Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience


Research universities have three critical, irreducible functions: knowledge creation, education, and engagement. Each sustains the others.

By its nature, research is a long game, for basic research and scholarship expand the collective body of human knowledge.

One group was dressed in t-shirts, shorts and sandals and would have blended nicely with the nearby beachgoers. The second group was dressed in conservative business suits that would not have drawn a second glance in the corporate world. Imagine my surprise when I saw members of both groups entering the building where I was…