<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">fabio vicentini</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:fmvicent@gmail.com">fmvicent@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Fri, Nov 29, 2013 at 6:52 AM<br>Subject: nforme sobre la corrupción en Exactas – Parte 28<br>To: "<a href="mailto:presidencia@conicet.gov.ar">presidencia@conicet.gov.ar</a>" <<a href="mailto:presidencia@conicet.gov.ar">presidencia@conicet.gov.ar</a>>, <a href="mailto:FulbrightNEXUS@iie.org">FulbrightNEXUS@iie.org</a>, <a href="mailto:info@fundacionsadosky.org.ar">info@fundacionsadosky.org.ar</a>, <a href="mailto:info@mincyt.gob.ar">info@mincyt.gob.ar</a>, <a href="mailto:prensa@mincyt.gov.ar">prensa@mincyt.gov.ar</a>, <a href="mailto:prensa@me.gov.ar">prensa@me.gov.ar</a><br>
<br><br><div dir="ltr">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:right" align="right"><span style lang="EN-US">Buenos Aires, Novembre 29, 2013</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">Dear Colleagues:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:right" align="right"><span><b><span lang="EN-US">...</span></b></span><span><span lang="EN-US"> in all my labours
is to <span>vex the world</span><span> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:right" align="right"><span><span lang="EN-US">rather than divert it... (Jonathan
Swift) </span></span><span style lang="EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">After
working 15 years as an Operations Researcher at du Pont de Nemours, the
Argentina's Rosada House was taken over by the military Junta. They killed
30000 "comunistas", and his economy minister took the first steps into
carrying out the neoliberal policy. I found myself out of work. I was lucky in
finding another OR job at the Techint Group. Ten years later the administration
was at the hands of president Carlos Menem, and I found myself out of work
again. In order to keep on living I was forced into entering the School of
Exact and Natural Sciences (FCEyN/UBA). There I lectured on OR subjects, but
after ten years I was dismissed again, the third time in my life. Surely there is
something wrong with me: I was trying to use OR in the real world instead of
writing papers in the academy. Let me end this story </span><span lang="EN-US">giving an account of <span style>the
last stage of my predicament.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">At
my alighting at FCEyN (1995) a friendly colleague adviced me on the school’s rules
of the game, the most important of which was that of writing papers to be sent
to peer-reviewed journals. On what subject? I asked. That doesn’t matter, the
aim is to maximize the number of publications. What if I don’t want? I asked.
Then they'll dismiss you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">Now,
I was the only authentic applied mathematician in the school since I had been
working 30 years in such a metier. My past experience dealt with searching
solutions to practical problems using OR techniques. I was not interested in dreaming
up problems based on papers which are based on papers, and so on . </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">One
of my colleagues, feeling worried about my future, suggested I join a research
group and he recommended the differential equations team for they were
champions in paper production. He insisted on talking the chairman into fix me in
that group. Unfortunately I made a wrong move, I wrote a
satire and wire it to the whole faculty. It was about Charlie Chaplin
working like mad throwing up papers like in the film "Modern Times".
The establishment was not pleased, so I wrote a second story of myself as a
researcher at the Academy of Lagado in the Kingdom of Laputa. I am sorry, but I
was b</span><span lang="EN-US">adly brought up;
my father was a practical joker, and I am a fan of Bertrand Russell who was a
master in using irony to unmask humbugs.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">I
persisted in not writing papers. Instead I did consulting jobs for a
steel-making firm while I kept teaching OR subjects to my students. Finally a
couple of academic top dogs who disliked my being the rotten apple who did no
papers, conspired to get rid of me and my vexing humour.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">I
felt to be unjustly disposed of, they had dropped the only applied mathematician
among 60 pure mathematicians. Someone must use the theory on real world
problems, I said on my behalf, but my complaint </span><span lang="EN-US">fell on deaf ears<span style>. So
I became an academic "desaparecido". My subject was taken over by the
computer science dept where they write papers, call for OR meetings, invite
foreigners to lecture on TSP, in short, they make a show of </span>working
energetically on OR. <span style></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">In
my next reincarnation I will change my </span><span lang="EN-US">moral quality of the previous life's actions. I
will abide by the rules of the game, I will call attention to myself by making
the appropiate gestures and signals, I will make a display of scientific
activities, and I will fawn upon my superiors. <span style></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">Sincerely,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">Fabio
Vicentini</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style lang="EN-US">-----------</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style>Carta enviada a colegas de mi especialidad.</span></i></p>
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