As far as I remember, the first time I stepped onto a university campus was in junior high school, when I visited Johns Hopkins for an awards ceremony for the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth. (I grew up in an environment that didn’t involve spending a lot of time on college campuses, generally speaking.) The SMPY is a longitudinal study that looks for kids who do well on standardized math tests, encourages them to take the SATs at a very young age, and follows the progress of those who do really well. I scored as “pretty precocious” but “not precocious enough to be worth following up.” Can’t really argue. My award was a slim volume on analytic geometry, which — well, the thought was nice.
But the campus made an impression. It was elegant and evocative in a way that was new to me and thoroughly compelling. Grand architecture, buildings stuffed with books and laboratories, broad green commons criss-crossed by students and professors talking about ideas. (I presumed that was what they were talking about). Magical. I was already committed to the aspiration that I would go to university, get a Ph.D., and become a theoretical physicist, although I had very little specific concept of what that entailed. Soaking in the campus atmosphere redoubled my conviction that this was the right path for me.
So it is pretty special to me to announce that I am going to become a professor at Hopkins. This summer Jennifer and I will move from Los Angeles to Baltimore, and I will take up a position as Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy. (She will continue writing about science and culture at Ars Technica, which she can do from any geographic location.)
The title requires some explanation. Homewood Professors are a special category at Hopkins. There aren’t many of them. Some are traditional academics like famous cosmologist Joseph Silk; others are not traditional academics, like former Senator Barbara Mikulski, musician Thomas Dolby, or former UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion. The official documentation states that a Homewood Professor should be “a person of high scholarly, professional, or artistic distinction whose appointment brings luster to the University.” (You see why I waited to announce until my appointment was completely official, so nobody could write in objecting that I don’t qualify. Too late!)
It’s a real, permanent faculty job — teaching, students, grant proposals, the whole nine yards. Homewood Professors are not tenured, but in some sense it’s better — the position floats freely above any specific department lines, so administrative/committee obligations are minimized. (They told me they could think about a tenure process if I insisted. Part of me wanted to, for purely symbolic reasons. But once all the ins and outs were explained, I decided not to bother.)
In practice, my time will be split between the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Philosophy. I will have offices in both places, and teach roughly one course/year in each department. The current plan is for me to teach two classes this fall: a first-year seminar on the Physics of Democracy, and an upper-level seminar on Topics in the Philosophy of Physics. (The latter will probably touch on the arrow of time, philosophy of cosmology, and the foundations of quantum mechanics, but all is subject to change.) And of course I’ll be supervising grad students and eventually hiring postdocs in both departments — let me know if you’re interested in applying!
You’ll note that both departments have recently been named after William Miller. That’s because Bill Miller, who was a graduate student in philosophy at Hopkins and became a successful investment banker, has made generous donations both to philosophy and to physics. (He’s also donated to, and served as board chair for, the Santa Fe Institute, where I will continue to be Fractal Faculty — our interests have considerable overlap!) Both departments are already very high-quality; physics and astronomy includes friends and colleagues like Adam Riess, Marc Kamionkowski, and David Kaplan, not to mention benefitting from association with the Space Telescope Science Institute. But these gifts will allow us to grow in substantial ways, which makes for a very exciting time.
One benefit of being a Homewood Professor is that you get to choose what you will be designated a professor “of.” I asked that it be Natural Philosophy, harkening back to the days before science and philosophy split into distinct disciplines. (Resisted the temptation to go with a Latin version.) This is what makes this opportunity so special. I’ve always been interdisciplinary, between physics and philosophy and other things, and also always had an interest in reaching out to wider audiences. But there was inevitably tension with what I was supposed to be doing as a theoretical physicist and cosmologist. My predilections don’t fit comfortably with the academic insistence on putting everyone into a silo and encouraging them to stay there.
Now, for the first time in my life, all that stuff I want to do will be my job, rather than merely tolerated. (Or not tolerated, as the case may be.) The folks at JHU want me to build connections between different departments, and they very much want me to both keep up with the academic work, and with the podcasts and books and all that. Since that’s exactly what I want to do myself, it’s a uniquely good fit.
I’ve had a great time at Caltech, and have nothing bad to say about it. I have enormous fondness for my colleagues and especially for the many brilliant students and postdocs who I’ve been privileged to interact with along the way. But a new adventure awaits, and I can’t wait to dive in. I have a long list of ideas I want to pursue in cosmology, quantum mechanics, complexity, statistical mechanics, emergence, information, democracy, origin of life, and elsewhere. Maybe we’ll start up a seminar series in Complexity and Emergence that brings different people together. Maybe it will grow into a Center of some kind. Maybe I’ll write academic papers on moral philosophy! Who knows? It’s all allowed. Can’t ask for more than that.
Congratulations!
Congratulations! I was surprised to hear that news, but your reasoning makes sense. I deeply appreciate your choice of title and the public explanation of it. You’re an inspiration to so many of us. I wish you both good luck in your new adventure.
Wow, congratulations! What an amazing opportunity.
First, congratulations!
” They told me they could think about a tenure process if I insisted. Part of me wanted to, for purely symbolic reasons. But once all the ins and outs were explained, I decided not to bother.”
Consider yourself extremely fortunate that you don’t have to worry about it. The typical academic who gets a permanent job at 40 or whatever (long after he has become no longer interesting for “industry”), making probably an average salary for his country (i.e. objectively enough, but the comparison to normal folks is iffy because of the years of job insecurity, moving house every two years*, etc.), really needs that job security to stay in academia at all, unless they are independently financially secure. As such, insisting on tenure is an act of solidarity with those less fortunate. We don’t want someone saying “Hey, Sean Carroll doesn’t have tenure; why do you think that you need it?” From there, it’s only a short step (which some have actually suggested) of doing away with permanent academic appointments altogether.
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* Note that for many that implies that it means separating the family or, if not, that the better half isn’t able to work, hence one postdoc salary for four people or whatever, which, again, is enough in normal circumstances but not when one considers the additional disadvantages of academia. I remember a senior academic telling me that if his wife hadn’t been rich, then there is no way that he could have survived working as a postdoc for a famous professor at a famous institute, and hence wouldn’t be in astronomy today.
As one of the followers of your academic and personal writing and specially as a graduated student of philosophy of science , I adore you and with best wishes for u , I like to say:
have a good time with your new position.
congratulation professor!
Welcome Sean! Look forward to meeting you. Like you, I’m a former SMPY kid who first set foot on the JHU campus for that (boring) awards ceremony and later returned as a prof.
Congratulations! It sounds like the perfect job – I wish you every success – good luck with the move, and I hope you get time to finish your ‘Biggest Ideas…’ books 😉
p.s. what about founding a Department for Cross-Disciplinary Studies ?
Have always enjoyed your video presentations. You are an talented speaker. Best of luck to both of you on this new adventure.
Congratulations, and celebrations, dee dee dee, da da da. Nope, never was much of a singer 🙂 Great news Sean, as the man who makes complex stuff understandable for tens of thousands of people everywhere, myself included, I can’t think of anyone more suited to continue in the vein of philosophia naturalis and extend the footsteps of Zabarella, Newton, Kelvin, Goethe, etc., etc. Well done!
Awesome! Congrats! I think you will raise the IQ on the East Coast!
Gary
Wonderful news! JHU can’t help but be impressed with the way you have reached out to the public with both the YouTube channel and Mindscape podcast over the pandemic. Thank you so much, and keep up the great work! Look forwards to the new book, pre-ordered already.
Congratulations Professor Sean. I wish you all the very best in your new position. The title of “Natural Philosophy” seems like an ideal fit for you. Sorry that you resisted the temptation to go for the Latin version though. I hope you, your wife – and the cats – get settled in soon and we can look forward to some more great talks and lectures on-line.
Very best wishes and Good Luck for the future.
And thanks again for all the great books and videos.
Paul C. (West Wales, UK)
I’ll follow you anywhere, Sean.
Brian Dingle
To understand the physics of democracy, one must understand the physics of war. And what it means to be human: https://mil.gov.ua/en/
Please be careful.
I wish you the best for your good work and I hope it serves a peaceful future.
Congratulations Sean, John Hopkins will certainly benefit by your addition to the facility. I loved your series “The Biggest Ideas in the Universe” l can’t wait to get your first book form of this series. Maybe you could also offer a teaching company course based on this series. I think such a course would be well received
To understand the “physics of democracy” as war by rules, one must have understood the rules of war as pure physics.
Think of the Ukrainian war – https://mil.gov.ua/en/!
All the best for your work!
Connecting different sciences will be the way to gain important progress in knowledge and well-being of human mankind. I am sure that your attitude and experiences will contribute to that progress. Good luck to you and all the people who will work with you for a better future.
Congratulations Sir. A well deserved honor!
Congratulations! I’ve heard your AIP interview podcast twice and know how much you wanted something just like this. It is a dream come true for you!! All the best and am looking forward to following this new branch in your career.
Looking forward to see what you do next at the “natural philosophy” intersection with this official sanction!
Having earned a BS in Physics and a BS in Philosophy (concentration in logic representation and reasoning), I ended up with a PhD in physics doing experimental work. But if there was more curriculum at this intersection, maybe I would have gone in a different direction!
Congratulations, Dr. Carroll! (Movin’ on up to the east side . . . ), as someone who majored in chemistry and minored in philosophy, I follow your writings quite a bit. Gifted science writers are as rare as hen’s teeth, so John Hopkins has gotten ahold of a massive asset to buff their already sterling reputation.
Oh, enjoy the crab!!
Dear Professor Carroll, as someone who spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on you podcast I’d like to congratulate you and to wish you the best of luck in your scientific and philosophical endeavor. My California “lost” one of the best scientists and educators of our time, but I’m really glad for Baltimore and JHU.
What is the “Physics of Democracy”?
As a lay admirer with an intense interest in poetic naturalism, I’m thrilled at the prospect of Sean Carroll making ever greater progress in melding physics, philosophy and emergence. Best of success in fulfilling this worthy pursuit.
Wonderful. That’s great- an opportunity to explore many related things in physics and philosophy- phd-doctor of philosophy -natural philosophy. Very much enjoyed your publications and books and Teaching Company classes… Looking forward to your new ideas and thoughts on this cross disciplinary world. I envy you… wish I had this opportunity… but I’m in my 80’s and never thought I could be in a place where I could explore such new ideas and think so expansively.