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Science Department (science + department)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences40%

Selected Abstracts

A Global Ranking of Political Science Departments

POLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2004
Simon Hix
Rankings of academic institutions are key information tools for universities, funding agencies, students and faculty. The main method for ranking departments in political science, through peer evaluations, is subjective, biased towards established institutions, and costly in terms of time and money. The alternative method, based on supposedly ,objective' measures of outputs in scientific journals, has thus far only been applied narrowly in political science, using publications in a small number of US-based journals. An alternative method is proposed in this paper , that of ranking departments based on the quantity and impact of their publications in the 63 main political science journals in a given five-year period. The result is a series of global and easily updatable rankings that compare well with results produced by applying a similar method in economics. [source]

Emergence of New Mechanical Functionality in Materials via Size Reduction

ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, Issue 18 2009
Julia R. Greer
Abstract Julia R. Greer received her S.B. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1997) and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Stanford University, where she worked on the nanoscale plasticity of gold with W. D. Nix (2005). She also worked at Intel Corporation in Mask Operations (2000,03) and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Palo Alto Research Center (2005,07), where she worked on organic flexible electronics with R. A. Street. Greer is a recipient of TR-35, Technology Review's Top Young Innovator award (2008), a NSF CAREER Award (2007), a Gold Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award (2004), and an American Association of University Women Fellowship (2003). Julia joined Caltech's Materials Science department in 2007 where she is developing innovative experimental techniques to assess mechanical properties of nanometer-sized materials. One such approach involves the fabrication of nanopillars with different initial microstructures and diameters between 25,nm and 1,µm by using focused ion beam and electron-beam lithography microfabrication. The mechanical response of these pillars is subsequently measured in a custom-built in situ mechanical deformation instrument, SEMentor, comprising a scanning electron microscope and a nanoindenter. Read our interview with Prof. Greer on MaterialsViews.com [source]

Doing Gender in Academic Education: The Paradox of Visibility

GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 4 2009
Marieke Van Den Brink
Recent contributions in the field of gender and organization point to the notion of paradox to unveil the persistence of gender inequality in organizations. This article seeks to contribute to this growing body of knowledge. We used the notion of paradox to reveal the processes of doing gender at an earth science department of a Dutch university in order to find out whether gender segregation in academic and professional careers has already started during academic education. We focused on the study choices of female students in earth sciences and discovered the paradox of visibility, which enabled us to show the contradictory and ambiguous nature of how gender is done at this department. In this article we discuss the relationship between doing gender and paradox on a theoretical as well as an empirical level. We argue that paradoxes could be very useful when analysing doing gender in organizations, because paradoxes focus on the social process in which individual agency and social structures come together. We even suggest that paradoxes might help us to disrupt the hierarchical nature of the gender binary, because they allow for a constant reflection on ambiguity and contradictions in theorizing as well as in practice. [source]

Implementing and sustaining science curriculum reform: A study of leadership practices among teachers within a high school science department

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 7 2009
Douglas B. Larkin
Abstract This study presents a description and analysis of a ninth-grade integrated science curriculum developed and implemented by teachers within a high school science department and subsequently sustained for over 25 years. The Integrated Science Program (ISP) at Lakeside Southwest High School depicted here offers a unique example of longitudinal science education reform. In this study, we examined ISP as an artifact of teacher leadership. Findings affirmed the importance of shared philosophical purpose among teachers, attention to public perceptions, staff stability, the distribution of responsibilities, and instructional coherence. This study also demonstrated how curricular reforms might change over time in response to contextual pressures as was the case with the equity challenges faced by the current teachers of ISP. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 813,835, 2009 [source]