PhD position in mineralogical crystallography, Nancy (France)
Massimo Nespolo
I am going to have a 3-year post-doc position in mineralogical
crystallography, to investigate long period polytypes of oxybiotite from
the Ruiz Peak, New Mexico. The PhD will start in September-October but I
have to submit the CV of a candidate as soon as possible.
Candidates must fulfil some conditions, namely:
- have got the Master degree during the academic year 2007-2008
(candidates still doing their Master are acceptable, with a letter of the
supervisor), i.e. no interruption is allowed between Master and PhD.
Exceptions are allowed only for physiological (pregnancy) or pathological
(illness) conditions forcing the candidate to an interruption of 4 months
or more, or the participation to a stage abroad (no longer than one year)
- age limit: less than 30 years old at 1st January 2008
- countries: those having signed the agreement of the European Higher
Education Area (the EU countries plus Albania, Andorra, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Russia, Georgia, Island,
Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Moldavia, Norway, Serbia-Montenegro,
Switzerland, Turkish, Ukraine, Vatican).
Besides that, the candidate must have got (or get before September 2008)
his/her Master with a final note equal to or higher than 12/20.
If you know a potential candidate interested in the subject and fulfilling
the above conditions, please put him/her in contact with me.
The amount of the PhD grant is about 1100 euros per month (all taxes
already subtracted).
Thank you in advance.
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Pr Massimo Nespolo
Laboratoire de Cristallographie et de Modélisation
des Matériaux Minéraux et Biologiques (LCM3B)
UMR - CNRS 7036
Université Henri Poincaré Nancy 1
Faculté des Sciences et Techniques
BP 239, Boulevard des Aiguillettes
F54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy cedex France
tel: 03.83.68.48.85
fax: 03.83.40.64.92
massimo...@lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr
http://www.crystallography.fr/lcm3b/Pages_Perso/Nespolo/
######### Forthcoming MaThCryst Activities #########
http://http://www.crystallography.fr//mathcryst/gargnano2008.htm
http://http://www.crystallography.fr/mathcryst/istanbul2009.htm
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NoSpam
"Massimo Nespolo" <massimo...@removenospam.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr> wrote in
message news:op.t53pp...@nespolo.ad.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr...
Dear Massimo,
I am an old man, who studied a long time ago at a venerable
European university. In those old days it was the person who
got a Dokotorandenstelle based upon his course of study and
by being approved by his future thesis adivisor.
Politics and what states are acceptable could not be imagined
as an official input. But now, since we are deeply into freedom
and democracy, it appears that criteria in addition to the quality
of the candidate are imposed. Even the princely sum of 1100
Euros per month can't be an apology for the use of such political
ends intruding into a supposedly scientific endeavor.
Yours truly
GR.
Massimo Nespolo
> Dear Massimo,
>
> I am an old man, who studied a long time ago at a venerable
> European university. In those old days it was the person who
> got a Dokotorandenstelle based upon his course of study and
> by being approved by his future thesis adivisor.
>
> Politics and what states are acceptable could not be imagined
> as an official input. But now, since we are deeply into freedom
> and democracy, it appears that criteria in addition to the quality
> of the candidate are imposed. Even the princely sum of 1100
> Euros per month can't be an apology for the use of such political
> ends intruding into a supposedly scientific endeavor.
>
> Yours truly
> GR.
>
Not my fault, "GR". These are the conditions of the Ministry to get a
grant. No conditions other than having a Master degree with reasonable
marks to be accepted as PhD student, but if the candidate needs financial
support (the grant), then (s)he must fulfill the conditions imposed by the
Ministry - or get her/his grant from another source. There are locall /
regional authorities as well as industrial grants which permit to bypass
those conditions: the problem is that nothing is left for fundamental
research. Only when the PhD program is related to something that can be
sold to give a profit in a 5-year term, then private / industiral /
regional grants can be found. Sad enough, in our "developed" world, only
what produces money is worth consideration....
NoSpam
Dear Massimo,
Thank you for your explanations. They confirm my worst expectations:
there is a powerful "Ministry" and makes the rules. Basta.
In the old days universities and other institutions were given a budget.
Then they could use the budget as they saw fit. Now a bureaucratic
body sets the conditions according to objectives which an ordinary
scientist can't even guess at.
I am glad that I am old and that I have seen better days.
Cheers
GR.
Armel Le Bail
I am an old man too, but have never seen that gold age
mentioned by GR. Once recruited at a permanent position,
1- you could do what you wanted, and obtain no money to
support your research, or
2- you could obtain money and do what the politics (or
whatever) wanted.
Nothing has really changed, excepted that politics tend to
suppress the permanent positions, so that the choice 1-
could disappear in some future...
Best wishes,
ALB
Massimo Nespolo
> Hi,
>
> I am an old man too, but have never seen that gold age
> mentioned by GR. Once recruited at a permanent position,
> 1- you could do what you wanted, and obtain no money to
> support your research, or
> 2- you could obtain money and do what the politics (or
> whatever) wanted.
>
> Nothing has really changed, excepted that politics tend to
> suppress the permanent positions, so that the choice 1-
> could disappear in some future...
>
> Best wishes,
>
> ALB
>
And with the new ANR system (http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr/)
France is making the situation even worse. Money available for 3 to 5-year
research project on "frontier" topics. Plus (we learned a few days ago)
15% of the PhD grants reserved for priority areas - guess which?
Nano-Bio-Environment-some_other_fashionable_keywords. I'm afraid that to
do some structural research we will soon be obliged to present our
projects as something at the "sub-nano scale" (the Ångstrom being smaller
than the nanometer....)
Massimo
NoSpam
"Armel Le Bail" <xt...@noos.fr> wrote in message
news:47BD1042...@noos.fr...
> Hi,
>
> I am an old man too, but have never seen that gold age
> mentioned by GR. Once recruited at a permanent position,
> 1- you could do what you wanted, and obtain no money to
> support your research, or
> 2- you could obtain money and do what the politics (or
> whatever) wanted.
>
> Nothing has really changed, excepted that politics tend to
> suppress the permanent positions, so that the choice 1-
> could disappear in some future...
>
> Best wishes,
>
> ALB
Hello ALB,
If you had carefully read my response (quoted in your letter)
you would have noticed that I did not speak about conditions
prevailing for permanent positions, but for the circumstances
applying for Doktoranden, that is for PhD applicants.
Now, since your letter is a reponse to a subject I did not raise,
but I also have an interest in, allow me to reply. When I lived
in that Golden Age, which is your terminology not mine, the
concept of a security clearance was not yet known, at least where
I lived and studied. It was true that in order to obtain a permanent
and frequently a temporary post one had to be acceptable to one
of the ruling political parties. The thorough and detailed security
checks which the majority of scientific workers at least in the US
are subject to, were unimaginable in those days. I admit that I am
guessing that it is the majority. My guess is based upon personal
experience in industry, but seems to apply to the university environ-
ment as well. I have been asked repeatedly by a university profes-
sor to help him become a consultant on a classified project, so that
he too can be cleared and obtain access to funding. Reading
R.B. Laughlin's book, "A Different Universe" (by a Nobel Price
winner, published 2005) you will find ample support for my sus-
picion that there is not much the majority of scientists can do,
without being subject to government control.
In summary then I believe that funding for science has increased
sharply since the "Golden Age", but the freedom of scientists has
decreased in inverse proportion. My original post was prompted
by my observation that now even PhD candidates are subject
to government edict and control, something which was not
totally unknown in my days.
I believe that you are working in France. You might therefore
describe conditions from the point of view of a Frenchman
or, as would be even more interesting, from the point of view
of the EU.
Greetings
GR.
NoSpam
by inadvertently inserting a double negation.
The sentence:
to government edict and control, something which was not
totally unknown in my days.
to government edict and control, something which was
Sorry
GR.