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Masters from Cambridge

Posted in Biographical, Education with tags , , , on July 23, 2025 by telescoper

A few weeks ago, after I posted an item about it being 40 years since I graduated from the University of Cambridge, I was talking to some students. The main subject was that the primary route for becoming a research student is to do an undergraduate degree (Bachelors) followed by a taught postgraduate programme (Masters) before starting a PhD or equivalent. In the course of that discussion I mentioned that I skipped the middle step and went straight from my (three-year) BA at Cambridge to my DPhil at Sussex. Nevertheless, I have got a Masters degree: MA (Cantab), to be precise.

I had to explain that if you graduate from the University of Cambridge then all you have to do is wait a few years and then your B.A. automatically becomes an M.A. In my memory I received news of this just a year or two after graduation but this evening I found the correspondence and it was later than that:

By December 1988 I’d already finished my DPhil thesis, though I wasn’t formally awarded the degree until the following July. I didn’t turn up to the graduation ceremony, of course. I had done at least some work for my B.A. but did nothing at all for my M.A. except survive for three and a half years. Neverthless, I still have the stiff ticket (right) which I show here alongside my B.A. certificate (left) to demonstrate that it looks just like a proper degree certificate even though it is, frankly, a bit of a fraud.

I bet our MSc students currently hard at work on their dissertations wish that theirs were so easy!

By the way, having an MA also gives you (limited) dining rights in College. I’ve never once availed myself of this privilege.

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The 21 Group – Update

Posted in Harassment Bullying etc with tags , , , on November 2, 2023 by telescoper

You may have read last week (26th October) a guest post on this blog by Wyn Evans about the launch of the 21Group:

Following this post, the launch of this group has now been covered by the Times Higher

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bullying-support-network-launched-due-universities-inaction

and Nature

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03418-3

I’ll update this post with further relevant links if and when I find them; you can also follow the campaign on the 21Group blog.

I very much hope this initiative succeeds in its aims, though it has powerful reactionary forces arrayed against it.

In other news, I’m told that the University of Manchester has blocked access to the 21group website by staff through centrally-managed devices. This may be inadvertent, but if it’s deliberate then it is both sinister and stupid.

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The 21 Group – Guest Post by Wyn Evans

Posted in Harassment Bullying etc with tags , , , , , on October 26, 2023 by telescoper

Here’s an important piece by Professor Wyn Evans of Cambridge University relating to the theme of harassment and bullying which I’ve returned to several times on this blog. I strongly support the creation of the 21 Group and agree with the recommendations made in the post below. Indeed, I have myself made a similar suggestion in the context of sexual harassment that the people involved in investigations of such cases…

…should not be employees of the university in question, as they would come under pressure to hush things up – which clearly happens now. It seems to me that far too many institutions prioritize limiting reputational damage over doing the right thing for their staff and students.

https://telescoper.blog/2019/06/12/investigating-sexual-harassment-in-universities/

Now over to Wyn.

—o—

My article on Whistleblowing in the UK Universities is in The Times Higher Education Supplement this week:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/investigating-serious-abuses-must-be-taken-out-universities-hands

Whistleblowing is ineffective in the UK Universities. There is no protection for whistleblowers. Any whistleblowing investigation is run by the university without properly independent scrutiny.

Self-directed investigations make no sense in an organisation in which poor behaviour has been tolerated for a long time. We have seen this in the scandals in the Post Office, in the NHS and in the Metropolitan Police.

The Universities are no exception. Organisations that investigate themselves exonerate themselves. They look for rugs enormous enough to sweep everything under.

Universities need an independent Ombudsman to look into serious complaints.

This already exists for complaints by undergraduates. It is the Office of the  Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.

https://www.oiahe.org.uk

If a student or a former student is dissatisfied with the handling of a matter by a University, then they can appeal to the independent adjudicator.

Postgraduate students and university staff do not have any such rights. We are regarded as ‘service providers’ rather than ‘paying customers’ in the monetized world of higher education.

Vice chancellors and senior managers from Cambridge to Maynooth pontificate that world-class universities are about ‘the people’. That’s where it ends. Senior management are indifferent as to whether the people in universities do actually work in an environment that promotes respect, dignity, safety and equality.

Pressure groups are needed to drive organisational and cultural change in the UK Universities.

So, we have founded the 21 Group

Our name derives from the fact that in a staff survey, 21% of employees at the University of Cambridge reported that they had been subjected to bullying or harassment in the workplace.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jan/07/third-cambridge-university-staff-experienced-bullying

The 21 Group operates nationally and offers support for staff in UK universities who are experiencing bullying, victimisation and harassment in the workplace. Amongst other things, we are running a national survey of bullying in the UK Universities.

Sadly, we have nothing to be proud of in astronomy. The only systematic survey of UK astronomy was carried out by the Royal Astronomical Society in 2020-2021. They obtained responses from over 650 people.

44% of respondents had suffered bullying and harassment in the workplace within the last year.

https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/survey-finds-bullying-and-harassment-systemic-astronomy-and-geophysics

A figure of 44% is grotesque. It is almost a half of all respondents.

The Royal Astronomical Society deserves full credit for conducting the survey and publishing the results. What is sad is that the UK astronomical community has not made any discernible efforts to improve matters since its publication in 2021.

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R.I.P. Mark Birkinshaw (1954-2023)

Posted in Biographical, R.I.P., The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , on August 17, 2023 by telescoper

I just heard this morning of the passing of Mark Birkinshaw (left) who was, since 1992, William P. Coldrick Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Bristol. Before that he held positions in Cambridge and Harvard.

I’m told that he died in hospital of a “short but serious illness”.

Among other important contributions to cosmology and astrophysics, in 1984, along with Steve Gull of Cambridge and Harry Hardebeck of the Owens Valley Observatory, was the first to measure experimentally the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect in a galaxy cluster; the reference is here.

It was in Cambridge as an undergraduate that I first met Mark Birkinshaw. He taught the long vacation course on Physical Applications of Complex Variables that I took in the summer of 1984. It was a tough course but he was an excellent teacher. All these years later I still have my handwritten notes for that course as well as the handouts. I still use them too.

After that I saw him regularly at conferences and seminars and on various committees for PPARC and then STFC. He was extremely diligent in such “community service” roles and was an invaluable contributor owing to his wide range of knowledge beyond his own speciality.

Having been a mainstay of astrophysics research at Bristol University for over thirty years, Mark will be greatly missed. I send condolences to his friends and colleagues at Bristol and elsewhere in the world, and especially to Diana. You can send thoughts, tributes and condolences and/or make a charitable donation in Mark’s memory here, where there are also details of the funeral arrangements.

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A Question of the Past

Posted in Biographical, Cute Problems, Education, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , , on April 20, 2022 by telescoper

I was tidying up some old files earlier today and came across some old examination papers, including those I took for my final examinations in Part II of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1985. There were six of these, in the space of three consecutive days…

I picked one of the questions to share here because it covers similar ground to my current (!) Advanced Electromagnetism module for final-year students in Maynooth. Sorry it’s a bit grubby!

It’s been a long time since I took my finals and I’d largely forgotten what the format was. The question above was taken from Paper II which consisted of nine questions altogether in three Sections, A (Solid State Physics), B (Statistical Physics) and C (Electromagnetism, from which Q9 above was taken; I think the course was actually called Electrodynamics & Relativity). The examination was 3 hours in duration and students were asked to answer four questions, including one from each Section. That means each question would be expected to take about 45 minutes.

Looking at the paper in general and the above question in particular, a number of things sprang to mind about differences between then in Cambridge and now in Maynooth:

  1. Our theoretical physics papers in Maynooth are 2 hours in duration in which time students are to answer four questions, so that the questions are a bit shorter – 30 minutes each rather than 45.
  2. Our papers are also on a single subject rather than a composite of several; we typically don’t offer the students choice; my Advanced Electromagnetism paper has four questions and students have to answer all four for full marks.
  3. The questions on the old Tripos papers are less structured. There is no indication of the marks allocated to each part of the question in the question above.
  4. As far as I can recall there was no formula booklet back in 1985, though there was a sheet of physical constants. My Advanced Electromagnetism examination this year comes with a couple of pages of useful formulae from vector calculus and key equations in EM theory. One might argue that the old Cambridge papers relied rather more on memory (especially when you take into account that everything was in the space of three days).
  5. Back to Question 9, it is true that this along with the other Electromagnetism questions is at a similar level to what I have been teaching this Semester. If I recall correctly the relevant course in Cambridge was of 24 lectures, the same length as the course I’m teaching this year.
  6. Students taking my course should know how to do both parts of Question 9 without too much difficulty.

On the final point, the easiest way to tackle this sort of problem is to do what the question says: determine the electric and magnetic potentials, derive the electric and magnetic fields from them, then work out the Poynting vector quantifying the energy flux. The part of this that survives in the far-field limit gives you the radiated power then – Bob’s your Uncle – the answer is basically the Larmor Formula which is ubiquitous in problems of this type. The case of an oscillating dipole is a standard derivation but this method works for any time-varying source, as long as you remember to include the retarded potentials if it’s not periodic.

Had I been writing this question for a modern exam I think I would at very least have ended the first part with “Show that the radiated power is…” and then given the formula, so that it could be used for the second part even if a student could not derive it.

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R.I.P. Bamber Gascoigne

Posted in Biographical, Television with tags , , , on February 8, 2022 by telescoper

I was saddened this morning to hear of the death at the age of 87 of Bamber Gascoigne who was best known as the original presenter of University Challenge. He was an excellent quizmaster, not least because he actually seemed to know the answers to the questions (rather than just reading them from the cards like his successor Jeremy Paxman did) and often supplied extra pieces of information off his own bat.

Though he cut a stern figure whenever anybody transgressed e.g. the “no conferring” rule, he always seem to be generous in his praise and people who took part in the show say he was very gentle with the contestants who were often very nervous.

I never met Bamber Gascoigne in the flesh, although I attended the same college (Magdalene College, Cambridge) as he did when he was an undergraduate (though not at the same time) and I’m sure he was around at some dinners and other events while I was there.

I used to watch University Challenge a lot when I was at school. It’s sad to have to say goodbye to yet another figure from the era.

Rest in Peace Bamber Gascoigne (1935-2022)

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Clusters and Superclusters of Galaxies 1991

Posted in Biographical, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , on November 23, 2021 by telescoper

As part of an occasional series of blasts from the past down memory lane of days gone by I present this, which was taken in Cambridge in July 1991 – 30 years ago!!! – at the NATO ASI Clusters and Superclusters of Galaxies:

Picture Credit: Alberto Fernandez Soto

There are no prices for putting names to faces because the names are all along the bottom but it’s still fun to try doing it without looking at the answers!

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It’s a Sin

Posted in Biographical, History, LGBTQ+, Television with tags , , , , , on January 23, 2021 by telescoper

My Twitter feed was on fire last night with reactions to the first episode of the new Channel 4 drama series It’s a Sin. The title is taken from the 1987 hit of the same name by the Pet Shop Boys.

I didn’t watch it. I told a friend that I would find it impossible to watch. He asked “Why, would the memories be uncomfortable?”. I said “No. I can’t get Channel 4 on my television”.

I only have the minimum Saorview you see.

Now I’ve been informed that it is possible to stream Channel 4 for free in Ireland I will definitely watch it, so consider this a prelude to the inevitable commentary when I’ve actually seen it.

The reason why my friend thought I’d find it uncomfortable is that the story of the first episode is set in 1981 and revolves around five characters who were eighteen years old at that time. As it happens I was also 18 in 1981. On the other hand the story involves the protagonists all moving to London in 1981, which I didn’t. I was living in Newcastle in 1981, doing my A-levels and then taking the entrance exam for Cambridge where I went the following year (1982).

Before going on I’ll just mention that 1981 was – yikes – 40 years ago and – double yikes – is closer in time to the end of World War 2 than to today.

Anyway, a major theme running through the 5-part series is the AIDS epidemic that was only just starting to appear on the horizon in 1981. I recall reading an article in a magazine about GRIDS (Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome), which it was what AIDS was called in the very early days. I remember it only vaguely though and didn’t think much about AIDS during the time I was an undergraduate student, although became terrifyingly relevant when I moved to Sussex in 1985 to start my graduate studies.

Although I had been (secretly) sexually active at school and definitely knew I was gay when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge, I wasn’t very open about it except to my closest friends. I also didn’t do much about it either, apart from developing a number of crushes that were doomed to be unrequited.

In my final year at Cambridge I decided that I would try to get a place to do a PhD (or, as it turned out, a DPhil). I applied to a few places around the country, and was very happy to get an offer from Sussex and started my postgraduate studies there in 1985. The reputation of Brighton as being a very `gay’ place to live was definitely part of the decision to go there.

Having been very repressed at Cambridge and mostly unhappy as a consequence I decided that I couldn’t continue to live that way. One of the first things I did during `Freshers Week’ at Sussex was join the GaySoc (as it was called) and I gradually became more involved in it as time went on. To begin with I found it helped to pluck up the nerve to go into gay bars and clubs, which I was a bit scared to do on my own having never really experienced anything like them in Newcastle or Cambridge.

It didn’t take me long to acquire an exciting sex life, picking up guys here and there and having (mostly unprotected) sex with strangers several times a week (or more). I then met an undergraduate student through the GaySoc. Although younger than me he was more experienced and more confident about sex. The relationship I had with him was a real awakening for me. We had a lot of sex. I would often sneak off form my office to his room on campus during the day for a quickie. We never even talked about wearing condoms or avoiding ‘risky’ behaviour. This was in 1986. The infamous government advertising campaign began in 1987.

Then one evening we went together to a GaySoc meeting about AIDS during which a health expert explained what was dangerous and what wasn’t, and exactly how serious AIDS really was. Most of us students were disinclined to follow instructions from the Thatcher government but gradually came round to the idea that it wasn’t the attempt at social control that we suspected but a genuine health crisis. That day my partner and I exchanged sheepish glances all the way through the talk. Afterwards we discussed it and decided that it was probably a good idea for us both to get tested for HIV, though obviously if one of us had it then both of us would.

Having been told what the riskiest sexual practices were, and knowing that I had been engaging very frequently precisely in those behaviours, I just assumed that I would be found HIV+. When I did eventually have a test I was quite shocked to find I was negative, so much so that I had another test to make sure. It was negative again. We were both negative, in fact, so we carried on as before.

It was in the next few years that people I knew started to get HIV, and then AIDS, from which many died. I imagine, therefore, that It’s a Sin will have a considerable personal resonance for me. Even without watching it (yet) a question that often troubles me returned once again to my mind: why am I still alive, when so many people I knew back then are not?

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Charles Kingsley on the Irish

Posted in Biographical, History, Politics with tags , , , , on September 4, 2018 by telescoper

I’ve been aware since my schooldays that there has been (and still is) a significant tendency among the English (especially their governing classes) to regard the Irish as lawless barbarians, but this quote which I found in a book I’ve been reading really took my breath away. It’s from a letter written by Charles Kingsley to his wife in 1861, while he was travelling through an Ireland still reeling from the devastation of the Great Famine:

But I am haunted by the human chimpanzees I saw along that hundred miles of horrible country. I don’t believe they are our fault, I believe that there are not only more of them than of old, but that they are happier, better, more comfortably fed and lodged under our rule than they ever were. But to see white chimpanzees is dreadful; if they were black, one would not feel it so much, but their skins, except where tanned by exposure, are as white as ours.

This passage is revolting in so many ways that I don’t think it needs any further comment, but it is worth mentioning that Charles Kingsley was, by the standards of his time, regarded as something of a progressive. As well as being a Church of England priest, Professor of History and a novelist (I read The Water-Babies when I was a child), he was also a social reformer involved in such initiatives as the working men’s college and labour cooperatives. Clearly his concern for the poor and oppressed didn’t extend much beyond his own people.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I should also mention that Charles Kingsley did his undergraduate studies at Magdalene College, Cambridge, as did I (thought not at the same time).

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Project Work

Posted in Biographical, Education, mathematics with tags , , , , , on April 23, 2018 by telescoper

I’m progressively clearing out stuff from my office prior to the big move to Ireland. This lunchtime I opened one old box file and found my undergraduate project. This was quite an unusual thing at the time as I did Theoretical Physics in Part II (my final year) of Natural Sciences at Cambridge, which normally meant no project but an extra examination paper called Paper 5. As a member of a small minority of Theoretical Physics students who wanted to do theory projects, I was allowed to submit this in place of half of Paper 5…

The problem was to write a computer program that could solve the equations describing the action of a laser, starting with the case of a single-mode laser as shown in the diagram below that I constructed using a sophisticated computer graphics package:

The above system is described by a set of six simultaneous first-order ordinary differential equations, which are of relatively simple form to look at but not so easy to solve numerically because the equations are stiff (i.e. they involve exponential decays or growths with very different time constants). I got around this by using a technique called Gear’s method. There wasn’t an internet in those days so I had to find out about the numerical approach by trawling through books in the library.

The code I wrote – in Fortran 77 – was run on a mainframe, and the terminal had no graphics capability so I had to check the results as a list of numbers before sending the results to a printer and wait for the output to be delivered some time later. Anyway, I got the code to work and ended up with a good mark that helped me get a place to do a PhD.

The sobering thought, though, is that I reckon a decent undergraduate physics student nowadays could probably do all the work I did for my project in a few hours using Python….

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