Author Archives: Stephen

A Declaration on Bicycle Assessment

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Stephen

You’d think assessing bicycles would be a lot easier than assessing researchers, but I’m not so sure. Though I spend quite a bit of time as chair of the DORA steering committee pondering how best to evaluate research and researchers, … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | 4 Comments

To the sea

Posted on July 18, 2022 by Stephen

With emails running alongside, barking for attention, we beat a retreat from London. The clamour of work was soon swamped by the heat and light and sights and sounds and smells of Barcelona, and by the newness and oldness of … Continue reading →

Posted in Scientific Life, Travel | Tagged Spain | Comments Off

Message for my reader

Posted on July 10, 2022 by Stephen

For the longest time I have been meaning to get back to—ugh!—blogging. Regular readers, should any remain, will see that this is the first post of 2022. I haven’t broken any promises with the hiatus and have no excuses to … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging | 7 Comments

Books of the Year

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Stephen

One final look back before I turn to face 2022. Following a practice started last year, I have maintained a thread of tweet-sized reviews of the books that I read in 2021 – all of them. There are only eighteen in … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | 3 Comments

Photographs of 2021

Posted on December 30, 2021 by Stephen

Continuing the theme of gently exercising the writing muscle by composing posts made mostly of pictures, I present here the round-up of what I think are the best photographs that I took in the past year. 2021 has been a … Continue reading →

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In the garden

Posted on December 27, 2021 by Stephen

What is it about living through a pandemic that has quelled the motivation to write? I suspect it may have something to do with the unstructuring of time, or rather its reduction through confinement to rhythms dulled by repetition. Whatever … Continue reading →

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For my mother

Posted on November 30, 2021 by Stephen

Black masked, weighed down by grey grief, We carried you into the church To be wrung out of our sodden farewells. But you had already gone. It was a slow journey to that sombre altar. In the last years the … Continue reading →

Posted in Scientific Life | 3 Comments

A Reckoning with Huxley’s Legacy

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Stephen

Recognition and Redistribution for Imperial College’s Community This is a guest post by my former colleague, Dr Rahma (Red) Elmahdi, in which she lays our her reaction to the Imperial College History Report, and in particular the recommendation to rename the Huxley … Continue reading →

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The Huxley Question

Posted on November 19, 2021 by Stephen

Writing in The Observer a couple of weeks ago, Kenan Malik cast a sceptical eye over a report published by the history group at Imperial College that had been asked to reflect on “the current understanding and reception of the … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science | 3 Comments

To be or not to be exceptional?

Posted on May 23, 2021 by Stephen

I can’t remember how I came across this video from philosopher Alain de Botton, but I feel seen. Like many academics, I guess, I have always prized scholarly achievement. And of course, within our systems of research assessment, we are … Continue reading →

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Books of 2020

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Stephen

I made what I think was a smart move at the beginning of 2020. Instead of waiting until the year’s end and then struggling to recall what I thought of the books I had read, I created a Twitter thread of … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | 4 Comments

Photographs of 2020

Posted on December 27, 2020 by Stephen

My computer tells me that I took over 2,400 photographs in 2020. Here are my favourites. I’m afraid I have failed to whittle them down to fewer than seventy-five. Click on the first image, taken on a winter walk on … Continue reading →