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Physicist, 98, honoured with doctorate 75 years after groundbreaking discovery

theguardian.com

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Re: Physicist, 98, honoured with doctorate 75 years after groundbreaking discovery

#81

Post by jononor »

wslh wrote: post #61

I read that she received an honorary PhD but surely she fully deserve just a "PhD". Is this a UK thing? Could you in the US or elsewhere have a PhD on the merits of your work (a thesis, a discovery, etc) without spending time in the courses?

Courses is a very minimal part. The thesis is practically all of it. And standard these days in most fields is that it is a collection of published papers, with intro and outro. There is also a Dr.Philos, where one has done the work independently of a university, and they evaluate the thesis only. It is rare and very difficult though.

Re: Physicist, 98, honoured with doctorate 75 years after groundbreaking discovery

#82

Post by google234123 »

achrono wrote: post #15

Interesting that The Guardian is leading the way in finally having non-gendered headlines, i.e. not saying "Female physicist recognized 75 years after discovery" or "Rosemary Fowler, 98-year old physicist, recognized 75 years after discovery". This will hopefully pave the way for truer equality in that the most common reaction reading this headline would probably be "oh no, why has this physicist not gotten the recog…

I knew what the gender was before opening the link b/c I know how media works in 2024

Re: Physicist, 98, honoured with doctorate 75 years after groundbreaking discovery

#83

Post by satvikpendem »

teeheelol wrote: post #5

Every person I know with a PhD now in their 40s and 50s (7 people) doesn’t have a family and wished they did and didn’t have a PhD. I’d love to see a study on that. I’m never bothered because it looked like too much effort for little money.

All the PhDs I know do have families. Anecdata can work both ways.

Re: Physicist, 98, honoured with doctorate 75 years after groundbreaking discovery

#84

Post by pipe2devnull »

teeheelol wrote: post #5

Every person I know with a PhD now in their 40s and 50s (7 people) doesn’t have a family and wished they did and didn’t have a PhD. I’d love to see a study on that. I’m never bothered because it looked like too much effort for little money.

And I’ve seen the exact opposite. The 3 PhDs I’ve worked with that fit that criteria all have multiple kids.

Re: Physicist, 98, honoured with doctorate 75 years after groundbreaking discovery

#85

Post by a-french-anon »

dsugarman wrote: post #72
glitchc wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I left it ambiguous on purpose, as equivalent could mean many things, someone at least as accomplished, at least as wealthy, or at least as considerate... the list it goes on. It all depends on what that person is looking for. Seems silly to judge which attributes are important for what is a deeply personal choice with serious life implications.

that makes sense but it still seems like there is an imbalance on expectations. It reads as they're great and there's not a lot of people as great as they are when in reality it's probably more like the overlap between the set of people they desire and the set of people that desires them is impossibly narrow. This sounds like a tough personal problem that they can 100% work through by looking in the mirror and workin…

Statistically speaking, you're right, but it's still possible (especially in our brave new world) to have standards that can't suffer anymore compromise before losing the meaning of "standard" itself.

You could also simply have bad luck compounding the issue. Stuff any amount of effort or masquerade won't fix, like being a short man (inb4 "I know this small guy that...").

Re: Physicist, 98, honoured with doctorate 75 years after groundbreaking discovery

#86

Post by tim333 »

gcheong wrote: post #60
seanhunter wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High paying jobs in finance are stuffed with physics phds.

I knew a lot of physics (and other) PhD's when I worked in finance but I always wondered if they would have chosen to go into that field if they knew that's where they'd most likely end up.

Having studied physics and finance, physics tends to be much more interesting to study.

Re: Physicist, 98, honoured with doctorate 75 years after groundbreaking discovery

#89

Post by siva7 »

adolph wrote: post #65
glitchc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the danger of anecdotes, they can lead to bias. I have a PhD and I had my first child at 28. Almost all of my colleagues have families and children, except for the one person who was unable to attract a suitable mate (and not for lack of trying). Sometimes very bright people have trouble attracting an equivalent person. The pool is that much smaller and other factors (socioeconomic, culture) still play a role…

> Sometimes very bright people have trouble attracting an equivalent person. That does not sound very bright. Valuing equivalence over other attributes makes the math work against success.

It is indeed incredibly stupid if the reason why you didn't find a suitable partner is because you didn't want to lower your PhD standard (or academic requirements as if that has anything to do with stable love). Having a PhD doesn't mean you're generally bright, it just means you can do research in some narrow field.

Re: Physicist, 98, honoured with doctorate 75 years after groundbreaking discovery

#90

Post by b3nny »

fsckboy wrote: post #79
achrono wrote: post #15

Interesting that The Guardian is leading the way in finally having non-gendered headlines, i.e. not saying "Female physicist recognized 75 years after discovery" or "Rosemary Fowler, 98-year old physicist, recognized 75 years after discovery". This will hopefully pave the way for truer equality in that the most common reaction reading this headline would probably be "oh no, why has this physicist not gotten the recog…

I'm sorry you told me, I'd have never known. I didn't click on the story because I didn't want to read about a 98 yo who calls themselves a physicist and doesn't have a PhD. Yes, I'm sure there have been some, but I would have already heard of them if it was a good story.

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