Deep thoughts and silliness

I’ve barely seen The Beast in the last week. Aside from writing a grant application at the last moment, I went to a stats conference in Norway. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay, because my institute held its annual retreat, and I couldn’t really miss that. So I attended the first two days of the conference, including the excursion.
Like any conference, it provided much food for thought and the chance to catch up with friends. And, i was speaking so I had to write the talk too (and, um, get the results ready). The highlight was the excursion, though. I took the trip up this fjord.

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Even getting there was impressive
Eeek!
These fjords are big – my parents live in the Lake District in north-west England, which is also a former glacial stronghold, but that’s piddling compared to just this fjord (and Norway is full of ’em)
Slartibartfast’s signature off shot
We even stopped to look at some smaller houses on the way back

The actual conference really didn’t stand a chance, did it? It was the usual stats fair – some interesting stuff, but the most interesting thing I heard was on the train back to the airport (something about Markov random fields on manifolds).
I got back, and had to get up early the next day, to go to our institute’s retreat. this was actually more rewarding scientifically – I got to meet a few people, and we were also discussing how the institute should continue in our next round of funding. The social sciences people arranged the programme, and one has to give them credit for organising sessions where we could have genuine and fruitful discussions. I think the people at the top, who have to decide how to take the institute forward, now have a better idea about how to structure the research.
Oh, and there was some football on as well. The programme for the meeting was too full to have a break to watch the Germany game. This was probably a blessing in disguise.
Phew. Next week I get back to normal work. I’ll see what awaits me in my office.

A couple of week ago I asked if anyone knew about the whereabouts of Mendel’s manuscript. Nobody seemed to know, but now the New York Times has an article about it.
The short version is that the ownership is now disputed, between Mendel’s family and the Augustinians, and the state of Baden-Württemberg wants to stop the manuscript leaving Germany, because it is a state treasure (one wonders what the Czech government thinks about that). It all sounds horribly messy.

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Last year I received an email sent to a newsgroup advertising a lectureship, with the stipulation that only women should apply. My reaction was curious – initially I was slightly offended, as this was clear discrimination (yes, yes I am writing this as a white male). But the reasons for making such a stipulation were also clear: to improve the representation of women in academia, reducing the current disparity which is a result of past discrimination. I hope it’s clear that creating a position that only one sex can apply for is (viewed in isolation) is unethical. But the reason for doing this is to redress imbalances in gender equality, and allowing these imbalances to persist is surely not ethical either. A little ethical quandary: do the ends justify the means?

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Yay!
I’m in Helsinki right now, because my student is defending his thesis (it starts in just over half an hour). I might update this post during the defence, depending on how engrossed I am.

From left to right: Crispin (the student), Mats Gyllenberg (kustos, with hat), Len Thomas (opponent)
The Finnish defence is very different to the British one. In the UK (for those of you who don’t know), the thesis is handed in, and then is examined in private by an internal and external examiner. Usually the internal says little.
The Finnish system is much more formal. When the thesis is complete, it is sent to two ‘pre-examiners’. Their job is to read it and write a report saying whether the thesis can be examined. If they say it can be defended, it is then submitted to the examiner (the ‘opponent’ for the public examination.
The examination is a formal affair. As well as the student and the opponent, there is a kustos, who sits in the middle making sure everything runs smoothly, and pouring the water. All three are dressed in top and tails, or something as fancy. When they enter, everyone stands and the kustos announces the beginning of the thesis. The student starts by giving a short talk about the main themes of the thesis, after which they invite the opponent to pass their critical opinion of the thesis. The opponent then stands and give a short summary of the background to the thesis, and where it sits in the wider scheme of things. Whilst he does that, the student has to stand to. Then the real defence starts…
The actual discussion is more or less like any other defence, but it’s in public. The public’s job is to sit quietly, and judge the quality of the defence – afterwards they decide if the opponent passes or not.
After the opponent has finished grilling the student, the kustos has to wake himself and prod the student to stand up and thank the opponent for being put through hell, and then turn to the audience and tell them that if they want to make any comment on the thesis, they should ask the kustos for the floor. There then follows an embarrassed silence, as traditionally nobody asks a question. Should someone be so fool-hardy, the tradition is that the student asks them to join the party afterwards, but that they then decline the invite.
Once the kustos has decided to end the silence, they declare the thesis over, when everyone breaths a great sigh of relief. We then all depart for coffee and cake, to compare notes and congratulate the main players.
But that’s not the end of matters – in the evening there is a formal party, called a karonkka. This is a dinner, followed by speeches which have to be in a set order (student, opponent, kustos, supervisor, anyone else in the order they were mentioned in the student’s speech). After that comes the drinking and dancing. I will not be blogging that…
So I might add some more text as the defence goes on. Whilst you’re waiting, how are thesis defences done in different countries? I know a bit about a few, but not teh whole system for many. So let’s compare notes.