![]() ![]() Sean Carroll, a nontenure track research professor at Caltech-and science writer-wrote a widely read blog post, facetiously entitled “How To Get Tenure at a Major Research University,” drawing partially from his own previous failed tenure attempt at the University of Chicago ( Carroll, 2011). Yet, later analyses of Sagan's output have indicated that his academic contributions compared favorably to those of other Academy members ( Davidson, 1999 Poundstone and Chyba, 1999 Shermer, 1999 Morrison, 2006 Jensen et al., 2008).įast forward to 2011. Sagan's biographers have argued that the Academy's rejection of Sagan, and Harvard's prior denial of his tenure, were the direct consequence of the phenomenon that has become known as the “Sagan Effect”: the perception that popular, visible scientists are worse academics than those scientists who do not engage in public discourse. He then secured <50% of “yes” votes in the final round, far from the two-thirds required for admission to the Academy. ![]() ![]() Sagan was blackballed in the first round of voting, which led to a full debate and vote by the Academy members. Despite the efforts of some strong backers-including the Nobel laureate Stanley Miller, who advocated passionately for Sagan's admission to the Academy-the nomination did not succeed. In 1991, the American astronomer and superstar science popularizer Carl Sagan was nominated for membership in the National Academy of Sciences. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |