Since I decided to blog in acufrekuensi yesterday, might as well start blogging in this personal blog since there were many significant events that have happened in the past month or so.
I guess the first thing I want to say in this post is that Roger Penrose won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for his singularity theorem. Made a short blog comment in the post here (in Malay). It sort of surprised me since work in mathematical physics are rarely considered for such award but I guess with all the recent black hole discoveries, it kind of made sense. It also delighted me since Penrose is my academic grandfather, the supervisor to my supervisor Richard Ward. I did not know Penrose personally though but I have been to a few of his lectures (face-to-face) in seminars and meetings, particularly the LMS symposia in Durham. When I posted on FB this genealogy fact, I did not mean to brag but it is certainly a delight that one is part of the tradition. I'm very much aware, intelligence does not necessarily pass down a generation after. Very much like publishing in a highly cited journal does not necessarily mean one's work will get highly cited. Nevertheless, being able to publish in such journal or being a student of a luminary is still an achievement (they are not easy). Anyway, I do not intend to make such a fuss about it and my blog post is only to tell others what I understood (on the surface) about Penrose's work. Stay humble.
Few weeks back, I have also passed the chairmanship of EQuaLS to my younger colleague, Chan Kar Tim. Just like what I've told Chan, I have been chairing EQuaLS since its beginning in 2007 until the last one in 2016 when Prof. Twareque left us then. This is not the first time I tried to let go of EQuaLS. Once in 2009, I wanted to pass it to a different university in the hope of making EQuaLS as a national event, but that didn't quite happen. Also when Prof. Twareque passed away during EQuaLS8, I thought that I would not do another EQuaLS since Prof. Twareque was quite instrumental in helping getting well-known speakers to our shores. The present EQuaLS 2020 was perhaps done with the intent of getting quantum technologies locally with the help of SpeQtral. However management is not my strength and I'm pretty much aware of criticisms on this. Thus, allow me to take a back seat and let me return to my true nature of being quiet and introverted. After many years of administration, I have enough experience to know that human problems are not easy and they are never ending. Moreover, age has caught up with me and I'm normally physically exhausted by the end of each working day and lately, I have been making plans for even early retirement. My focus now is more on graduating my students, so that the early retirement plan can be carried out.
Just last week, my brother-in-law Saharuddin passed away on the night of 2nd October. Earlier he was admitted to Seremban hospital for heart failure and was warded for roughly three nights (including one night at the emergency ward). Prior to that he had already suffered a mild stroke and was trying to recover from that. He had informed my other half and family earlier, that he wished to return to the hometown Segamat. Never did it occur to the family, that he was leaving us for good. On that early Saturday morning, we accompanied his body all the way to Segamat and he had his burial ceremony there. While I'm not that close to him, my kids are probably closer to him since he tend to joke around with the younger children.
Another major thing that is happening now is the third wave of Covid-19. The current figures of new infections are now few hundreds almost daily and once it reached nearly 700. It is indeed worrying. The current outbreak occurred after the Sabah state election (26 September 2020). At the time, the number of infections in Sabah was already rising. In my personal opinion, the 14-day quarantine should have been imposed for those returning from Sabah then, but that did not happen. When the number rose beyond the maximum of the first and second waves, I thought another nation-wide MCO (even if a short one) would have been put in place, to contain the further widespread. That too, did not happen but instead strict MCO is in place around so-called red zones (which includes my two sons' workplaces - I pray for their safety). Without MCO, infected people (especially asymptomatic ones) will still be mobile and this will make contact tracing very, very difficult. Already I have heard horrible stories about contact tracing surrounding those who went for political campaigns in Sabah (they tend to be very socially active and include some Ministers).
Soon our universities will be reopened for the new semester and the Ministry has reverted to its earlier decision of having only online classes (earlier before the third wave, face-to-face classes were being planned). Despite this, had just sent my son to IIUM just now for him to be in campus. Was a bit heavy-hearted though. I hope the authorities will take good care of the students there.
The following is a video interview of Dave Snowden predicting very uncertain future of possibly recurring closing and reopening of sectors due to this pandemic.
No comments:
Post a Comment