Is the LHC Doing Physics? March 24, 2008
Posted by gordonwatts in LHC, Tenure, physics life, university.4 comments
One one of my lasts posts about computers and HEP, Kevin left a comment.
It would appear to me that the LHC has been for many years “methods development,” yet I’m assuming a couple people already have tenure on it and more than a couple Ph Ds have been awarded for developing the technology.
As far as I know, in the USA, no institutions will give a Ph.D. for an experimentalist if they have not touched data. As far as I know, no one has managed to get an experimental LHC Ph.D. in the USA by just running Monte Carlo or working on a bit of the detector. Now, parts of the LHC have taken data — i.e. the test beam.
The point of the test beam is exactly as it sounds – we put portions of the detector in the test beam to test them out. We fire known particles at known energies into bits of the detector and make sure they react (and readout) as we expect them. If they don’t, we adjust the physics models we use to simulate them or perhaps find something wrong with the detectors and fix them. It is not common to get a Ph.D. in the USA on test beam data, but it has happened. For example, D0’s initial startup (Run I) was so delayed I think a few people did this and then remained on D0 as post-docs to get their hands on real data.
Europe is different – there you can get a Ph.D. on Monte Carlo studies or on building a detector. As far as I know, it isn’t viewed as any different than getting a Ph.D. on data.
But, if you are in the USA, what do you do? This is exactly why most HEP groups maintain a foot in more than one pie. For example, I do a lot of work on ATLAS now – but I also do a lot of work on D0. D0 is a running experiment and produces real results. My tenure decision was on D0. I could have started on ATLAS when I arrived at UW 8 years ago – there was plenty of work to do – but it was correctly seen as suicide. Instead I worked on D0. I only just now have graduate students working on the LHC. I bet if you looked at the number of US graduate students on the LHC it was rather small and is now rapidly increasing. And that is because we are finally in the time frame that these students can get a Ph.D. on LHC data.
Finally, I have heard of programs that offer Ph.D. in detector physics and accelerator physics – which is very different from the work I do. I know less about them than I should, however.
However, Kevin correctly points out, once you are past the tenure bar you can just do what you want. Want to put all your marbles in the LHC basket? Go for it – no problem! Directly addressing the implied question in Kevin’s comment – presumably the person on the LHC who is making these criticisms had to go through the tenure process. And hopefully they are applying the same standards that were applied to them. Sometimes it is hard – I went through the qualifying exam as a student. Hated it, and it wasn’t clear that it offered any net gain for me or my fellow students. I passed, and now, about 15 years later, I sometimes catch myself thinking “it wasn’t that bad…” Some people carry that to an extreme. In the tenure case this is exactly why it is necessary to consult with other people in the department to understand if this is something unique criticism held by one person or is generally shared criticism.
Final installment of this 3-part series next. 
UPDATE: Changed the tone of MC physics paragraph above.
Tenure and Physics March 21, 2008
Posted by gordonwatts in Tenure, university.6 comments
One one of my lasts posts about computers and HEP, Kevin left a comment.
After reading your blog (and enjoying it of course) for over two years now, I feel you have discussed a lot of issues in programming, ROOT, C++ vs other languages, computers and other things that are tools to do science but which are not themselves science (or at least not physics). I ask because a physics colleague of mine has recently been warned that he is doing too much methods development (and publishing on these developments).
This is a scary situation. My own tenure decision occurred while the Tevatron was struggling to get itself up off the ground. As a result the physics topics I’d been talking about when I got hired at UW were nowhere near being finished. It was a close scrape (at least, that was how I felt). I had physics in my pocket, but much of it was not yet published. UW, which has had some ridiculously good table-top experimenters – holds everyone to a rather high standard. And even under the best of circumstances a HEP person is already at a disadvantages when those standards are applied.
That said, here is my advice. You have to have the physics results. Most big research universities think developing a new method is cool — especially if it will let you do a whole new set of physics results in the future — but the method itself or the sake of the method isn’t all that interesting. The physics results and potential to do physics results is. I have seen people in HEP, for example, get overly involved in the methods development and lose track of the physics side of things. It does hurt them – and this chestnut is true outside of HEP as well.
Now, it would appear that your colleague is not in particle physics but is in table top physics (or similar). One thing that goes into a tenure judgement is expected performance in their field. For example, a theorist is expected to have n-papers per year (I’m not kidding; I’ve heard this said), a table top experimenter isn’t expected to do much their first two years as they build up their lab, but then a good paper every 6 months or so (depending on the challenge they’re facing, of course). In that sense, the tenure decision depends on what subfield you are working in.
Finally, if only one colleague has made this criticism well, it may be that it can be ignored. The first thing to do is ask others in the same sub-field (who have tenure, preferably) if enough work is being done. Often departments will have a formal review process – make sure to have frank discussions during that review process. Make sure to have tenured friends in the faculty that can report on discussions that happen in closed meetings. Finally, look one can look at other people at other institutions in the same field — especially the ones that are perceived as “hot shots.” What are they doing differently? Sometimes it is just a matter of a high wattage bulb burning brightly, other times you can see strategic decisions they made – copy them!! I guess most of this is common sense, but it never hurts to repeat it!
More tomorrow on Kevin’s comment.
