Our columnist takes an alternative look at day-to-day life in the Department of Physics and, as ‘conference season’ is upon us, she muses on appreciating and fighting for our right to roam...
For me the right to roam is quite parochial – can I walk across this field? Can I climb that hill for the view? Or can I swim in the Isis (not that I would want to currently given Thames Water’s somewhat liberal sprinkling of effluent in the Thames)? But for the department’s academic faculty there is a much more fundamental principle of freedom involved in travel nowadays.
As an administrator, I personally find organising travel a bit of a pain – flights, hotels and transport in between remain fairly straightforward, barring the vagaries of applying for travel insurance and negotiating the University’s sustainability policy. The latter, incidentally, penalises academics for travelling a long way eg to the Antarctic for vital research on the IceCube project but does not take into account the nature of the academic endeavour and does not therefore penalise others for travel to less vital conferences which are only a short haul away. Once we get into the realms of trusted research and visas however, life becomes very complicated, long-winded and administratively complex – particularly if you have had a boss with two passports and very limited time and patience. Of course, this was an administrative burden I did not miss during lockdown but once this ended and everyone started to travel again, there was extra travel workload in the shape of organising COVID tests and the appropriate certification to travel.
I did try to argue post-lockdown that travel to conferences, collaboration meetings etc was unnecessary; everyone improvised and coped while forced to stay in one place and was this not a principle which could be extended post-pandemic? Particularly bearing in mind our net zero and sustainability targets. But just as water cooler conversations face-to-face in the office are invaluable, so are their equivalent on the periphery of international conferences and meetings.
I recently conducted a quick survey of the faculty to find out where everyone is planning to travel to over the summer and was impressed with the vast range of geographical locations listed. There are of course the habitual and regular visits to the US planned but even these have taken on a whole new dimension given the US government’s recent approach to HE and in particular research funding and the withdrawal of support for visas for overseas students.
The department also has many collaborations with Chinese universities and, as a consequence, many of our faculty travel to China and in exchange we host several Chinese students. While scientific independence is paramount, we now also need to be mindful of the politics of collaboration in these sensitive areas and how this may impact work both at home and in other countries – the US no longer supports the exchange of scientific ideas with China and US academics are no longer supported in travel to China.
The right to roam, particularly in the realm of scientific freedom, is something we can no longer take for granted. Now, the complications, conflicts and politics of the modern world need to be considered in every aspect of our lives and how this impacts and impinges on the day-to-day work of the faculty. We have been unable to source vital equipment for a planned experiment as it is only manufactured in a university in Ukraine which Russia has annexed and collaborations and work in Japan is now much more time-consuming as flights are now much longer as they need to circumvent Russia and all travel is now discouraged to Israel.
However, in spite of all the restrictions and complications travel now entails, I am very pleased to note that the faculty continue to reach out across the world from Bhutan to Barcelona; McMurdo Sound to South Africa, through Somalia and on to the Eastern Med as well as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and beyond. In addition to regular scientific collaborations across Europe, and we have many faculty travelling to CERN regularly, Oxford Department of Physics staff also frequently deliver keynote speeches and lead international conferences around the world. We work with local communities to improve their conditions and also conduct outreach work around the country and across the globe encouraging children, young people and in particular young women and people from diverse backgrounds, to consider a career in physics.
Our influence is wide. Oxford physicists are a ubiquitous presence at any physics conference of significance and we are leading the way in our commitment to broaden the understanding of science generally and the physics community specifically. And while organising all this travel, accommodation, visas, expenses etc may be an administrative pain, that discomfort fades away in the face of the huge benefits we reap from our right to roam – from spreading our latest physics news, developments and ideas around the world to all the inspiration and positivity such interaction brings home to Oxford. As such, we should not take for granted our right to roam and always be mindful of the privilege, soft power and influence this represents.