Saturday, June 19, 2010

Dangerous Dissertation?


Invariably, ... they suggest his work be classified. "Classify my dissertation? Crap. Does this mean I have to redo my PhD?" he said. "They're worried about national security. I'm worried about getting my degree." For academics, there always has been the imperative to publish or perish. In Gorman's case, there's a new concern: publish and perish.

Doesn't it sound very much like the blurb on a racy, blockbuster thriller? It's from Laura Blumenfeld's WaPo story on a PhD thesis whose publication would pose a serious threat to national security. [Addendum: Should have noted that this story is from July 2003; see the comment from nihalparkar].

1 Comments:

  1. ubernerd said...

    This was on July 8, 2003.

    Gorman is now the CEO of FortiusOne (http://www.fortiusone.com/Company/About-Us), and he continues to work on graphically mapping data.