4 ms·

Why not create more research labs and professorships? There are many state universities without great programs right? Also glut of PhDs doesnt seem to be a prob

Why not create more research labs and professorships? There are many state universities without great programs right? Also glut of PhDs doesnt seem to be a problem for a lot of engineering fields.

dnautics 7y ago
How do you know small labs are more productive? Are we trying to do science for society or trying to be a jobs program? These two objectives are not necessarily synergistic.
dekhn 7y ago
The challenge with those is hiring. State unis without great programs have a hard time hiring the top folks needed to make great programs. Also, top universities will just hire away the best professors from state universities after the profs become successful. I think the rich folks are more interested in making Institutes- the Allen Institute and CZI being two examples. Institutes which are not affiliated with a university have a lot of advantages to the folks they hire- tend to be in popular locations, with higher salaries, more resources for crazy ideas, less overhead on grants (just a guess, I don't really know for sure), and NO TEACHING REQUIREMENTS (many top research profs hate teaching because it eats so much time).
- hocuspocus 7y ago
  I worked at something a bit like the Allen Institute, but that is governed by a public university. It's not an issue if done right. We collaborated with them quite a bit by the way, and they faced almost exactly the same issues. Salaries aren't that good really (maybe 10-20% higher than in US national labs), they struggle to hire people who usually can make twice the money at Amazon or Microsoft. And you still need some ties to academia. From my point of view, as a developer who didn't understand anything about the science my platform was used for: - I think you probably want to have a few PhD students, postdocs and professors. They are the ones who can be creative given the right environment: no pressure to publish, access to sufficient resources (material and human) that enable their work. - You need more money, but more importantly to spend it wisely. Pay people enough (in my case 20-30% more) and you'll cut the turnover by 2-3x.
- closeparen 7y ago
  What? We’re producing too many qualified researchers, and we can’t create more slots because it’s too hard to find qualified researchers?

Why not create more research labs and professorships? There are many state universities without great programs right? Also glut of PhDs doesnt seem to be a problem for a lot of engineering fields.

dnautics 7y ago

How do you know small labs are more productive? Are we trying to do science for society or trying to be a jobs program? These two objectives are not necessarily synergistic.

dekhn 7y ago

The challenge with those is hiring. State unis without great programs have a hard time hiring the top folks needed to make great programs. Also, top universities will just hire away the best professors from state universities after the profs become successful. I think the rich folks are more interested in making Institutes- the Allen Institute and CZI being two examples. Institutes which are not affiliated with a university have a lot of advantages to the folks they hire- tend to be in popular locations, with higher salaries, more resources for crazy ideas, less overhead on grants (just a guess, I don't really know for sure), and NO TEACHING REQUIREMENTS (many top research profs hate teaching because it eats so much time).

hocuspocus 7y ago
I worked at something a bit like the Allen Institute, but that is governed by a public university. It's not an issue if done right. We collaborated with them quite a bit by the way, and they faced almost exactly the same issues. Salaries aren't that good really (maybe 10-20% higher than in US national labs), they struggle to hire people who usually can make twice the money at Amazon or Microsoft. And you still need some ties to academia. From my point of view, as a developer who didn't understand anything about the science my platform was used for: - I think you probably want to have a few PhD students, postdocs and professors. They are the ones who can be creative given the right environment: no pressure to publish, access to sufficient resources (material and human) that enable their work. - You need more money, but more importantly to spend it wisely. Pay people enough (in my case 20-30% more) and you'll cut the turnover by 2-3x.
closeparen 7y ago
What? We’re producing too many qualified researchers, and we can’t create more slots because it’s too hard to find qualified researchers?