Linear combination 01

The Linear Combination for Academic Faculty

I frequently add to our conversations involving the concept of a basis set, or a linear combination of basis functions to describe just about any situation. As a faculty member, my job “wavefunction” includes teaching, scholarship/research, and service. To students, teaching is a clear job function; research in the sciences should also be a clear job function; service is less well defined, but most of you have involvement in running student organizations and this is not too different from a faculty member who serves on, for example, the “curriculum” or “personnel” committee. Mathematically;

It is interesting to use this job “wavefunction” to contrast the differences in individual’s roles within an academic community.

As a college student you make the choice about where to get your education; it should be clear from this conversation that the role a university faculty member will play in your education will be more centered on what research activities you choose to engage in and less on your classroom instruction. It should be noted that in the presence of a graduate program at nearly all universities, the time a faculty member allocates to research is subsequently divided between undergraduates, graduate, and other research staff (post-docs and technicians).