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Showing posts from December, 2025

Tenure and Promotion. Again.

 When you start a PhD program in the sciences, there are generally two options advisors suggest (or push towards): becoming a professor like them, or working in private industry like a laboratory. Some knowledgeable professors might suggest looking into the government as well, but it's basically be a professor or work in a lab of some kind. This represents dominant thought in Academia for decades. And, on a psychological level, it makes sense: "...this is what I did, and therefore what I know, so you must do it too..." It's also tradition that, once you get a tenure-track gig, you stay at that location because...well...you need to earn tenure. And I don't use the term "earn" lightly. It takes a LOT, and I've blogged about it previously (though the links on that blog no longer work). Basically, earning tenure means your work-to-date is evaluated by your peers -- by people you do NOT know and who are likely giants in your field. They look over everyth...