Professor'd? Professored? Pro...

As I noted on Twitter, this week I received the rather lovely news that I'm to be promoted to Professor this summer. I am delighted!

People have also been extremely kind about it. This has been very wonderful, and I've had to push down the desire to shout 'there must be some mistake' and simply enjoy all of the very nice things people have said.

In among all of those positives, and moments of kindness, there has been one thought that has been ono my mind quite a bit--I hope I can be indulged in talking about it here. I think that the person who had most impact on me as an aspiring academic was Jonathan Lowe. Jonathan sadly passed a few years ago. You can read an interview with him here (http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/metaphysical-foundations-for-science/ ) and an obituary here ( https://www.dur.ac.uk/philosophy/ejlowepages/ ). It was with sadness that I was not able to attend the memorial service in Durham when it was held. I was examining a PhD the same day--probably the only thing I didn't feel I could cancel to be there.

I've been conscious this week of feeling his absence rather keenly.

To me, Jonathan was a model of what I had always thought an academic should be. He was incredibly clever and well read, and a wonderful teacher. But, more than that, through working with him I also came to recognise that he was exactly the kind of academic that I would most like to be. Setting aside his research (it is clear enough that Jonathan was a far better researcher than I will ever be), what stays with me is his enduring kindness, patience, love for his subject, and respect to everyone around him. No question was trivial; no request was insignificant. Everything that was said was weighed, carefully, and with respect. You could be a Professor of Philosophy from VERY IMPORTANT UNIVERSITY, or someone outside academia who'd written in with a question; in my experience, it didn't matter. Jonathan would kindly and patiently work through what it was that interested you and try to help you see how the idea could be developed.

So,  I've been somewhat prone to navel-gazing this week, and wondering 'what sort of Professor would I like to be?' Maybe that's pretentious of me. I don't know. But I do have an answer.  I'd like to be as much like Jonathan as I can be. If I'm half the Professor he was, I'll consider it a job very well done.