Ursula Bassler

SpinDoctors - Hot and Tired

It's hot, I am tired, I am watching TV, while ironing. Arte shows a very interesting documentary on “Spin Doctors” during election campaigns in different countries. One of the Russians, who did the campaign for Boris Yeltsin says “votes are emotional, therefore it is spoiled money to print 2 page flyers, and completely useless to print a 300 page program”. Wow.

He is right. I just got election material for the Scientific Council of the CNRS. Included are about 5 different “profession de foi” – 2 pages from each list, each presented by one of the Unions. So far, I must admit, I just threw them away. I didn’t bother to learn about the subtle differences of each Union, I don’t know any candidate on any of those lists and whatever they write, well, they are all in favor of research, no? Maybe I am just too lazy?

There are a couple of elections concerning the CNRS and the University, but except if I know someone I like, I don’t vote and I think I behave really lousy: I work for an organization that proposes democratic structures, but I don’t use them at all! I have no idea how high the participations are – I am probably not the only one acting like this. Or maybe yes?

If generally the participations are low, shouldn’t there be something done about this? At least for local University Election? It would be nice for example, if the candidates present themselves in a public meeting. For the whole of CNRS thinks are already more complicated. Or is this just bring back elections to an emotional level?

It is clear that I just behave like average. People need TV and the media to have an opinion and an emotional attachment to a politician in order to vote for him. This is probably also a reason, why there is such a low participation in the elections for the European Parliament: no one knows the candidates and what they are doing.

A last thought concerning “Spin Doctors”: communication is a lot, but not everything, there is a level of reality that will bite you back. If there is no basis for people to feel satisfied with the political situation, because of economics, war, security, the situation will turn around. However, even those feelings are influenced up to a certain point by the media.    

JR got his PhD!!!!!!!!

Hey, you can’t imagine how happy I feel! Jean-Roch my student defended his PhD today:"Mesure de la section efficace de production de paires de quark top/anti-top dans des collisions proton/anti-proton a sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV aupres de l'experience D0". He really did an excellent job. I am very proud of what he achieved and superb presentation he gave today. Congratulations Jean-Roch!

During the last weeks, I wondered sometimes if I should write about the preparation of his PhD, the perspective of the supervisor to complete Caolinn’s view of student. But then I felt, that it was Jean-Roch’s PhD and I didn’t want to drag him into this. And he is looking for a job!

However it was something to choose the jury to check for their travel arrangements, to correct the manuscript with the help of Sophie, Bernard and Gregorio, to have long discussions about the content, to make rehearsals of the defense and to think together about questions that could be asked. Yes, I felt nervous until everything was done, and so relieved when I heart all the positive appreciations from the jury.

The first step in France for a PhD, besides having worked for three year in getting a result, is to present a jury to the thesis commission of the University. The jury comprises, 2 rapporteurs, Arnulf Quadt and Sylvie Lees-Rosier, a professor from the University, Jacques Chauveau, the supervisor, me, and up to 2 other members, Barbro Asman from Stockholm and Jean-Eudes Augustin, our lab director, who presided the jury. At least half of the jury members must come from outside the University and the lab; surprisingly half of the jury members were women. One problem we had was Arnulf not having defended his habilitation yet and therefore the commission requested a special letter from his University.

The two “rapporteurs” get the manuscript first, and they have to handle in a written report 3 weeks before the defense, concluding if or if not the thesis work merits to be defended. As Jean-Roch broke his leg, while he was writing up, we were a little late giving the manuscript to Arnulf and Sylvie, Sylvie had to leave for a conference, and things got tight to have the commission accepting the defense in time, but we managed.

In France, a PhD defense in Science comprises a presentation of the thesis work during about 45 minutes, then questions from the jury about the work that was presented, which takes another 45 minutes. The defense is public, and besides the members of the lab, and from the same experiment in other labs also the family and friends assist. Unfortunately it was so hot, that many colleagues of the neighboring labs didn’t make it all the way down to Paris.

After this public part, the jury retires to deliberate and write a report about the defense. In our University, the “felicitations du jury” - suma cum laude, are not given anymore, and the jury decided among “tres honorable” and “honorable”. Jean-Roch got “very honorable” without any difficulty. Then the jury gets back, everyone stands up and Jean-Roch got declared a “doctor of the University Paris VI” – I felt close to crying!

Jean-Roch organized a nice “pot” afterwards, and went finally for dinner with the jury members from outside – with Barbro, Arnulf and Gregorio, we were chatting, and drinking a little more, Arnulf nearly missed his train back to Munich. I was so exhausted after all – the tension, the heat, the drinking – uff, it’s done!

What I appreciated especially working with Jean-Roch, is his independence, his autonomy and the fact that he is going his own way with sincerity. Good luck Jean-Roch, I am sure that you will make something nice out of it!

Gay Pride

I never think about the Gay Pride, but every year, I go to the lab on this particular Saturday in June afternoon, and get directly into it. Unfortunately this year, I was too early for it to have started and I had a timely appointment in the lab – so no chance to take some funky pictures for you.

But today we gathered at a friend’s place, Vero, who invited us for an aperitif, a small bunch, all about around 40ish. Some talked about how much fun the gay pride was and how happy we are to live in countries where such events can happen freely.

Vero is working for the “Beaux-Arts” magazine, and came just back a couple of month ago from taking a year of, with a trip to Brasilia. She thought about changing job, but finally got back to her old position, however approaching it quite differently, leaving more space to things she would develop besides. We started talking how we felt in our respective jobs, and many are looking for changes, in one way or another. Marc is teaching economics at Science Po, one of the French Grand Ecoles, and he will be starting to teach in a newly proposed course “Science and Politics”, a collaboration between Science Po and our University, Paris VI. How exciting! His friend, Stephane, teaches History at Poitiers and is a specialist in Spanish History of the 19^th century, rather looking for something else. We’ll meet again in six months, to see how things developed. It seams like there are many people who would like to use their competances in different fields, but this is not realy foreseen in the current structures and institutions, at least in Europe. Maybe it's up to our generation to create these opportunities.

Later, Stephanie joined us, she spent her afternoon in prison: she is a TV-journalist, and preparing a documentary film about Islamic fundamentalism in prison. She feels disgusted: major TV stations, except for Arte, do not look for truth, but simply for sensations that will bring audience. Stephanie said, that there are maybe about 10 cases in whole of France, of prisoners involved in fundamentalist networks, yet, the film is about to come out, as if this is one of the major problems all over France. And I dreamt about doing documentary films! 

TGV to ECFA at CERN

The best thing that French invented besides snails in herb butter, blue cheese with red wine and  fois gras with sauternes (sorry, I know it’s not politically correct), is undoubtfully the TGV. TGV (train a grande vitesse) are fast, comfortable (even in second class) and clean. The barkeepers are generally friendly and serve you very special Croque Monsieurs and blackberry yogurt – only “slightly” overpriced. Contrarily to what you might believe, the French TGV are in average more often on time than the German railways, and if they are late by more than 30min you get a partial reimbursement of your ticket – contrarily also to the behavior of airlines. The TGV leaves from the middle of town, and you can get still get on 10 seconds before its departure. If you miss your train, you can exchange your ticket for another one, most of the time even when you are too early. Your body doesn’t swell because of the depressurization and it doesn’t make you suffer from jetlag. The only downside – it doesn’t take you overseas, well except on day with the transatlantic tunnel...

I went to the ECFA meeting at CERN with the TGV. ECFA is the “European Committee for Future Accelerators” and I am assisting to the bi-yearly plenary sessions, to give the a summary afterwards in our lab. At every ECFA meeting, the ECFA-chair (Brian Foster, it was his last meeting as ECFA chair) is giving a report, as well as the CERN  (Robert Aymar) and DESY (Albrecht Wagner) directors. The most interesting part has been the discussion of an initiative taken by the CERN Council to form a steering group in order to define the strategy for  particle physics in Europe for the next 10 years. In principle I always thought that this was the role of ECFA, but in the CERN council representatives from all member state governments participate, which means that they can also address the financial issues. However, and this has been stressed in Albrecht Wagner’s report, care has to be taken, that there is no conflict of interest between CERN, CERN Council and all the other labs and institutions in Europe.

During the meeting I noticed some participants reading the quantum diaries on their laptops. This always makes me nervous, evn though their comments are generarly nice. But maybe that's why it took me so long to publish the latest drafts.

Faites de la musique

Gosh – I am really getting older ! For the first time this year, I really didn’t care for the “Fete de la Musique!” Every year on June 21^st, everyone who feels vaguely like a rockstar, a classical virtuoso or simply with a big push for making noise, goes down into the streets of Paris for the “fete de la musique”. Invented by Jack Lang, Mitterand’s charismatic minister for culture more than 20 years ago, la fete de la musique became a real institution. The newspapers print extra sections with the more organized gigs, the metro is open the whole night long and the question before the 21^st is “what are you gonna do for the fete de la musique”. No need to say what the question on the 22^nd is.

Well this year, I had tickets from a friend to see some dance at the “Theatre de la Ville”, Emmanuelle Huyhn. I’ve met her a couple of years ago at a party, in fact rather her boyfriend, and she was very irritated afterwards: no kidding, we only chatted the whole evening. Now, I was annoyed by the performance. Maybe dancers are generally too young, but I enjoy in fact seeing something else than adolescent expressions of feeling heroically bad. My friend Barbie, who is “only” 33, enjoyed it a lot!

Afterwards we walked home and had a drink, in one street going from a brass bad playing Rita Mitsouko to some good old U2 cover versions. If you place yourself at a strategic point, you can even get the two at the same time. Wanne get an impression from my way home? Click on it:

And this is the vision of the brasilian version form my apartment. It went on until 2:30 – I was so jetlagged, I didn’t even bother.

By the way, in France this year is also the year of Brasilia. Among the people I know, more are aware of Brasilia, than of the World Year of Physics.

Leaving Vancouver

The Boing 747 takes off. We are about 11/2 hour late. Behind me a little boy from India, so excited, he doesn’t stop kicking in my back, in front, a women who seems nearly hysterically annoyed by the flight, and puts immediately her seat back. I squeezed in the middle. But the lights are off, and first we turn west. Below the Pacific, a boat, and the full moon reflecting. In the east, all the lights of Vancouver. No pictures, it was too beautiful.

I liked Vancouver; life looks human in this place. Yes, it rained a lot but upon arrival at the airport you can get equipped. Have you ever seen another place with an umbrella vending machine? Unfair to say this on such a sunny day. There are other specialties in Vancouver. Taxis can have all kind of colors, even green.

Compared to the US, there are much less franchised shops, even fruit and vegetables stores or butchers! I liked very much the apartment buildings, they have a lot of glass and windows and apartments must be nice and full of light. There are also parts of town, which are less shiny.

One thing: it is hard to find a decent postcard of Vancouver! I could finally decide on one, but wrote only one sentence and it is still in my handbag. Sorry Tobi!

I liked the Simon Fraser University on the top of the Burnaby Mountain. The view is beautiful. People at the workshop talked about the ugliness of the campus with the same tone as when they talk about our campus. However this one is smaller, and it seems that there is a community life, that I never found on a French campus: students make their journal and the campus radio. Naturally there is a gay association, one for vegans etc. And their canteen is worse than ours – a thing to take all complexes about ours from me!

Concerning the content of the D0-workshop, I am little less enthusiastic. Actually, I presonnaly prefer regular collaboration meetings, where current work is presented. The themes of the workshops are not always prepared in connection with the normal working groups. Speakers express more or less their general ideas about the subject and the follow up is rather uncertain. My preference would be to treat workshop themes for 2 days, and then have a “normal” collaboration type meeting the following days. I think we have a discussion on this every year inside the collaboration, and the majority of collaborators doesn't share this opinion. Hopefully I don't offense anyone, to my opinion the program committee had a hard job to deal with rather difficult subjects.   

And I think someone didn’t get thanked enough: Dugan O’Neil! Hey Dugan, you organized the workshop in a way that certainly everyone felt very warmly received and appreciated all the efforts made for this to be the case by everyone participating in the organisation! I will not forget the simplicity to get a FedEx sended to Paris, and it even arrived!

(PS: and thanks to Horst and Zhiyi for all their pictures)

Eating Sushi in Vancouver

There was one thing left to do in Vancouver before leaving: eating Sushi – remember from Maktoto’s blog? I planed to eat Sushi at least twice during the week, but every time I went out eating with a bunch of people, there was at least one, who just ate Japanese the day before, who didn’t like to eat Japanese at all, of who just found out about that very cool pizza place playing Jazz on Saturdays. Ok, ok, but for lunch at Sunday, it became a non-negotiable issue. I got it! and Gerald got dragged into it (after he made it over the Capillano Suspensen Bridge) In a place overlooking English Bay, the sun was shining – wonderful. 

Good bye everyone!

It is always a strange feeling for me, when a workshop or a conference reaches it’s end: for a week I was surrounded by colleagues, from breakfast until after dinner, and suddenly they are gone. The weird thing about is to not say goodbye. Even to people I sincerely like and I seriously discussed with, not only about work also about personal stuff. Suddenly they are gone, and suddenly we are all scattered again. It's Saturday noon, my flight is on Sunday evening!

Goat Mountain

What improves group coherence and team spirit? To overcome difficulties together, to reach a common goal and make the experience that you can trust and rely on your colleagues. How many productivity improvements seminars are based on this idea, charge fortunes for sending their participants through scary situations to be overcome with a little help of their friends.

Most probably the organizers of the D0-workshop in Vancouver had this in mind, when proposing an excursion to “Goat Mountain”. It was labeled as an “easy” hike, the difficult one taking off to “Crown Mountain” - only some of the toughest collaborators took this option. There were no indications like “do not wear high heels” or “backpacks only”, and most of us imagined a lush promenade on forest paths as neatly maintained than Michigan Avenue downtown Chicago.

We couldn’t be more wrong! Goat Mountain means you should be as agile as a goat to make it up there – I can feel my sore muscles today not only in my legs, no, shoulders, arms, I am wiped out. The number of injured ones is not known yet – I crossed Thomas at breakfast this morning, he has a twisted ankle. Anyone else?  Among the best outfitted participants: Serban wearing a trench coat and me with my Champs-Elysee purse. We went through mud and snow, over stones and roots, and we made it! Well, about 10% of the participants: at some point Dugan and Yann decided to turn the party around, yet a few of us further ahead went to the summit! Up there, the fog started to dissolve and we had rewarding lunch, except for Frederic and Mathieu: their sandwiches were turned around in a trustworthy colleague’s backpack – Mike, one of the organizers with us, dispensed spare sandwiches on them. Then, the sun came out (want to see my red cheeks today?), that allowed to dry socks a little and to have an astonishing view on Vancouver Bay. Mathieu, thanks for the pictures!

Back to base camp at Grouse Mountain, we relaxed watching the “world famous lumberjack show” (we were too late for "birds in motion" ) – go to Vancouver, go to Grouse Mountain, and don’t miss it!

PS: Gordon is a ....

Breakfast in America

6:00 am – Lars and me are already up for a while and go for coffee in the only place on campus open at that time: Paris-Vancouver 9 hours jet-lag. This little coffee bar, the "Renaissance Cafe" is really nice: it is a coffee bar, like they only exist in North America, even though Starbucks exports them now all over the world. The special thing about this one: it is independent, it has its own design and I like the mixture of muffins, café latte and a Sikh owner. On top of it, it has wi-fi and power-plugs: the ideal place to become the private headquarters during the D0-Workshop this week.

The plenary session of the collaboration meeting starts at 8:30, Jerry Blazey one of the D0-spokesmen gives an overview talk on the status of the collaboration and the coming organisation changes. “Ursula did a good job as a Calgo-leader and Patrice Verdier will take over from her” – thanks Jerry for the appreciation and good luck to Patrice! I have the impression a chapter of my life starts to close. All in all, it's been about seven years that I worked on the D0-calorimeter. During that time I started to get responsibilities for working groups and projects, and I definitely learnt a lot! Looking backwards it is very tempting to think about what I would like to do differently now. To delegate more, to think more instead of feeling an urge do immediately, to concentrate on the content and focus on the goal and not to get distracted by personal issues, to talk more with the colleagues, and to be less timid to ask questions, even stupid ones, and to not be afraid to insist when something looks bad, to care less about other people opinions and to not feel guilty when things are not perfect, to be confident and trustful, which allows to face problems and to solve them. I am really grateful to have had a chance to learn these lessons. Or rather, I got at least the idea!