Archive for the Biographical Category

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Back to Maynooth; a Look Ahead

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth on June 26, 2023 by telescoper
A pensive Maynooth University Library Cat

I’m back on Maynooth University campus after a very busy but enjoyable week in Copenhagen. I spent the morning catching up on a few things, including a bit of OJAp business and a visit to Maynooth University Library Cat.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I have to Chair a PhD viva (for a candidate in another Department). It’s interesting that viva voce examinations at Maynooth follow a similar practice to those at Cardiff University, my previous institution, in that each viva has a Chair as well as the internal and external examiners. The Chair is really present to ensure fair play and that proper procedure is followed, and is rarely (if ever) called upon to intervene in practice. I chaired a quite a few such examinations in Cardiff, but this will be my first in Maynooth.

On Wednesday there is the official handover of the position of Chair of the Euclid Consortium Diversity Committee during which I’ll be briefed about various ongoing matters, as well as generally being given the keys to the kingdom in terms of access to documents, websites and other paraphernalia.

There is a big announcement scheduled for Thursday by the NANOGrav collaboration. I don’t know what is on the agenda, but I suspect it may be the detection of a stochastic gravitational wave background using pulsar timing measurements. I may of course be quite wrong about that, but will blog about it anyway.

Then on Friday I have to prepare for another trip, a short one this time, to attend part of the UK National Astronomy Meeting in Cardiff.

Alongside those other things I have to make sure my repeat examinations are ready to be printed ahead of the examination session in August. Students received their final grades last week (while I was away). I don’t know how many will need to take repeat examinations, but there will undoubtedly be some.

Anyway, I have an article I really want to finish by the end of today, so I’ll stop there and get on with it.

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Copenhagen Looking Back

Posted in Biographical, Euclid, OJAp Papers, The Universe and Stuff on June 23, 2023 by telescoper

So here I am then, back in Maynooth. I had a relatively stress-free trip back, although my plane was a bit late and I had to run through Dublin Airport to catch the Hopper Bus I was booked on. Made it though.

The first thing I want to do is to thank the organizers for what was a wonderful event. I wasn’t able to attend the Euclid Consortium meeting in Oslo last year, largely because it was earlier in the year, in April (i.e. term-time) and I had teaching responsibilities. I gather it was a rather gloomy occasion because there was no concrete plan for the launch of Euclid thanks to the Russian war against Ukraine. I guess few would have predicted then that the 2023 meeting would be just a week or so before a launch on SpaceX!

I have to say the atmosphere was also helped by the excellent weather and very fine catering. The conference dinner was held in the Banqueting Hall, on the first floor of the Hans Christian Anderson Castle which stands at one of the entrances to the famous Tivoli Gardens, a few minutes from the conference venue.

Finally, one other memory that will stay with me for a while. It turned out that the week of the conference coincided with high-school graduation celebrations in Copenhagen, so every day we encountered lots of exuberant and largely inebriated teenagers around wearing funny hats and generally going a bit berserk. They made quite a lot of noise in the evenings, but it was all harmless. You’re only young once!

Having not been at an in-person conference for over four years, it was great to see some new faces and catch up with some people I haven’t seen for a long time. It was especially nice to talk to a couple of members of the Editorial Board of the Open Journal of Astrophysics. It was also nice to talk to some authors. Talking of which, here is Nicolas Tessore delivering a plenary presentation featuring work from one of the papers he has published with OJAp:

Anyway, I was up a stupid o’clock to catch my flight this morning so I think I’ll have a bit of rest and hope for the rain to stop so I can do some shopping.

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Euclid Diversity Matters

Posted in Biographical, Euclid, Harassment Bullying etc with tags , , , , , on June 22, 2023 by telescoper

It was officially announced at the Euclid Consortium Meeting in Copenhagen this morning that I have been appointed to the role of Chair of the Euclid Consortium Diversity Committee (ECDC). This has been in the pipeline for a while, but I have refrained from saying anything publicly until the appointment was endorsed by the Euclid Consortium Lead (ECL) and Euclid Consortium Board (ECB) which has now happened.

The previous Chair, Prof. Mathilde Jauzac, is stepping down because her term on the ECDC has come to an end. I’ve been a member of the ECDC for three years during which time Mathilde has done a brilliant job as Chair and she’ll be a very difficult act to follow in this role. There was a standing ovation in the room this morning when Mathilde finished delivering her final ECDC report. It will be down to me to deliver next year’s report, at the 2024 Euclid Consortium Meeting, which will be in Rome.

Instead of trying to describe the role and activities of the ECDC generally, I will direct you to the information given on the brand new Euclid Consortium website which is a one-stop shop for everything to do with Euclid. You can find specific information about Equity, Diversity and Conduct there and/or on the ECDC’s own public website here from which I’ve taken a screengrab of the nice banner:

Just for information, the Euclid Consortium has about 2700 members so it really is a very large organization, and it is the aim of the ECDC to encourage a positive and inclusive environment within it for the benefit of everyone in it.

I’m looking forward to this role for the next year. I have only one year left of my term left on the ECDC so I will almost certainly be Chair for one year only. As regular readers of this blog – both of them – will know, I am on sabbatical next year which means I should have time to take on this responsibility, which I wouldn’t be able to do if I had my full teaching and admin load.

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Euclid Consortium Meeting 2023

Posted in Biographical, Euclid, The Universe and Stuff with tags , on June 19, 2023 by telescoper
Foyer

I made it to the conference venue (CPH Conference) for this year’s Euclid Consortium Meeting, which is 5 minutes walk from my hotel.

One thing that confused me when I looked at the programme last night was that all the rooms in the conference centre are named after locations in and around the city, e.g. Kastrup, Amager, Vesterbro, etc. For a while I thought the delegates would be running around Copenhagen to find their parallel sessions! Then I realized these were just names of meeting rooms…

The full programme doesn’t start until tomorrow but today I attended a couple of sessions aimed at early career researchers, not because I identify myself as such but because I wanted to listen to questions they asked and the advice given to them, much of which was very sound.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow, especially the plenaries, but first: dinner.

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A Birthday Thank You!

Posted in Biographical, Mental Health with tags on June 17, 2023 by telescoper

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, on the occasion of my birthday, I started a fundraiser  for Pieta, which is a charity working to prevent suicide and self-harm. Well, the fundraiser is now closed and I’m very glad to say that the official fundraiser on Facebook reached my target. I know that quite a few more people gave directly to Pieta without going through Facebook so the amount of money raised overall comfortably exceeded the goal. Thank you so much to everyone who made a contribution. I really do appreciate it.

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The News from Nottingham

Posted in Biographical with tags , , on June 13, 2023 by telescoper

I was shocked this morning to stumble across the news (which made it onto the media in Ireland) of the horrific events in Nottingham in the early hours of this morning that left three people dead. Only later was it revealed that two of those dead were students at the University of Nottingham. This must be a very difficult time for the whole community in Nottingham and particularly the University. My thoughts are with everyone affected by these events, especially those who were injured or otherwise traumatized, and I send sincere condolences to the bereaved.

RTÉ put up this graphic showing the locations involved:

I lived in Nottingham and worked at the University of Nottingham for about eight years (from 1999 until 2007) . The locations shown are much closer to the City Centre than either the University campus or where I lived (in Beeston), both of which are off the map downwards and to the left. Despite this, and the fact that I haven’t been there for some time, I remember the area well enough to be shaken by the thought of things like this happening in such a familiar place. It must be much more difficult for those more directly affected.

I think the two students were found dead at Ilkeston Road in the early hours of this morning, but the rest of the picture of what happened remains very confused. It does no good to speculate on social media – as many are sadly doing – about the details or the motivation for the violence and mayhem. We’ll find out the truth in due course.

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The Queer Variable

Posted in Biographical, LGBTQ+ with tags on June 11, 2023 by telescoper

As it’s Pride Month I’d take this opportunity to re-advertise The Queer Variable which is a collection of 40 interviews with people who are studying or working in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) and who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. You can find out more about the book and download it for free as a PDF or an e-book (whatever that is) here.

There’s a review of the book in the Journal of Science Communication from which I quote

“The Queer Variable” is an edited collection of interviews with 40 LGBTQ+ people who experienced the full range of issues — positive and negative — that queer people in STEM regularly face. Through their own voices they describe how unnecessarily difficult certain academic environments can be, and how many chances to do good science go to waste when institutions and their leaders implicitly and explicitly discourage LGBTQ+ people from advancing their careers in STEM. The book contains a wealth of good advice for university leaders, lab directors, teachers and many others in leadership positions on how to make their organisations inclusive, diverse and respectful of everyone.

Andrea Bandelli (2022). Together in diversity: insights and wisdom from LGBTQ+ people working in STEM JCOM 21(06), R03.

I am one of the people interviewed for the book. My interview is actually the first in the book, which suggests I might have been the first person interviewed. Most of the interviews took place between 2020 and 2021, but I seem to remember doing mine (over a rather choppy Zoom connection) back in late 2019 when I was a mere lad of 56 years old and before the Covid-19 pandemic. That all seems a very long time ago now!

Anyway, many thanks to Alfredo Carpineti and Shaun O’Boyle for compiling this collection and making it available. I hope people will find it useful.

Incidentally, one of the sponsors of this project is Science Foundation Ireland whose Director General, Prof. Philip Nolan (former President of Maynooth University) is quoted thusly:

SFI is delighted to support this important publication, which highlights the diverse spectrum of talent and experience among our LGBTQ+ research colleagues. STEM research must benefit all of our society and therefore STEM careers must also be welcoming and accessible to all members of our society. I thank all of the contributors for sharing their powerful personal stories and for providing insights into the challenges they have faced on their career journeys. By raising their voices, they are helping break down barriers for future generations.

Well said.

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Examinations, Past and Future

Posted in Biographical, Education, mathematics, Maynooth with tags , , , , , on June 7, 2023 by telescoper

No sooner is yesterday’s departmental Examination Board done and dusted (after just two and a half hours) when attention switches to school examinations. The Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate examinations both start today, so the first thing I need to do is wish everyone taking examinations the very best of luck!

Among other things, the results of the leaving certificate examinations are important for next year’s University admissions. As we gradually dispense with the restrictions imposed during the pandemic, it seems this year we just might have the results before the start of teaching at the end of September. That will make a nice change!

In the system operating in England and Wales the standard qualification for entry is the GCE A-level. Most students take A-levels in three subjects, which gives them a relatively narrow focus although the range of subjects to choose from is rather large. In Ireland the standard qualification is the Leaving Certificate, which comprises a minimum of six subjects, giving students a broader range of knowledge at the sacrifice (perhaps) of a certain amount of depth; it has been decreed for entry into this system that an Irish Leaving Certificate subject counts as about 2/3 of an A-level subject for admissions purposes, so Irish students do the equivalent of at least four A-levels, and many do more than this. It’s also worth noting that all students have to take Mathematics at Leaving Certificate level.

Overall I prefer the Leaving Certificate over the UK system of A-levels, as the former gives the students a broader range of subjects than the latter (as does the International Baccalaureate). I would have liked to have been allowed to take at least one arts subject past O-level, for example.

For University admissions points are awarded for each paper according to the marks obtained and then aggregated into a total CAO points, CAO being the Central Applications Office, the equivalent of the UK’s UCAS. This means, for example, that our main Science pathway at Maynooth allows students to study Physics without having done it at Leaving Certificate level. This obviously means that the first year has to be taught at a fairly elementary level, but it has the enormous benefit of allowing us to recruit students whose schools do not offer Physics.

As much as I like the Leaving Certificate, I have concerns about using a simple CAO points count for determining entry into third-level courses. My main concern about is with Mathematics. Since the pandemic struck, students have been able to choose to questions from just six out of ten sections. That means that students can get very high grades despite knowing nothing about 40% of the syllabus. That matters most for subjects that require students to have certain skills and knowledge for entry into University, such as Physics.

I’ve been teaching the first year Mathematical Physics course in Maynooth for about 5 years. At the start of the module I put up a questionnaire asking the students about various mathematical concepts and asking them how comfortable they feel with them. It’s been noticeable how the fraction that are comfortable with basic differentiation and integration has been falling. That’s not a reflection on the ability of the students, just on the way they have been taught. As well as making adjustments during the pandemic for online teaching, etc, I have changed various things about the teaching, in particular adjusting the way I have introduced calculus into the module. Another problem is that we have been forced to start teaching first-years a week late because of delays to the CAO process caused by the pandemic.

I’ll be on sabbatical next academic year so I won’t be teaching the first-years (or anyone else) in September. It’s time to hand these challenges on to someone else!

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Lá Saoire i mí Mheitheamh

Posted in Biographical, Irish Language on June 5, 2023 by telescoper

Today has been (and indeed continues to be) the June Bank Holiday (Lá Saoire i mí Mheitheamh) in Ireland. It is the equivalent of the usual May Bank Holiday in the UK in that both have their origin in the old festival of Whitsuntide (or Pentecost) which falls on the 7th Sunday after Easter. Because the date of Easter moves around in the calendar so does Whit Sunday, but it is usually in late May or early June. Here in Ireland the Bank Holiday is always on the first Monday in June whereas on the other side of the Irish Sea it is on the last Monday in May.

Anyway, in a break with tradition, we have had and still are having lovely weather over the holiday long weekend. It’s not exactlly a heatwave, but as I write the temperature is a pleasant 20° C. It being warm last night, I thought it would be nice to light a big candle and sit out in the garden for a bit with a glass of wine, but I was beset by moths and had to come back inside. My concern is that the garden is bone dry, especially considering it is early June. The lawn is looking parched. Some of the plants in my garden are also struggling a bit because of the lack of rain but some others seem to be thriving so much they’re crowding out the ones that prefer the more normal damper conditions.

Alumroot, Silver Ragwort, Alpine Rose, and Oxeye Daisies
Bush Vetch (and more Alpine Roses)
Scarlet Firethorn

The Scarlet Firethorn – so called because it produces bright red berries – is growing like wildfire as well as flowering profusely. The flowers are nice, but I think past their peak so when they’re done I’ll take some remedial action. The other plants are basically wild flowers, which I like having in the garden as they tend to be rather robust. The long green leaves in the first two pictures are Montbretia, which produced bright red flowers later in the summer, and which is grown from bulbs.

My rear garden is enclosed by high walls but gets the sun in the morning, so I’ve been having breakfast and lunch out there for the last several days.

Anyway, it’s back to work tomorrow for our Departmental Examination Board so I’ll take it easy for the rest of the day off. After all, I’m an old man now…

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Officially Ancient

Posted in Biographical with tags on June 4, 2023 by telescoper

So here I am, now officially ancient, although I’ll have to wait another 6 years until I qualify for a free bus pass.

I’ve always assumed I’ll feel a bit depressed when I reached 60 years old, but as it turns out it doesn’t bother me at all. I feel more grateful that I made it this far! I suppose it helps that I’m in pretty good health, we’re having lovely weather, most of the stress of the academic year is over, it’s a Bank Holiday weekend, and I have a sabbatical to look forward to.

Anyway, I’m not going to spend my birthday sitting at the computer – it’s far too nice outside – so I’ll leave it there, except to say thank you to everyone who sent birthday greetings and to ask you all if you haven’t done so already please to consider giving to my birthday fundraiser.

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