than competition although, as with any rule, there are exceptions. Friendly rivalry is as good a thing in higher education as it is in football, but anything more serious than that can only be justified in the case of Sunderland.
Follow @telescoperWell, nearing the end of my first day in my new job at the University of Sussex, I can safely say that I’m more than a bit knackered. I’ve had a day filled with meetings as well as devoid of lunch. On the other hand I did manage to get the keys to my new office and, after some fiddling about, am now connected to the interwebs. They’ve even given me a nice new badge in case I forget who I am.
I didn’t get to leave Cardiff yesterday until later than I’d imagined I would and then managed to miss the train and had to wait an hour in Cardiff station. In the end I didn’t make it to my temporary lodgings until well after 11. I crashed out and slept like a log, and only just managed to drag myself out of bed to get to the campus in time for the first meeting.
My new office is very nice, although it looks a bit empty at the moment because all my boxes are still in Cardiff awaiting the attentions of hunky removal men. Here’s a picture taken yesterday by Dan Read in my old office…
..having finished packing I was about to add the final touch and clean my whiteboard, but I was persuaded that it’s such a work of art that, far from cleaning it off, I should actually sign it. So I did. No doubt it will be cleaned off soon, if it hasn’t been already.
Anyway, a weekend in Brighton now beckons which I’m going to start by doing down the pub for a pint, which may be the first of many…
Follow @telescoperWell, it’s my last day of official employment at Cardiff University and I’ve just finished my last big job, checking and collating the marks for the module I taught last semester. That done, I thought I’d have a quick sandwich before packing up a few final bits and pieces, vacating the old office, and handing in my keys.
There was a gathering in the department yesterday afternoon to celebrate my departure, followed by drinks and a nice dinner (at the splendid Purple Poppadom, although the Poppadoms weren’t actually Purple).
The Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University, Prof. Walter Gear, made a little speech at my departmental send-off before handing me a nice card as well as a gift voucher for the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. I’m a bit overwhelmed by the generosity shown by the good folks of PHYSX – the gift voucher will mean I can afford a few trips from Brighton to the Opera in London, even at Covent Garden’s outrageous prices.
I’ll miss the department here, especially the people that work and/or study here who have put up with me for the past five and a half years or so. Other things I’ll miss about Cardiff include Welsh National Opera, of course, for its excellence and (relative inexpensiveness).
But I’m not going completely just yet. I still have two PhD students and three 4th year project students to look after, so I’ll be coming back from time to time to meet with them. I’ll also be keeping the house in Pontcanna until the summer, so I’ll have a pied-a-terre here when I come back, either for work or for the Opera.
Anyway, I just wanted to say a public “thank you” to Walter for his kind words yesterday, for the support he has given me over the years, and especially last summer, and the generosity he showed in agreeing so quickly to transfer my STFC grant to Sussex. Would that everyone I’ve worked with had acted so unselfishly…
Now, to finish packing….
Follow @telescoperI was a research student at the University of Sussex from 1985 until 1988, as a result of which I can now put the letters DPhil after my name. Now I’m gearing up to begin recruiting research students at Sussex when I move there at the end of this month; a list of available projects can be found here, if you’re interested.
However, in the course of this I learned that the University of Sussex has changed the abbreviated form of its postgraduate doctoral degree from DPhil to PhD. Future Susssex researchers will therefore be deprived of the ability to write the letters MADPhil after their name as I do.
The idea that anything in academia should ever actually change sets a dangerous precedent. What were they thinking of? Everyone knows that PhD just stands for Doctor of Photocopying.
Not to put too fine a point on it, I’m appalled…
Follow @telescoper
I suppose you could consider this post to be my New Year’s resolution, so apologies that it’s three weeks overdue. Apologies too if it’s a bit too personal for comfort; it’s difficult to get the mixture of public and private right when you run a blog.
Anyway, regular followers of this blog will know that I had some problems with my mental health last summer; I posted a partial explanation here. I completed a course of treatment last autumn and have since been feeling much better. Words can’t express my gratitude to the people who looked after me when I was unwell nor to the friends and colleagues who put up with my unexplained absences for so long.
In November last year I came across a website run by Time to Change Wales which was in the middle of a campaign to get people talking about mental health issues. Among the things they were doing was getting people to post short blogs about their experiences in order to help people overcome the stigma that sadly still surrounds mental health. It seemed right to contribute something to this campaign, so I decided to write a piece for them. I probably don’t have to explain that I didn’t find this easy to do, and I changed my mind several times about what to include or indeed whether to send anything in at all. In the end I plucked up enough courage, and my piece went live last week.
I was given permission to post it here also but, on reflection, I decided that might detract from the campaign by deflecting traffic from the Time to Change website. I also thought I’d leave it a while before referring to it on here; as it happens, there were also practical reasons why I haven’t had much time to blog in recent days.
If you’d like to read the piece you can do so here. And while you’re there, why not check out the rest of the site? Or maybe even follow them on Twitter?
Closer friends who know the whole story will realise that I’ve edited it quite severely; they’ll probably also understand why. I’d just like to add here a few things I left out because I didn’t think they were relevant in the context of the Time to Change campaign.
First, you will probably now appreciate the irony in the fact that I’ll shortly be returning to live in Brighton when I take up my new job as Head of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex. That this opportunity came along when it did seemed so implausible a coincidence that I’ve almost started to believe in fate. I feel a bit like a character in a play with a very strange plot; I haven’t a clue how it’s going to end, but I’m obliged to act out my part regardless.
In case anyone is wondering, before being appointed to my new job I did have to complete a medical questionnaire, and I did make a written statement about the problems I’ve had. I was more than a bit nervous about doing that, actually, and for a time I thought I’d get turned down. But instead of being declared unfit, all that happened was that I had a discussion with an Occupational Health Adviser who was very supportive. I know that my problems may recur, but now I know how to handle them I don’t see any reason why I can’t handle this new job either. I’m very much looking forward to it, in fact.
I’m by no means an expert on mental health, but I couldn’t resist ending with a comment arising from my recent experiences. The human brain is an incredibly complicated thing which means that even when it’s functioning “normally” it gives rise to a vast range of personalities and behaviour patterns that largely defy categorization. Likewise, when things go wrong they can go wrong in so many ways that simple descriptions such as “anxiety” or “depression” aren’t really all that useful or even complete.
You might think, for example, that panic disorder describes a fairly well-defined condition, but it really doesn’t. The things I have experienced during panic attacks – which includes alarming visual and auditory hallucinations as well as an overwhelming impulse to flee – are quite different from what others with panic disorder may describe. Post-traumatic stress disorder can likewise manifest itself in a wide range of behaviours, including extreme aggression. In my own case the dominant factor has been hypervigilance and I’ve never showed any sign at all of some of the other indicators.
It’s no surprise, therefore, that there’s no ab initio theoretical understanding of what causes such conditions, and that treatment is largely by trial and error. In short, neuroscience isn’t at all like physics. It’s also very very much harder.
Follow @telescoperThe world-famous British weather has been pulling out all the stops over the last few days. During a short break in the proceedings yesterday I did a bit of flat-hunting in Brighton. It was a lovely bright morning, with the winter sun low in the sky making the city look absolutely beautiful. Here’s a pic I took with my Blackberry of the Palace Pier from Marine Parade…
I managed to get away at a reasonable hour after the end of the interviews and made it home to Cardiff before the snow arrived, which it eventually did around one o’clock in the morning. It’s still snowing a bit, actually, but it’s now mixed with drizzle. The slushy streets are unusually quiet. There’s not all that much in Cardiff itself, but the examinations due to start at 9am this morning were delayed until 9.30 to allow students and staff extra time to get to the various venues. The main thing is that it’s very dark, with grey clouds filling the sky. Here’s another Blackberry pic, taken on my walk into work this morning..
The contrast with Brighton yesterday is considerable, except for the temperature. Bright and dry in Brighton, dark and damp in Cardiff and cold in both.
Still, at least the “red snow alert” broadcast by the BBC came to nothing. This lot is definitely white.
Follow @telescoperBack to the splendid Cavalaire Hotel after an exhausting day of lectureships interviews, following on from yesterday’s exhausting day of presentations by the candidates and the subsequent (much less exhausting) dinner with the candidates in the Coach House. It’s such a packed schedule because we’re appointing three lecturers at the same time, so have a bigger group of candidates than at a normal recruitment event. I’m going to go out with an old friend for a relaxing pint and a meal later on, but I thought I’d just put up a quick post before I go out into the chilly seaside air.
The first thing I have to say is that I’ve been completely blown away by the quality of the applicants we have to select from. In fact, watching the succession of excellent presentations and participating in today’s interviews made me wonder how I ever managed to get a permanent job at all. It’s a shame we’re going to have to disappoint some of them, as we clearly can’t appoint them all, but fortunately I’m sure they’ll all have other opportunities in the near future. Not that we’ve made any decisions yet. There’s another bunch of interviews tomorrow and then we’ll be locked in a room in Sussex House until we make a decision. It won’t be easy, but it’s a good problem to have: like a football manager having to pick a team from a very strong squad.
Other than that this trip has been a process of gradually rediscovering Brighton. One thing that has changed for the better since I lived here in the late 80s is the public transport system. The buses from the City Centre to the University Campus at Falmer are very frequent and quite cheap, only £2 for a single full-price and a lot cheaper if you buy a return or have a season ticket. Cardiff’s buses are expensive and poorly organized in comparison.
One other thing struck me last night as I walked through town to the Coach House for dinner. Large parts of Brighton try very hard to be quite posh. There are many fancy restaurants and upmarket boutiques all over the place. But however hard they try they can’t quite shake off that slightly seedy image that I think Brighton will always possess, and which makes it such a fun place to live. It’s a bit like how a dirty joke is always funnier when it’s told by someone dressed as a vicar.
Follow @telescoper
