Do endowed research positions exist in physics like Terrence Tao has?

[leephys009]

For example, Terrence Tao has an endowed research position where he is able (paid to) through grants and school salary to do whatever research he wants. Tao does research in pure and applied math. This is rare of course, but I haven’t been able to find any information on this in physics academia? Are there any endowed positions in physics where you have mobility to do any research you want, or are phycisists usually only focus on one main thing? For example, I bet Ed Witten (if I am spelling it right) gets paid a good amount because of his work in string theory, but does he have an endowed position?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Tao is a professor at UCLA. He does research and teaching.
Lots of physicists have professorships. They do research and teaching.

 

[Choppy]

I wonder if what you might really be interested in is academic tenure and its association with academic freedom. Yes, this exists in physics.

 

[PAllen]

Well, Edward Witten is permanent faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study. As such, he has no actual teaching responsibilities, and is paid no matter what he researches (any topic, any amount). Such faculty have far more research freedom and less responsibility than tenured professors. He has also done a great deal more than string theory. A short list beyond this would be pure math (won the Field's medal), particle physics, foundations of QFT especially path integral formulation, and general relativity.

 

[CrysPhys]

... where he is able (paid to) through grants and school salary to do whatever research he wants.

But that's how university professors typically work. They get a salary from the university and funding from grants. In return, they teach courses and perform research. The qualifier here is that the scope of the research that can be done depends on the particular sources of funds: some may be narrowly targetted; others may allow the professor "to do whatever research he wants". I don't have any stats, but I suspect sources in the second category are rare relative to the first.

 

[Dr.D]

It is a long and treacherous road to the rank of Professor, and not all who start the trip make it to the end. Tenure is often awarded at the Associate rank, and many never rise beyond that. So while such position as the OP asked about certainly do exits, they are not plentiful.

 

[f95toli]

But that's how university professors typically work. They get a salary from the university and funding from grants. In return, they teach courses and perform research. The qualifier here is that the scope of the research that can be done depends on the particular sources of funds: some may be narrowly targetted; others may allow the professor "to do whatever research he wants".

I have never come across a "normal" grant that allowed a professor to do "whatever they want". The truth is that yes, professors do -in theory- often have a lot of independence but they still typically need to find a way to pay for their research. It is important to understand that modern science is nearly always a team effort (how often do you see high-impact papers with only one author?) meaning most senior researchers do have to spend a lot of time finding ways to pay for PhD students, post-docs and -if they are experimentalists- capital equipment, consumables etc. It is not dissimilar to running a small company.

Most calls from from research counsels etc are also pretty targeted meaning you do have to adapt what you do to whatever is in the call. There is usually also an overarching national (or international) strategy which determines what is in the calls, meaning if your research is in an area that is currently not prioritised it is very likely that there won't be any suitable calls in the first place. For most people this means having to change research direction accordingly, Remember also that the success rate for proposals typically range from <5% to maybe 30-40% (the latter is the "secure" funding) so you need to almost constantly be on the look out for new funding.,

Also, yes most professors do get paid to teach so do typically have a secure salary. However, teaching can be extremely time-consuming meaning you do need PhD students/post docks to keep the research going.

Since your ability to attract new funding depends on your track record this can mean ending up in a position where all you do is teach because you don't have time to do anything new and there is no way to get the resources needed to get students/post-docs who can contribute.

There are indeed exceptions to the above, but they are very, very rare.

 

[jtbell]

In the cases that I'm acquainted with (admittedly at lower-tier colleges/universities, in the US), a professor's salary from the institution is for teaching and other institutional duties (e.g. committee work). If the full salary comes from the institution, a full load of teaching etc. is expected, and any research work comes on top of that.

If a research grant pays for part of the salary and reduces the university's contribution, the university then grants "release time" (reduced teaching load etc.) so the professor can devote more time to research.

 

[symbolipoint]

In the cases that I'm acquainted with (admittedly at lower-tier colleges/universities, in the US), a professor's salary from the institution is for teaching and other institutional duties (e.g. committee work). If the full salary comes from the institution, a full load of teaching etc. is expected, and any research work comes on top of that.

If a research grant pays for part of the salary and reduces the university's contribution, the university then grants "release time" (reduced teaching load etc.) so the professor can devote more time to research.

This seems confusing or complicated. Do some professors ONLY teach, and have no research duty? Do any professors do no teaching but perform ONLY RESEARCH?

 

[Office_Shredder]

I think the answer to both is basically yes. If you're only doing research, you need to get grants to pay for everything.

 

[symbolipoint]

I think the answer to both is basically yes. If you're only doing research, you need to get grants to pay for everything.

This makes me wonder about another question.
Do some professors at colleges or universities only teach, and have no research responsibilities? If yes, then are these non-tenured professors?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Do some professors at colleges or universities only teach, and have no research responsibilities?

Sure. What happens when you tenure a professor and he loses his research funding?

You keep him teaching, you don't pay his summer salary (normally this comes from the research grant), and you try and saddle him up with committee work. What else can you do?

 

[Andy Resnick]

This makes me wonder about another question.
Do some professors at colleges or universities only teach, and have no research responsibilities? If yes, then are these non-tenured professors?

We do have such positions at my institution- these positions are named things like "College Lecturer" or "Professors of Practice" and have a well-defined promotion process but no tenure. These teaching-only positions are renewed every few years (3 or 6) depending on the rank- senior college lecturers are up for contract renewal every 6 years, for example.

 

[Vanadium 50]

senior college lecturers are up for contract renewal every 6 years, for example.

Is this process done every 6 years? MIT had (maybe still has) an arrangement where every year you are renewed for 3 years. So a non-renewal effectively is 2 years notice.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Is this process done every 6 years? MIT had (maybe still has) an arrangement where every year you are renewed for 3 years. So a non-renewal effectively is 2 years notice.

Yes-senior lecturers must submit a dossier every 6 years.