Interview with Geosciences Professor Frederik Simons: Discussing His Role as a Teacher and Mentor
Professor Frederik Simons, a distinguished member of Princeton University's Geosciences department, believes that undergraduate education could be improved by shifting the focus from originality to curiosity in independent research. In an interview for the seasonal series "Professorship and Mentorship," he discussed his perspective on mentorship and the role it plays in shaping the academic experience of Princeton's juniors and seniors.
Professor Simons encourages students to approach him with their interests, offering his help in guiding them towards something meaningful. He proposes redefining undergraduate research as following one's curiosity, emphasizing empathy, effort, and providing opportunities in mentorship.
According to Professor Simons, there is value in rediscovering old ideas in undergraduate research. He finds mentoring students and advising their independent work enriching, as it allows him to learn and discover new perspectives. However, he also suggests reducing the emphasis on original research in undergraduate independent work, questioning its importance in this stage of academic development.
Mentorship, according to Professor Simons, is a state of mind, involving understanding someone's perspective and helping them when they are distressed or struggling. He believes that everyone can be a mentor to each other, including younger students and professors. He also expressed concerns about the potential exhaustion that comes with caring for a larger number of students, should the undergraduate student body expand.
Professor Simons' approach to mentoring involves teaching undergraduates what he thinks they should know and connecting graduate students with opportunities. He takes the class GEO 422: Data Models and Uncertainty in the Natural Sciences and is the second reader for an independent work.
Mentorship plays a significant role in Professor Simons’ career, both in guiding graduate students and postdocs and fostering professional growth, as is common in geosciences and related fields. However, specific details about his personal mentorship style or impact are not readily available in the public domain. To gain more insight into his mentorship impact, accessing Princeton’s Geosciences department website, Professor Simons’s personal webpage, or scholarly profiles such as his CV or interviews would be necessary.
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- Professor Simons promotes undergraduate research as a journey of self-discovery and personal growth, encouraging students to pursue their curiosities in junior paper projects, under his mentorship, to foster empathy, effort, and a redefined sense of originality.
- In the realm of education-and-self-development, Professor Simons advocates for mentorship opportunities for Princeton undergraduates, believing that this approach not only contributes to their independent work but also provides mutual enrichment through the exchange of perspectives and sharing of knowledge.
