Stephen J. Cowley

     

Address, Telephone, Fax and Email

• Departmental contact points (including public keys); see also my DAMTP page.
• My Emmanuel College page.

Teaching

• Some teaching resources are available online.

Papers and Talks

• A few of my papers and talks are available online.

Board of Scrutiny

• From 1 October 2023 until 30 September 2027, I am an elected member of the University's Board of Scrutiny (as I was for the four years up to 30 September 2025). The Board might be described as a toothless watchdog with a loudish bark composed of members who care about the University but who are not (on the whole) part of the "establishment". More formally, the role of the Board of Scrutiny is to examine the way in which the University is run, and to comment on this to the University's governing body, the Regent House. Each year the Board is required to look at several documents (the University's accounts, the Allocations Report, and the Council's Annual Report), and it may then investigate any matters that arise from these documents. In doing so, the Board is empowered to consult any official document (although it sometimes helps to be told where to look), and to make enquiries of any Officer. The Board has no executive power. Instead, it acts as a review body, to look retrospectively at what has happened in the University over the previous year.

Saving Science

• I am a member of the Campaign for Science & Engineering (formerly Save British Science). You too might like to join if you care about the scientific health of the UK (it's £25 p.a., although there is an offer of one year’s free membership if you are a student in your final year of undergraduate studies).
• If you are interested in promoting good science and evidence for the public then I recommend Sense About Science. In particular they have a booklet and web page on Making Sense of Statistics.

The University and College Union (UCU)

• For my many sins for the whole of my professional life I was a member of Cambridge UCU (formerly Cambridge AUT). If you work in higher education you ought to think about joining the UCU (even if it is not the most wonderful organisation in the world). This is because it is our national negotiating body for pay (sorry, stipends), pensions, etc., and if "moderates" do not join ...

Quotable Quotes

• For those of you who believe I am a fully paid-up member of the awkward squad, Ross Anderson once commented "I know you're uneasy about anything that seems bolshie ..." (and he wasn't being sarcastic, but I suppose that I have never tried to blow-up my College room).

Funding Opportunity

• Following on from the lead of the University Library (see here and here), before retirement I was tempted to suggest my Senior Lectureship as a naming opportunity. DAMTP already has the Lucasian Chair, the G.I. Taylor Chair and the Stokes Lectureship; by the endowment of a Your-Name-Here Senior Lectureship, or even a Whatever-You-Want-But-Not-Chelsea-or-BAT Senior Lectureship with a large market supplement of 125% (see here), you might (or, to be honest, might not) have helped ensure DAMTP's legacy for the benefit of future generations, but you would almost certainly have made me happy!

Teaching Miscellanea

• A reminder to students to keep a backup of your work, e.g. in the cloud. The following referral links may prove helpful: Dropbox and OneDrive.
• Eccentric ... not me!

We Clone the Spy

• An anagram of "Stephen Cowley".

Spin, etc.

2.24

`To worship gods that are not yours, that is toadyism. Not to act when justice commands, that is cowardice.'

4.5

`Riches and rank are what every man craves; yet if the only way to obtain them goes against his principles, he should desist from such a pursuit.'

Previous Interests

Faculty of Mathematics

From 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014 I was Chair of the Faculty of Mathematics.

University of Cambridge Council

• From 1 January 2011 until 31 December 2014, and then from 1 January 2017 until 1 January 2020, I was an elected member in class (c) of the Council of the University of Cambridge. The University's Council is the principal executive and policy-making body of the University. The University maintained a "Register of Interests" of members of the Council: my last entry.
• As a result of being a member of the Council, I was also a member of a number of University Committees.
• Most of the time I agreed with decisions of the Council, however occasionally I did not (e.g. over Statute U).

The University Nursery

For three years up to 30 September 1999 I was a member of the Parents Nursery Association Committee.

Selwyn College

For eight years up to 30 September 1998 I was a mathematics Fellow of Selwyn College (I was also a Fellow for nine months in 1981). During this period I wrote a short note on wooden spoons (which Selwyn had somewhat a history of).

• He is a "Prof.", I am a "Dr".
• He has a "v", I have a "ph".
• He prefers "Steve", I prefer "Stephen".
• He is a FRS, I am not (although I did receive one email of congratulations before Steve's FRS was announced).
• He is a Knight Bachelor, I am not (and received no emails of congratulations).
• In 2013 he was listed 81st in the GQ 100 Most Influential Men in Britain, I was not.
• I was born in London and work in Cambridge, he was born in Cambridge, used to work in London, but is now the Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (he was also formerly President of Corpus Christi College Oxford, and before that he was Director of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy).
• In summary, I am the older mark I version, he is the younger and much improved mark II version.
• As a footnote I might add that I used to spend Fridays at Imperial (with the email address Stephen.Cowley@imperial.ac.uk, since defunct), while Steve had a visiting position at Imperial (with defunct email address Steve.Cowley@imperial.ac.uk).