tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3522311.post3071948057604904353..comments2024-03-12T03:23:42.976-04:00Comments on NeuroDojo: Places versus programs versus peopleZen Faulkeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07811309183398223358noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3522311.post-88396205351948007572010-05-05T17:07:21.739-04:002010-05-05T17:07:21.739-04:00I appreciate the point that I ticked over several ...I appreciate the point that I ticked over several professional scientists who were better known for science communication. Touché. <br /><br />Still, several of those people hard substantial and substantive technical work, too. Plus, I expect that if you looked at it from other angles, those usual suspects would show up again.Zen Faulkeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07811309183398223358noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3522311.post-50522034791926277422010-05-05T14:42:34.576-04:002010-05-05T14:42:34.576-04:00That group is not one of prominent scientists. It ...That group is not one of prominent scientists. It contains some prominent scientists (but aren't all). Rather, they are prominent communicators of science. In my field the prominent scientists are not all from Harvard and clones.Bjørn Østmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08859177313382114917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3522311.post-17161272988415060662010-05-05T14:06:00.368-04:002010-05-05T14:06:00.368-04:00Two points:
First, all of "these guys" a...Two points:<br />First, all of "these guys" are science popularizers in their fields, rather than heavy hitters in research, the latter of which I would think should play a bigger role in a student's choice of graduate schools. Second, if you look at the big names in research from these fields, you do find them to be better distributed among non-ivy league universities. For example, EO Wilson may be the biggest name in his field (social insect biology) in general, but I would consider scientists like Gene Robinson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Rob Page (Arizona State University) to be among the big researchers in the field, and better potential mentors for students.Sarah F.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01260648595020191705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3522311.post-65956450909094734862010-05-05T10:28:39.078-04:002010-05-05T10:28:39.078-04:00I think working with a good graduate adviser (and ...I think working with a good graduate adviser (and committee members) is really important, but the place also makes a big difference. But what is The Place (as equivalent to The Guy) in a given field? In the geosciences, 25% of faculty have their degrees from 10 institutions, but half of those institutions are public universities (Wisconsin, Washington, Arizona, UCLA, and Berkeley). (The private schools are MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Columbia, and Harvard.) Source: http://www.agiweb.org/workforce/Currents-008-FacultyRankandDegreeOrigins.pdf<br /><br />It might be difficult to separate The Guy from The Place; those top schools also have a tendency to make big-name senior hires (from possibly biased observation; I don't know of data on that).Kimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07738706550175991130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3522311.post-54335436534543288182010-05-05T10:24:07.285-04:002010-05-05T10:24:07.285-04:00It's not the fame of school so much as the dep...It's not the fame of school so much as the depth of program and its fame within the discipline. Yale, Harvard etc. may be terrible or limited places to study what you're interested in. At the same time, following "the guy" can be risky if his department doesn't have 2-5 other mutually supportive faculty in roughly the same area (i.e. looking to publish in the same journals, let's say). <br /><br />The benefits are a wider networking circle from both the other faculty and grad school peers, and more security in case you change interest or have personal issues with the initial supervisor.Roger G-Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08594440701279968693noreply@blogger.com