So far as I bear in mind, the primary time I stepped onto a college campus was in junior highschool, once I visited Johns Hopkins for an awards ceremony for the Research of Mathematically Precocious Youth. (I grew up in an surroundings that didn’t contain spending lots of time on faculty campuses, typically talking.) The SMPY is a longitudinal examine that appears for youths who do effectively on standardized math assessments, encourages them to take the SATs at a really younger age, and follows the progress of those that do rather well. I scored as “fairly precocious” however “not precocious sufficient to be price following up.” Can’t actually argue. My award was a slim quantity on analytic geometry, which — effectively, the thought was good.
However the campus made an impression. It was elegant and evocative in a means that was new to me and totally compelling. Grand structure, buildings filled with books and laboratories, broad inexperienced commons criss-crossed by college students and professors speaking about concepts. (I assumed that was what they have been speaking about). Magical. I used to be already dedicated to the aspiration that I might go to school, get a Ph.D., and change into a theoretical physicist, though I had little or no particular idea of what that entailed. Soaking within the campus environment redoubled my conviction that this was the precise path for me.
So it’s fairly particular to me to announce that I’m going to change into a professor at Hopkins. This summer time Jennifer and I’ll transfer from Los Angeles to Baltimore, and I’ll take up a place as Homewood Professor of Pure Philosophy. (She’s going to proceed writing about science and tradition at Ars Technica, which she will do from any geographic location.)
The title requires some clarification. Homewood Professors are a particular class at Hopkins. There aren’t lots of them. Some are conventional lecturers like well-known cosmologist Joseph Silk; others are usually not conventional lecturers, like former Senator Barbara Mikulski, musician Thomas Dolby, or former UK Poet Laureate Andrew Movement. The official documentation states {that a} Homewood Professor must be “an individual of excessive scholarly, skilled, or creative distinction whose appointment brings luster to the College.” (You see why I waited to announce till my appointment was utterly official, so no one might write in objecting that I don’t qualify. Too late!)
It’s an actual, everlasting school job — educating, college students, grant proposals, the entire 9 yards. Homewood Professors are usually not tenured, however in some sense it’s higher — the place floats freely above any particular division traces, so administrative/committee obligations are minimized. (They instructed me they may take into consideration a tenure course of if I insisted. A part of me wished to, for purely symbolic causes. However as soon as all of the ins and outs have been defined, I made a decision to not trouble.)
In apply, my time will likely be break up between the Division of Physics and Astronomy and the Division of Philosophy. I’ll have workplaces in each locations, and train roughly one course/12 months in every division. The present plan is for me to show two courses this fall: a first-year seminar on the Physics of Democracy, and an upper-level seminar on Subjects within the Philosophy of Physics. (The latter will most likely contact on the arrow of time, philosophy of cosmology, and the foundations of quantum mechanics, however all is topic to alter.) And naturally I’ll be supervising grad college students and finally hiring postdocs in each departments — let me know when you’re all for making use of!
You’ll observe that each departments have not too long ago been named after William Miller. That’s as a result of Invoice Miller, who was a graduate scholar in philosophy at Hopkins and have become a profitable funding banker, has made beneficiant donations each to philosophy and to physics. (He’s additionally donated to, and served as board chair for, the Santa Fe Institute, the place I’ll proceed to be Fractal College — our pursuits have appreciable overlap!) Each departments are already very high-quality; physics and astronomy contains mates and colleagues like Adam Riess, Marc Kamionkowski, and David Kaplan, to not point out benefitting from affiliation with the House Telescope Science Institute. However these presents will enable us to develop in substantial methods, which makes for a really thrilling time.
One good thing about being a Homewood Professor is that you simply get to decide on what you may be designated a professor “of.” I requested that it’s Pure Philosophy, harkening again to the times earlier than science and philosophy break up into distinct disciplines. (Resisted the temptation to go together with a Latin model.) That is what makes this chance so particular. I’ve all the time been interdisciplinary, between physics and philosophy and different issues, and likewise all the time had an curiosity in reaching out to wider audiences. However there was inevitably pressure with what I used to be speculated to be doing as a theoretical physicist and cosmologist. My predilections don’t match comfortably with the educational insistence on placing everybody right into a silo and inspiring them to remain there.
Now, for the primary time in my life, all that stuff I wish to do will be my job, reasonably than merely tolerated. (Or not tolerated, because the case could also be.) The oldsters at JHU need me to construct connections between totally different departments, they usually very a lot need me to each sustain with the educational work, and with the podcasts and books and all that. Since that’s precisely what I wish to do myself, it’s a uniquely good match.
I’ve had a good time at Caltech, and don’t have anything dangerous to say about it. I’ve huge fondness for my colleagues and particularly for the numerous good college students and postdocs who I’ve been privileged to work together with alongside the way in which. However a brand new journey awaits, and I can’t wait to dive in. I’ve an extended record of concepts I wish to pursue in cosmology, quantum mechanics, complexity, statistical mechanics, emergence, data, democracy, origin of life, and elsewhere. Perhaps we’ll begin up a seminar collection in Complexity and Emergence that brings totally different folks collectively. Perhaps it is going to develop right into a Heart of some sort. Perhaps I’ll write educational papers on ethical philosophy! Who is aware of? It’s all allowed. Can’t ask for greater than that.
