Jan. 18, 2017 3:30pm — Johnson 102
Adventures in Little Data
Professor of Physics and Information Science, Cornell University
Abstract
I will give a very brief sociological overview of the current
metastable state of scholarly research communication, and then a
technical discussion of the practical implications of literature and
usage data considered as computable objects, using arXiv as exemplar.
From the physics standpoint, there is a surprising amount of
statistical mechanics in text-mining and machine learning.
BIO
Paul Ginsparg has been Professor of Physics and Information Science at
Cornell University since 2001.
He received a B.A. in Physics from Harvard University (1977), and a
doctorate in theoretical particle physics from Cornell University
(1981). He was in the Society of Fellows at Harvard from 1981-1984,
then faculty member in the physics department at Harvard University
until 1990, a staff member in the theoretical division of Los Alamos
National Laboratory from 1990-2001.
He has authored papers in quantum field theory, string theory,
conformal field theory, and quantum gravity. While visiting Aspen in
the summer of 1991, he started the e-print archives (now arXiv.org).
He has served on many committees, including the U.S. National
Committee for CODATA, other N.R.C., N.A.S., and AAAS committees, the
NIH PubMedCentral national advisory board, on the American Physical
Society publications oversight committee, and the Public Library of
Science advisory board.
He has received awards including the P.A.M. (physics astronomy math)
award from the Special Libraries Association, the Council of Science
Editors (CSE) Award for Meritorious Achievement, the Paul Evans Peters
Award from Educause, ARL, and CNI; was elected as a Fellow of the
American Physical Society; and has been named a MacArthur Fellow, a
Radcliffe Institute Fellow, a "White House Champion of Change", and a
Simons Fellow in Theoretical Physics..
