On Being A Professor

"If you want to master something, teach it." - Richard Feynman

That's from someone whose research was as fundamental and profound as it gets and as ahead of his times (perhaps even our times!) as it could have been!

Yet, he loved his teaching! He taught undergraduates with great joy, he taught graduate students with great joy, he advised research theses with great joy, he collaborated with great joy, his own independent research was of course joyful - and he also played the bongo and picked locks with great joy :)!

And I don't think he was so immersed in all aspects of academics just because he was brilliant - which he most certainly was - it was also intent! The fellow loved what he did and wanted to make as much of a contribution as he could!

As far as I'm concerned, the title of a "Professor" is to be reserved only for those who participate enthusiastically in all aspects of academics: undergraduate teaching, graduate teaching, theses guidance and independent research. Take any of these aspects away and its best if we use some other title. The word "Professor" - literally: one capable of professing a subject - is just too sacred to be used without a complete immersion in academics.

We can, and must, bring this spirit back. But it will not happen till university administrators start explicitly considering excellence in all three: teaching, research and service on an equal footing when it comes to tenure and career progression.

This is, unfortunately, not the case today. Teaching is severely undervalued in many universities - and this is costing us tremendously - as generations of students are going through college and graduating without being taught brilliantly - something each and every student deserves.