*I've given this post a provocative title just to jolt our minds but please read on.
Ever since I'm back home from Turin, had developed a bad cough that disrupts my sleep for almost a week now. I have also decided not to go on with my early retirement idea and will work until my retirement age of 60. This is much due to financial commitments and putting food on the table for the family. If possible, I would like to work until I'm 70 since my thinking faculty is still reliable though my physique has gone weaker. On the problems of the institute, I try not to think about it too much and leave this to the younger heads of laboratory. I think they will handle it well with incoming support from the industries. The new institute that they hope to pursue is very much different from the INSPEM that we know and I hope they succeed. I knew Dr. Rezal had the industry support for a cryptology institute even before the current restructuring exercise; the former director (Rezal's father) Prof. Dato' Kamel had told me of the idea during the transition period of the incoming second INSPEM director. I told him at the time that such intention may make INSPEM weaker and pleaded then for it not to happen. Anyway, I will play a minimal role from now on but will still support this new initiative in the hope that there is room for quantum information science to grow within the context of information security. Another aspect I would like to see developed in this new institute is data science for which my interest in this is complex networks and topological data analysis. Thus, my younger theorist colleagues may want to consider to be part of this new institute with this possible venture of these areas. It is however their choice but I would say having industries supporting the institute would be the main attraction. Another thing I need to say theoretical physics at the department will still be in the minority and may not receive much attention for some time. In fact recently I found out a junior physics lecturer started to discourage my own student to pursue theoretical physics and I find this very disappointing.
Another thing that I find encouraging coming out from this restructuring exercise that there is a possible cultural transition from simply R&D to L&D especially for our research officers. You will probably heard of L&D from Mah Kam Lin's talk in our 'Topics in Data Science' event. L&D is life and death alluding to the survival of businesses (note: L&D can also mean learning & development and I don't mean this). Below is an interview with Mah Kam Lin where she mentioned L&D.
Prof. Kuru told me that she has a physics background. The reason this was highlighted is perhaps due to some perception that looks down on physicists (and I'm not trying to project a superior image of physicists).
With all the focus in management problems recently, I also got to be interested in how our scientific thinking can help us understand human problems better. This leads me to another person with philosophy training grounded in physics, namely Dave Snowden. I have been watching quite a few of his videos. Here is one that gets up close with his ideas:
Here is another which is more technical (but conceptual) that may has relevance to our situation today:
Going back to the institute; I hope given that INSPEM is more or less closing down, we should draw lessons from the whole affair. Do note that the institute is closing down not due to its performance but more on the redundancy perception (rightly or wrongly) with the Maths Department. And there is of course politics. I hope those who are pursuing the new institute will take heed of these lessons. INSPEM will certainly be missed. Deep in my heart, however, I hope that sometime in the (far) future, there will be another opportunity of setting up a research institute that encourages fundamental and foundational research, exploring sophisticated abstract technical ideas, charting new territories of mathematical sciences. And when given such opportunity, a good question for ourselves is "Do we deserve such an institute?"
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