On grad students: definitely feel there is growing recognition of this amongst my faculty colleagues in the US, and amongst UK faculty who I’ve spoken with.
Hi James, I loved reading this piece. I mean I don’t love the problem, I see it everyday in my work, but I do love that you have put your finger on something big and are trying to do something about it.
Also, your comments about the idea that the UK is great at innovation but terrible at commercialization, and despondency amongst grad students that you saw both really resonated with me.
Seeing Team GB at the 2012 Olympics and Bradley Wiggins win the Tour de France that year was a huge inspiration because if they could do something right, maybe I could.
I remember when I was a postdoc and nothing would work I often wondered if being a Brit meant there was something wrong with me. “Can’t I get anything right?”
On the UK being lousy at commercialization piece, I think it probably has some basis in fact in the failures of high tech UK products like the Comet in the 1950s and the industrial collapse that started in the 1960s. But I wonder if it has become self perpetuating. I know that at some level it was a major driver for me to move to the US.
On grad students: definitely feel there is growing recognition of this amongst my faculty colleagues in the US, and amongst UK faculty who I’ve spoken with.
Hi James, I loved reading this piece. I mean I don’t love the problem, I see it everyday in my work, but I do love that you have put your finger on something big and are trying to do something about it.
Also, your comments about the idea that the UK is great at innovation but terrible at commercialization, and despondency amongst grad students that you saw both really resonated with me.
Also, I do think there is something quite uniquely inventive in UK culture.
Seeing Team GB at the 2012 Olympics and Bradley Wiggins win the Tour de France that year was a huge inspiration because if they could do something right, maybe I could.
I remember when I was a postdoc and nothing would work I often wondered if being a Brit meant there was something wrong with me. “Can’t I get anything right?”
On the UK being lousy at commercialization piece, I think it probably has some basis in fact in the failures of high tech UK products like the Comet in the 1950s and the industrial collapse that started in the 1960s. But I wonder if it has become self perpetuating. I know that at some level it was a major driver for me to move to the US.