This post is about why I love writing grant proposals for getting my research funded. Not all academics do. I have come across many who consider grant writing as a chore and a necessary evil which interferes with the real business of actually doing science and publishing the work (some even hate writing papers; it's only the investigative process that really gets them excited). The facts that proposals require much work and many if not most of them get rejected also add to th

This post addresses a complaint I often hear and read about: namely that some physics professors, after a certain stage of their careers, no longer do calculations themselves (if they are theorists), or actually spend time in the laboratory tinkering with the apparatus (if they are experimentalists). Instead of performing any practical work, they become managers of students and postdocs and collaborations, overseeing the work of those who carry out the actual scientific labor

This post is about the necessity and advantages of academic travel. Before I enumerate them, a few images from Darmstadt where I visited the Technical University. The Wedding Tower A Russian church in the Waldspirale - no two windows (Hochzeitsturm) - a major Vortex Garten. are the same. attraction in Darmstadt. Background Some colleagues travel during the semester while they are teaching courses. They maint