Correia on Stubbs, 'Going Big: A Scientist's Guide to Large Projects and Collaborations
Source: HNET
Stubbs, Christopher W.. Going Big: A Scientist's Guide to Large Projects and Collaborations. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2024. x + 142 pp. $40.00 (paper), ISBN 9780262547963.
Reviewed by Ricardo Correia (University of Turku)
Published on H-Sci-Med-Tech (December, 2024)
Commissioned by Penelope K. Hardy (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse)
Printable Version: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=61205
Scientists have traditionally been portrayed as lone intellectuals working to unravel the mysteries of the universe; the stereotype of the academic genius sitting atop the ivory tower is a good example of this. This image could not be more out of touch with the reality of how science is conducted nowadays. Most contemporary scientific projects depend on some degree of collaboration between multiple researchers with complementary knowledge, skills, expertise, and resources. Indeed, some of the biggest scientific developments in recent years—think of the Large Hadron Collider or the James Webb Space Telescope—demand enormous international research teams and huge amounts of resources for their construction and operation. Such projects would clearly be impossible to handle and manage effectively by a single individual and can only be characterized as large-scale, collaborative endeavors. Yet their very scale poses unique and specific challenges for individuals to navigate, whether they are participating as junior scientists, project managers, or assessors.
With Going Big: A Scientist's Guide to Large Projects and Collaborations, Christopher W. Stubbs aims to provide a guide for effective participation in very large scientific projects by zooming in on how they are managed and coordinated as essential aspects to their successful implementation. According to the author, the book was planned to serve as both an introductory roadmap for junior scientists and a reference for more senior scientists in project leadership or review positions. To achieve this, the author draws heavily on his own personal experiences as project participant, university manager, and scientific advisor to the US government. Indeed, one striking aspect of the book is how it leverages specific examples of both successes and failures associated with some of the largest and most iconic scientific projects attempted in recent decades to illustrate its arguments. These examples are a testament to the author’s knowledge and understanding of how such enormous projects develop—and the likely reasons why some of them fail—but his insights may be most relevant for other projects of similar scale and visibility. In fact, I would encourage potential readers to consider what they see as a “large” project and perhaps think bigger before reading the book. This is because I found my own conception of a large project to be rather small in comparison to most of the examples provided, and because of this found it is difficult to relate to the contexts described at first. Despite the scale of projects depicted as examples, the book does provide several insights that will be of relevance to most scientists, independently of the size and scope of projects they are involved with.
Cont'd.