The view from the stage as the hall begins to fill up
On 5 June 2024, Professor Leighton gave an invited keynote Plenary Lecture to 12th International Cavitation Symposium (CAV2024) at the MΑΙCh Conference Centre in Chania, Crete. His talk, entitled ‘Less than inertial cavitation – when it is all you need’ outlined the responsibility of researchers to generate societal good from their research, and outlined how that takes more effort than simply publishing it in scientific journals. He outlined the clash between the goals for generating societal good, and those that research organizations and universities use to incentivize researchers: when the leaderships of those organizations prioritize bringing funds (primarily taxpayer funds) into the organization because the overheads represent profit as opposed to money-in/money-out spend on salaries and equipment, researchers are promoted because of the funds they bring in. This incentivizes expensive research, because if the same job can be done more expensively, it generates more profit. After the grant, this profit-driven attitude makes universities reward those who win the next profitable grant, rather than putting time into generating societal benefit from the last grant. Professor Leighton identified how this attitude meant that 20-45% of journal papers are not cited, even by their own authors, within 2 years of publication*, let alone translated into societal good.
He challenged the next generation of researchers to be conscious of their obligation to do good, and actively work to translate their research into societal benefit rather than passively hoping someone else will put the effort in.
He also outlined to them the work and philosophy of SWT.
The conference was chaired by Prof Manolis Gavaises (City, University of London, UK) and Prof Peter Pelz (Darmstadt University, Germany).
* Leighton, T. G. (2020) From research to engagement to translation: Words are cheap. Part 1 - research funding and its consequences. Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing, 98(4), 161-164 (doi: 10.1080/00202967.2020.1777765)
Meeting old friends not seen in decades: cavitation experts Professor Michel Versluis, Professor Leighton and Professor Mohamed Farhat after several decades
Relaxing with the conference delegates