Guest Information
Prof. Anna Krylov
Prof. Anna Krylov is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California (USC), working in the field of theoretical and computational quantum chemistry. She has a M.Sc. in Chemistry from Moscow State University (1990) and a PhD from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (1996).
Krylov is active in the promotion of gender equality in STEM fields, especially in theoretical chemistry. She created the web directory ‘Women in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Material Science, and Biochemistry’. She has delivered several talks on gender equality in STEM.
In June 2021 she published a paper, “The Peril of Politicizing Science,” has received over 75,000 views (as of February 2022) and is the all-time highest-ranked article in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (impact factor of 6.5).
In this episode we discuss:
- Does ideology intrude into scientific institutions, and thus affect the ability to have open, objective scientific discourse?
- Growing up “survival required strict adherence to the party line and enthusiastic displays of ideologically proper behavior.”
- When genetics was considered “bourgeois pseudo-science”
- Can ideology be justified based on what is the “greater good”?
- Lower-case social justice vs. Social Justice capitalized
- How perferformatice activism impedes actual left-wing policy promotion
- “Today, censorship is often imposed, not from the top (the authorities) but from the bottom (the mob) in the form of social ostracism and bullying. Social media provides the vehicle and influences the discourse. Substantive and scholarly discussion on complex issues requires discipline and effort. Twitter, where anyone can spontaneously hurl 25 words into cyberspace, has no room for depth or nuance.”
- Self-censorship by academics
- The dangers of far-right individuals and groups
Links & Resources
- Click here to join the email list to receive our weekly Sigma Synopsis emails
- Krylov, 2021 – The Peril of Politicizing Science
- Krylov et al., 2022 – Royal Society of Chemistry Provides Guidelines for Censorship to its Editors
- Krylov et al., 2022 – Scientists must resist cancel culture
- Academic Ideologues Are Corrupting STEM. The Silent Liberal Majority Must Fight Back
- Prof. Krylov profile
- Lysenkoism
- NY Times article on Dorian Abbot: M.I.T.’s Choice of Lecturer Ignited Criticism. So Did Its Decision to Cancel.
Transcript
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