what is academic freedom?

In response to feedback from current and former members of the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Mike Blanton (NYU) organized a career panel on careers outside of physics today. It was great! Three of my former collaborators—Andreas Berlind (NSF), Morad Masjedi (Brevan Howard), and Adi Zolotov (BCG)—were on the panel. They said so many interesting things I can't summarize it all here. But here are a few examples:

Zolotov said that one of the ways in which she used her physics training in her current work (which is consulting for government agencies and companies) is that she was (right from the outset) comfortable preparing and giving talks to smart, skeptical (even hostile) audiences. That's interesting! They all had interesting things to say about preparing to move out of physics; what homework should you do? The panelists were asked about writing, because Masjedi said that one of the proximal reasons for going from physics to finance was that he didn't love writing! Interestingly, Masjedi followed up by saying that he has spent his entire career without ever having to do a lot of writing. That surprises me! Berlind generalized this by commenting that the fundamental reason to leave academia is that you can find other jobs that are a better match to your interests and capabilities.

That's an interesting thought, in the context of academic freedom. As you my loyal reader knows, I love and respect academic freedom immensely. But for all my freedom to work on what I want, the modes in which I work (publishing in scientific literatures, writing grant proposals) are very constrained; almost fixed. If you are an academic, you get academic freedom. But in the real world you get the freedom to pursue and find the position and career path that matches your interests. Definitely things to think about.

One take-away though is how damned successful they all are. Zolotov spoke about building a new 20-person group within a consulting company (prior to BCG), and advising people at the highest levels of government. Masjedi spoke of analyzing and buying bonds and bond-like securities for huge clients, including even the Federal Reserve (prior to being at Brevan Howard). Berlind came straight into a Program Director position at NSF, one of the highest ranks in the agency. My loyal reader also knows that, in my view, the most important thing about this job is the people. I'm really proud of them and everything they've done.