The agency evaluates individual researchers, who, if they meet certain criteria, can get a government stamp of approval that allows them to apply for higher academic positions; it also rates universities and public institutions, who can expect to get more funding if they are among the best.
The position of provost is the second-highest academic post at Harvard, under president Lawrence H. Summers.
Academic inventors appear to enjoy high academic status, as measured by their scientific productivity, and to occupy central positions in networks of inventors.
He adds, though, "At the Ph.D. level, you are getting more gender diversity, but you're still not seeing a lot of women in higher rank academic positions".
Previously, he had held high-ranked academic positions such as Rector of the University and Dean of the Faculty of Forest Sciences of the University of Joensuu.
Background questions concerning age, sex, present position, basic education, highest academic level and work place were included in the questionnaire.
Sex, present position and highest academic level did not differ between the groups.
The same can be said of women in any full-time, permanent academic position within higher education.
It was higher in the high-SES groups, as defined by occupational position at age 50 years or highest academic qualification, and in whites compared with nonwhite participants.
During the 1980s, at a time of high discrimination against women and taboos against a shared academic position, married geologist couple Dominique Lattard and Volker Schenk each succeeded in academia by choosing life 700 kilometers apart.
