Professor Torsten Wiesel 1981 Nobel Laurate in Medicine for his work on how the retinal cells in the eyes receive light and how the brain conjures an image, is now in town for a series of visits to our research universities. He was in DLSU earlier and proceeded to UP Diliman. He will visit other universities in his tour of the country.
Over merienda at the Board of Regents (BOR) room at Quezon Hall, UP administrators briefed the professor about the University’s plans to further push forward our scientific development. Prof Wiesel is no stranger to the problems and pitfalls administrators face, for after receiving the Nobel, he became president of the Rockefeller University. Upon stepping down from this post, he assumed leadership of the Human Frontier Science Program which promotes and funds interdisciplinary collaboration between the sciences and helps train postdoctoral scientists.
Professor Wiesel in these various engagements, advises government research bureaucracies on how they can make their science become more globally competitive.
I was in the meeting at the BOR room and Prof Wiesel struck me as your Hollywood stereotype of the kind professor, and not of the Einstein type but not of the Tuesdays with Morrie kind either. [BTW Einstein was regarded by students as hard to deal with and thus he only successfully graduated one PhD]
The sharp as a tack 85 year old prof commented on one of the powepoint presentations of the administrators. He remarked “A blue background is sure to put your students to sleep!” Well we take that as a very expert assessment from one who won a Nobel on describing how eyes can really see!
But beyond that he was concerned about problems (much related to our bureaucratic culture) on how science is administered. The prof knows that while science especially in the 21st century is given much attention by those who hold the government purse, it can never be THE PRIORITY for funding over social services and other issues that can deliver the votes. The professor was confused with appellations of putting the word “national” on our academic and research institutions. For instance the UP is the National university. The professor understands that in other countries such as in Singapore, a national university is assured of the money and it is expected to deliver. He was perplexed at first to learn that UP while national, is not assured of getting the money.
He also had some observations on why UP and other universities have a lot of graduate students but graduate just a few of them. This is a waste of resources. His suggestion is to make the admission of grad students more competitive. I believe the prof saw the problem clearly. Getting into a UP grad program is infinitely easier as compared to getting into an undergraduate program.
The problem is so evident in the UP PhD programs which in the sciences manages to graduate only 13 a year. In other universities of good reputation such as DLSU, Ateneo or UST, it is usual that 1 or 2 or at most 5 PhDs are produced. In contrast as the prof says eminent research universities graduate 50 or more PhDs. This is true. When I got my degree in Australia, we were 30 PhDs in the class and my university was much smaller than the more eminent Sydney and Melbourne.
Of course there are a lot of reasons some of which are particular to the Pinoy why many can’t get through the grad program. But all of these reasons are solvable. Dean Caesar Saloma of the science college says its the lack of mentors and these mentors should be scientists who do publish. Indeed we need to develop more of this science culture.
There were lots of issues that were brought up to Prof Wiesel and at the end he seemed like a father-confessor! One of the senior academics from UP Manila said he was like the Pope! Perhaps the comparison is apt for Papa Ratzinger is known to listen, give sharp pointed advice and crack an academic joke (which mere mortals are won’t to get!) I won’t dwell on these issues like academic “inbreeding” since it’s for academe and for most readers this may not be relevant.
One issue that should interest readers is how universities can really serve as S&T incubators and in the end contribute much to the national economy. The prof has had lots of experience (as Rockefeller U prez) in getting these tech start ups up and running. He says that the university linked S&T incubators in China contribute about 2 billion USD to the economy. And when these technologies go mainstream, the returns are geometric. The UP and to some extent Ateneo and DLSU envision that their schools will be catalysts for this kind of enterprise. UP has started in its technohub venture with Ayala but the promise is still to be seen. So far everybody knows it is a BPO hub.
Prof Wiesel advices Pinoy academics that these S&T incubators will only deliver its promise if the academics themselves adopt a more daring interdisciplinary view of things. This would imply a major shake up of how university bureaucracies are run which at present promotes departmental isolation. He suggests that academic departments and even the various UP campuses be daring enough to set up shop at the technohub (which should facilitate departments to collaboratively how to hatch projects). He gives the example of UP Manila’s health sciences research units. Medicine should not limit itself to clinical research but look into the potential of basic science research which can be incubated as new medical technologies. The best place to do that is in UP Diliman’s technohub since UP Diliman is strong in the basic natural sciences like physics, chem, biology and environment.
Professor Wiesel advises Pinoy academia and science bureaucrats to promote “Brain circulation” and not just ‘brain gain”!
At the end of the merienda I was convinced that this Nobel laureate who did ground breaking studies in vision has vision.
But the prof knows all about the upcoming election and he hopes that the new prez will be a science president.
BTW, the chismis is that one of the professor’s hosts in the Philippines is a presidentiable who has a shot at winning the Palace. However it immediately dawned to us that the prof isn’t seeing yellow! :-)
Popularity: 1% [?]
so this blog is hoping for a Science President?
Yes. A science prez realizes that S&T is crucial to our economic development. Despite her flaws, GMA is the first prez to really understand that. We hope that her successor will even more appreciate that.
blackshama: I shake my head — do you mean acute? obtuse? rectangular? curvilinear? — I am sure you mean something positive (like astronomical???) when you said “returns are geometric”.
UP Diliman needs Ayala or even Villar — deep pockets, can afford low-probability but very high-returns gamble — to partner with this model of using S&T hubs to create ideas that generate new business ventures.
@ UP n grad
I meant what I learned in Math 17 (Algebra and Trigo) geometric progression! Well China did realize it that what it incubated in the 1980s and 1990s have paid much dividends. Then we were just swept away with the idea that EDSA 1 was a miracle!
Now methinks you guessed it right who was the presidentiable who brought this Nobel Laureate here!
Now if we see yellow in the next 6 years, we may pray more for miracles rather than do science! :-)
Whom needs science when you can pray on your knees for
miracles. Fire and brimstones will rain from heaven to
destroy your enemies.
How on earth can the country embrace science when its educational system is in the hands of friars and religious wingnuts?
La Salle, Ateneo, UST, San Beda, San Agustin, San Sebastian, College of Immaculate Conception this, St. Mary’s Institute that, Divine Grace College of Science and Technology, St. Martha’s Academy, Holy Infant Kindergarten school…
Jeebus!
Prof Wiesel noted that too!
Too much emphasis on religion. This emphasis was established by the Spanish Colonialist who use religion to control the colony and the natives. Religion was used by the: Egyptian Pahraohs; the Inca High Priest King; the Emperors and Popes of the Holy Roman Empire; the Spanish Colonialists; the Muslim Jihadists; the Japanese militarists, etc…
There is a great difference in living with the religious
Gospels from the Holy Books. And practicing your religion
as: Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, agnostic, atheist, etc…
Religious teachers: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH!
Universities in the United States are helped by private grants and
foundations. There are very rich people who leave their wealths like:
Endowment of Sciece; Endowment of Arts; Endowment of Research on Cancer
of every kinds, etc… These people leave billions of dollars. Like
the wealth of of late Howard Hughes. He left his billion dollars wealth
to a science research facility.
The government and the research facilities work together also in the
following research: military, defense, aviation, energy, health, etc…
Unlike the Philippines. Research facilities do not depend mainly on
government funding. The PhD program in the Philippines deals mostly
on books. Not on inovativeness. Too much academic.
Time to do away with the ‘Blue Book’ during mid term or final exams?
Time to drop the word ‘national’ from the UP-National Center for Public Adminisration and Governance or UP-NCPAG?
Time to accept only from 2 to 5 students in any doctoral program of study and graduate only the same number of students in the program so as to satisfy the requirements of “zero-wastage”?
If I can follow blackshama’s drift, it may time as well to bring back GMA in the highest seat of power so that she infuses a big chunk of money to UP again for – the sciences?
Obviously, UP-NCPAG has become inter-disciplinary in approach and therefore has veered away from so-called ‘departmental isolation’, if my perception is not a mistaken one.
The word national should be dropped since the University is now a national university. You have a National College of Public Administration and Governance in a national university. This sounds redundant.
Also most competitive departments in good universities in the world have only 2-3 PhD students per prof. So NCPAG with its 15 PhDs should have just 30 PhDs at one time that can be well supervised and come up with good contributions to knowledge and this can only be assessed by the number of publications that come out.
A PhD student is a major investment of the university and the student concerned, and if he/she is a student of the national university, of the nation also. That’s why we have to ensure that the PhD student as much as possible according to high standards, earns his/her credentials, do groundbreaking research and come up with innovative ideas that would boost teaching and help advance our economy.
In good universities, the PhD completion rate nears 100%
For PhD training, I believe that we should do away much with the blue book and assess the students for their ability to do innovative research. That’s following the European model though.
You don’t need GMA to boost science and the humanities. What we need is a President with vision. Now the presidentiables sorry to say have not said anything much with this regard. We should take off the yellow, orange, green what have you tinted glasses.
I say drop the religious occult virus in our schools and then, and only then, can we do real science.
It’s not really too much religion but too much non-thinking. A Non thinking attitude does much to discredit to both science and religion. Now in this country, a majority profess the Catholic religion. The whole system of Catholic belief requires reason for assent. Unfortunately they don’t teach much of that.
And i say that framing a science program or science culture on catholic terms is devious to say the least.
Don’t forget that Science as we know it now has the Catholic Church as its mother! It was the theological method of the Church that gave birth to Science.
Roger Bacon, William of Ockham, Albertus Magnus all priests and all scientists. All founders of Science and one of them is a saint.
However science had to be part ways from the Church for its own good.
“Don’t forget that Science as we know it now has the Catholic Church as its mother! ”
It’s the Moslems who got there first (Catholicism is a relatively young religion). Without the Islamic scholars and emphasis on science and propagating scientific texts the science as we know it won’t be……..even the concept of ‘degrees’ and ‘phd’s are borne out of madrassas.
How a very science-based religion has devolved over centuries is another matter.
So is that a case of a lousy mother?