Prince Calming

Prince Calming refers to a senior faculty member at N1, who is one of my mentors here.  As his pseudonym suggests, he is a calm and quiet person, not much given to display of emotions or making authoritative statements/judgements about anything or anyone at N1.  He pretty much keeps to himself and is rarely seen at our tea shop/faculty mess - the two famous hotspots for N1 gossip.

At the same time, however, he is very well informed about institute affairs and does not shy away from expressing his opinion and taking a stand on important matters.

He does so, without making a big noise and more often than not, accomplishes his objective.  Then, he moves on to other things.

One of his most endearing qualities is that he keeps an eye out for the well being of his younger colleagues.  Many of us freely approach him if we have any questions or concerns about professional matters and receive useful and effective advice from him.  

In the last fortnight, I faced some difficult situations at N1 and was a frequent visitor to his office.  It also happened that one day, we both had to travel together to a nearby city (about two hours drive away) for some important institute work.  I learnt a lot of things while conversing with him and I am sure he won't mind if I shared some of them on this blog (although I am equally sure that he does not know about the existence of this blog.)

For starters, just a day before our trip, I had had a bit of a showdown with another colleague in PC's presence about an institute matter.  We had a difference of opinion about something and since this other colleague has a habit of continuously talking without giving others a chance, I ended up raising my voice and sharply contradicting him.  I believed then (and still do) that my point was valid, but I could have certainly put it across in a softer voice :)

During the drive to the nearby city, I asked PC how he manages to remain calm in the face of extreme provocation.  With a smile he answered, "it comes with age."

"Can you please elaborate on that," I asked, not content with his cryptic reply.  He obliged me by telling me some stories from his first few years in his faculty position, when his reaction to certain events at his former institution were similar to mine above.  However, unlike me, after some of his outbursts, he got into trouble.  I found it very difficult to relate PC's current personality to the stories he was telling me and thought, "wow, there's hope for me!"

One day, I was feeling very overwhelmed about some problems and asked PC for advice.  Instead of encouraging my ranting, however,  PC immediately pointed out that the trait that could be most harmful to one's career is negativity.  N1 is not perfect - no place is.  But, as a responsible member of this institute, if someone feels that something is amiss or needs to be corrected, one should take initiative and bring it up confidently with the concerned people/committee.  This is much more useful than gossiping about the problem.  He then gave some more examples of some issues that he had faced and how he resolved them.  "But, Dr PC, " I asked, "in your position and at your stage of career, you can bring up issues fearlessly and people will listen to you, where as, if I bring them up, I will be immediately branded a trouble maker."  

He again corrected me and said that as a member of N1 community, I have every right to raise an issue and should do so.  However, he also warned against expecting results overnight.  The gist of his advice seemed to be to take up the matter and pursue it patiently. 

This was a timely wake-up call to me before I drifted into complacence and negativity.

Yet another occasion on which PC gave me some useful advice was after a meeting.  I was extremely annoyed at an administrative official who, I felt, had made a disparaging and factually wrong statement about our department.  I asked PC if I should confront this person.  PC said that if I really felt so strongly about it, I should do so, but that I should wait for 24 hours before writing or talking to this person.  As it turned out, those 24 hours were enough for me to calm down and realize that (a) I had misunderstood the context in which this statement was made and (b) I was not the right person to bring this up, anyways.  Incidentally, this reminds me of my PhD supervisor, who once said that the "reply" tab in the email inbox should be renamed "reflect".

I am now out of "the blues" [even literally so as the monsoons seem to be ending] and learning to do my job, calmly and effectively, thanks to interesting experiences and mentors like PC.

I would love to hear back from readers who have learnt important socio-administrative lessons from other mentors.  From the more senior readers, of course, I would truly appreciate more advice and tips :)

Course work: How much/little is too much/little

In the comments thread of the previous post, Hary raised an important point, namely coursework for PhD students.  Hary's perception is that PhD students at new institutes do not have enough course work before starting their research work, since faculty are too busy teaching the undergraduate courses.

Some people are of the opinion that new institutes should have started their PhD programmes after becoming well established and after their permanent campuses are fully ready and equipped.  There is much to be said for this viewpoint.
However, I feel that waiting so long before starting a doctoral program would have been detrimental to their primary objective of combining strong undergraduate teaching along with conducting research activities.  I am not sure how wise it is for any NIIX to restrict its research activities to undergraduate theses and summer research programs for the next 5 to 10 years.  NIIXs are also hiring people who are expected to do research and for many of these people, having students is essential for progress in their research programs.  So, having a well structured PhD program is one of the top priorities of these institutes.  The training of their first few students and what these students do with their PhDs will go a long way in determining the future of these institutes.

Course work, we all agree, is an important component of a PhD programme.
However, not all agree about how much course work a student needs before embarking on research.  For example, the course work that my departmental colleagues and I did as PhD students was more intensive than what PhD students in our department at N1 do. However, whenever my colleagues and I raise the issue of increasing the course requirements for our students, colleagues at other departments disagree with us because they feel that their students do not need as much course work.  So, at the moment, we have balanced all view points by asking students to do some minimal number of foundational courses, upon which all departments agree.  I don't think that determining the course requirements has anything to do with a shortage of faculty: the departments who insist most on less mandatory course work are in fact the departments which have a very high number of faculty members.

After this requirement is fulfilled, the student's advisor will direct the student to sit in for more courses which the advisor considers important for the student.  The student can also voluntarily attend classes that he or she is interested in.  For example, next semester, I will be teaching a course for final year undergrads at N1.
I have asked my PhD student to take this course because he cannot possibly start working on his thesis problem before taking this course.  He will take this course not just informally, but also do all the work required from those who credit this course, that is, do the assignments and write the exams.  Since he is a little senior to the other students in the course, the expectations from him will also be higher.
Likewise, he will be encouraged to take more courses in the future if they are relevant to his training.

For some part of this semester, he is visiting an older institute, which is running a special program in my area of research.  He will be attending some lectures given by an expert on a topic which is very important for his future project.  So, to answer Hary's question, like me, many supervisors encourage their students to spend time in Ox type institutes and do some course work, although there is no formal exchange programme.  Many of us are aware of the exposure that our students need and encourage students to make good use of opportunities available outside N1.  At the same time, however, we also don't want students to lose their focus on their research project by traveling too much, at least in the initial stages of their training.

Another resource which I hope we can utilize is our recent connection to the National Knowledge Network, which now gives us access to very high speed internet.  This month,  a senior professor in North America will be giving a series of lectures on a weekly basis which both my student and I will attend.  All that we need is to connect via gmail webchat and have the professor's webcam facing the board on which he will write (or the screen on which he will project his slides).  This way, if Mohammed cannot go to the mountain, the mountain can come to Mohammad.

With more technology, of course, one can have virtual classrooms on a larger scale in which we get instructors from all over India and the world.  This could be one more way of giving more exposure to students who would like to attend more seminars or lectures and interact with research groups in other institutes.

I would like to ask readers the following questions:

If you are a supervisor, how much course work would you like your student to do before s/he starts working on the thesis topic? Do you encourage your student to attend more courses in the later stages of his/her training or would you prefer that the student focus entirely on their research project?

If you are a student, how much importance do you give to course work as part of your PhD training?  Do you consider the course requirements at your institute or university as too much or too little or just right?

Naysayers

A few days ago, a colleague C invited a senior collaborator to visit N1 for a few days to discuss their research project.  C had hoped that since the collaborator is a well known and senior researcher in their field, his presence would have a positive effect on their department and that the senior visitor would give them some input about department activities like their graduate program, which is being built from scratch.

The senior researcher, let's call him SR, agreed to visit N1 for two days.  However, his visit totally belied C's expectations.  All that SR had to offer was criticism and disdain.  Some of his comments, at their best, could be interpreted as impatience with the newness of N1 and at their worst, as showing no faith in the future of N1.
After SR left, C was depressed for some time and doubted his decision to join N1.
But, he got over it soon and decided not to take SR's comments too seriously.

Perhaps, SR meant to offer constructive criticism, but it just came out the wrong way.  Perhaps, this was SR's way of showing concern for C, for whom he wanted the very best.  Or perhaps, SR is a jerk with an inflated opinion of himself, who could not appreciate the hospitality of a department which had invited him with a lot of goodwill.  I do not know him well enough to decide.

SR is not unique in writing off N1 and I have met others with similar views about N1-type institutes.  If I am in a good mood, I think, "Oh well.  These people have got used to working in a certain environment and cannot imagine that people can adjust to and stay happy in environments different from theirs." If I am in a bad mood,  I deplore their prejudice and lack of vision.[1]

Nonetheless, what concerns me is that by making disparaging comments, scientists like SR are possibly discouraging their PhD students and postdocs from applying to new institutes.  This is not good for my department (and similar departments in other new institutes), who are trying very hard to hire and retain good people.  This is also not good for those students and postdocs, who might only apply to limited institutes and restrict their options.

Perhaps, this is not as serious as I have made it out to be.  I welcome feedback from readers.

For those of you who are planning to enter the job market or who already have a job(anywhere in the world), how important is/has been your supervisor/mentor's opinion about your potential employer to you?[2]

For my senior readers, did you or would you discourage your PhD student or postdoc from applying to a new institute?

If my PhD student ever approaches me for advice about choosing a job, I would say something along the lines of a comment made by Vijay, while answering a question raised in a previous post:

"Today, I would focus on joining a research institution or university, young or old, that is fun to be in and wants me. The two criteria, fun to be and one which wants you, appear simple but are not. If you manage such a place, you have it made and the equipment will take care of itself."




[1] I do so mentally, of course - I cannot imagine the consequences if I were to say that aloud.  
[2] I consulted my PhD advisor before taking my final decision.  I think I would have made this choice even if he did not have a great opinion of N1.  However, his positive views were certainly very encouraging and meant a lot to me.