Shadow of great britain

According to the Royal Society, after weeks of full discussion by the members of the Academic Committee and the voting results of the members of each department, George Simon Ohm, Professor of Electromagnetism at the University of London, was awarded the Copley Medal, the highest scientific honor in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with an overwhelming advantage.

At the award ceremony held last weekend, Michael Faraday, Director of the Royal Society Laboratory and winner of the 1832 Copley Medal, personally presented this honor to Professor Ohm. At the same time, Michael Faraday, Charles Wheatstone and Charles Darwin, as joint recommenders, formally recommended to the Royal Society to add Professor George Simon Ohm as a new foreign academician of the Royal Society.

It is believed that at the award ceremony, Professor Ohm thanked his colleagues in the scientific community for their great help in his research in recent years, and emphasized Sir Arthur Hastings, who is also a researcher in electromagnetics. Professor Ohm claimed that it was Sir Arthur Hastings who helped him out of the abyss during the darkest days of his life.

When he proposed Ohm's law of resistance, the German scientific community only mocked him because of his identity as a middle school teacher. No one was willing to believe in his scientific achievements, and no authority was willing to stand up and endorse his academic achievements.

However, it was at this time that Sir Arthur Hastings, then the academic supervisor of the University of Göttingen, ignored everyone's opposition and invited him, a middle school teacher, from Bavaria to Göttingen. Sir Arthur not only personally helped him with experimental verification, but also insisted on letting Professor Ohm publish academic papers independently without greed for the false reputation of academic achievements.

After clearing Professor Ohm's name, Sir Arthur Hastings did not feel jealous of the academic community's praise for Ohm. He did not suppress and bury Ohm because the two were in the same electromagnetic track. Instead, he reused him and entrusted him to act as the principal of the teaching and research work of the electromagnetic discipline at the University of Göttingen.

Professor Ohm believes that he has met many famous academic figures in his life, and Sir Arthur Hastings is definitely the first-class one in terms of the breadth of mind. Perhaps Sir Arthur Hastings' name has rarely appeared in various scientific journals in recent years, but Ohm has no doubt that if the Sir is willing, he can always win the Copley Medal next year.

When the reporter interviewed Sir Arthur Hastings and asked him what he thought of Professor Ohm's remarks, the Sir just modestly said: "In the field of electromagnetism, Ohm is a more outstanding researcher than me. The Copley Medal is completely what he deserves. In the process of proof, I just did some marginal auxiliary work. As for jealousy, it is a common human emotion. I am not jealous of Ohm not because I don't have human emotions, but because I have been treated so gently by Mr. Faraday. I am very happy that Ohm thinks I am an upright person. For me, this praise is far higher than all the honors in the world."

- "The Times" June 21, 1841 "The Great Soul Behind George Ohm, the Cultivator of the Copley Medal: Sir Arthur Hastings"

The heavy wooden door was slowly pushed open, and scholars walked in one after another. The air was filled with the smell of books. The ceiling was high, and several dim oil lamps were hung. The light cast swaying shadows on the wall, reflecting the various classical paintings hanging on the wall.

There were several open books on the long oak conference table, and next to them were parchment rolls and ink bottles used to record the content of the meeting.

Academic committee members from various departments of the University of Göttingen took their seats one after another. After they sat down, the teaching meeting began in a calm and solemn atmosphere as usual.

Since the position of the principal is currently vacant, the new academic supervisor Sir Arthur Hastings is naturally responsible for presiding over the teaching meeting today.

Arthur stood up first and coughed lightly, and his clear and low voice echoed in the room.

The content of the meeting was not new. It was nothing more than arranging the teaching tasks for this semester, involving recent academic research results, plans for external academic exchanges, and strategies for student training, and requiring each department to report on the research progress of the topics they are responsible for.

Before the meeting began, the assistant academic supervisor, Professor Herbart, had someone organize the relevant content into a book and send it to Arthur's desk.

Arthur read the content of the meeting and the teaching feedback received by the academic committee recently. Some of the academic committee members nodded, some frowned slightly, and several older professors took off their round-frame glasses from time to time and gently rubbed their eyebrows with their fingers. It was not known whether they were tired of listening or thinking about the topic Arthur had just raised.

But not all topics were discussed peacefully. On academic issues, there were many heated debates in the academic committees with different opinions. Some professors proposed development plans for emerging disciplines, which were supported by some members, but some conservatives were worried that this would affect the status of traditional disciplines.

Occasionally, one or two committee members would stand up, draw curves on the table with their fingers, or wave their feather pens in the air to express their views in a more intuitive way.

Obviously, the debate about humanities and natural sciences some time ago was not a temporary idea of ​​the professors, but a long-standing grudge. The two groups had long disliked each other and wanted to make some articles by taking advantage of the constitutional reform of the kingdom that was to be carried out in the near future.

The biggest disagreement between the two sides was still the issue of money.

After Prussia took the lead in educational reform in 1806, a series of reform movements were soon launched in other German states. In terms of universities, the most typical change is the combination of teaching and research.

To put it bluntly, the standard for evaluating the quality of German university teachers is no longer just about completing teaching tasks.

If ordinary university lecturers want to be promoted to university professors, they must produce scientific research results that match their professorial status. The most intuitive manifestation of scientific research results is to see how many academic monographs he has published.

In order to produce academic monographs, sufficient funding is needed to carry out scientific research projects.

This has formed an academic version of the Matthew effect in universities. The richer the college, the easier it is to produce scientific research results, and the easier it is to produce scientific research results, the easier it is to be promoted to professor. The more professors in the college, the more funding, and this will form a benign or vicious cycle.

The academic committee members are all people who have been in the circle for many years, and they naturally know this truth.

Therefore, they can make concessions on any issue, but they are unwilling to make concessions on teaching funds.

However, scholars also think that talking about money directly is too vulgar, so most of them choose to belittle the role of other disciplines and use this as a disguised way to ask the school for money.

Due to different research methods, natural sciences usually cost more money to come up with results than humanities, so the words of these professors are naturally more intense. They can ignore politics, but they cannot ignore funding.

For example, the Göttingen University Observatory led by Gauss is currently applying to build a new geomagnetic observatory in the school. In addition, he and Weber, a physicist, also plan to extend the original 1.5-kilometer electromagnetic telegraph line to 8 kilometers.

Although Arthur may not be able to understand the academic argumentation report submitted by Gauss and Weber, he knows that the price of both the instruments of the geomagnetic observatory and the 6.5-kilometer wire will not be cheap.

However, even if these things are expensive, Arthur still has to apply to the Hanoverian Parliament under pressure.

Because if Gauss and Weber are unhappy because of this little money, they will resign from their teaching positions and run to other universities. This crime is much more serious than spending more academic funds.

Although the German states were not as wealthy as Britain, they all attached equal importance to education. With the fame of Gauss and Weber, if they left the University of Göttingen, their competitors such as the University of Jena, the University of Berlin, and the University of Munich would surely send people to invite them over the next day.

This is not an exaggeration, because a similar incident happened some time ago.

Some time ago, two biology professors from the University of Berlin: Oken and Wilkoff, were expelled from the University of Berlin because they opposed Prussian autocracy, so they joined hands to flee to the Kingdom of Bavaria and were immediately hired as professors at the University of Munich.

When this news reached the Ministry of Culture and Education of Prussia, King Frederick William III of Prussia was very angry. He sent people to Bavaria to find the two professors overnight and proposed that as long as the two professors were willing to return to the University of Berlin, the king could personally apologize to them and double their salaries.

In this case, the Prussian envoy persuaded them and finally called the two professors back to the University of Berlin.

Because of the impact of this incident, an unexpected situation has also been triggered in Germany. Professors from various universities want to use "expulsion" to bargain with the school and the state to which they belong.

In order to appease these professors, Prussia's price is: to significantly increase the professors' salaries as a favorable condition to attract talents to stay in their own states with peace of mind.

And Prussia's practice of rolling up salaries soon spread to other states. Overnight, the salaries of professors in German universities generally increased, and academic projects that were difficult to approve in the past are now much easier to approve.

The professors put pressure on Arthur, and Arthur could only put pressure on the Ministry of Culture and Education of the Kingdom of Hanover in turn.

First of all, I have brought Gauss's request. If you don't listen to my advice, and let him run away at that time, all the responsibility will be on the government. Think carefully about whether it is necessary to quibble over these trifles!

Secondly, don't think about using dismissal to pressure me, because I am a British, not a Hanoverian, and I am the academic supervisor and special representative of the country appointed by His Majesty the King, you can't touch me!

Finally, Gauss and Weber are professors, and I am also a professor. If you make me angry, I will quit. Three professors left in one month, which is also a big sin. Besides, even if I can't do it in Göttingen, there is a cultural counselor waiting for me at the British Embassy in Russia. If it doesn't work out, I can go back to London University to teach. The Ministry of Culture and Education in Hanover can't control me!

In most cases, Arthur doesn't need to explain the problem so clearly. The Hanover government can roughly understand that this special representative of the country is a hard bone to chew.

Moreover, this guy also has the title of a very difficult constitutional reform consultant. If he is irritated, he will suggest adding something to the constitution, such as letting the police department and the Ministry of Culture and Education cross-manage the university to divide the power of the Ministry of Culture and Education, which is enough to make the Ministry of Culture and Education uncomfortable.

Moreover, even if we put aside Arthur, the new school director, there are several great scholars in Göttingen University who are responsible for constitutional reform, such as Professor Friedrich Dahlmann of history.

So, in the Kingdom of Hanover, at least at this point in time, you may offend any other school, but don't offend Göttingen.

Arthur accepted all the professors' demands. The professors who had been so noisy just now were a little surprised when they saw that the new superintendent was so easy to talk to.

They even began to think about Arthur in turn: "Sir, if you apply for so many projects at once, is there really no problem?"

Arthur buried his head in recording the professors' needs, and replied without raising his head: "Report it first and then talk about it."

"What if we are beaten back? Wouldn't it be a complete failure?"

"Failed? No, the fight back is just a temporary setback. If we are not satisfied, the Ministry of Culture and Education will never give up." Arthur said while sorting out the needs: "If you have anything else to mention, sort it out and send it to me. Come, Professor Dahlman and I will take it back together when we go to Hanover for the second constitutional convention at the end of the month, so that each college will not have to submit it in batches. "

The professors couldn't help but smile when they saw how confident Arthur was.

How many years has it been since Göttingen had such a tough school leader?

He is worthy of being a knight of William IV for three years, a well-known police master in London, and a figure praised by the Royal Society.

Since Sir Arthur Hastings arrived at the University of Göttingen, even the Göttingen police have become much more polite to students and professors. Now, he even dares to speak out against the school's superior department, the Ministry of Culture and Education. With such a school leader, the academic committee members have become much tougher.

"Okay! Let's go back and sort out the needs right now. The teaching equipment in the college should have been replaced a long time ago. Why not take advantage of this opportunity to apply together."

"There are two young teachers in our college who want to publish academic monographs, but they haven't received the sponsorship yet, so they can't afford the printing fees. Should this be included in the academic budget?"

"And for our laboratory, we plan to get two new instruments, but there is no manufacturer in Germany to produce the instruments, so we have to order them from London."

"Our library plans to add another 2,000 books this year. There are too many German publications recently, and the library's stacks must be expanded accordingly."

When Arthur heard the professors talking about leaving the meeting, he quickly called out to stop them all.

"Wait a minute, gentlemen, the meeting is not over yet."

When the professors heard this, they were stunned for a moment, and then sat back with red faces and sneers.

These professors, who usually have more clear-cut views than the last, are now extremely talkative, as if they are primary school students in a German class.

"We got carried away, sir. Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

Arthur took out his pipe and lit it, then threw a book out of the bag beside him. He blew out a puff of smoke and asked, "Do you know this ohm?"