David J. Anderson Quotes

I don't view myself as a practitioner of a particular skill or method. I'm constantly looking at what's the most interesting problem that I could possibly work on. I really try to figure out what sort of scientist I need to be in order to solve the problem I'm interested in solving.

I learned quickly, as I tell my graduate students now, there are no answers in the back of the book when the equipment doesn't work or the measurements look strange.

I think it's a very valuable thing for a doctor to learn how to do research, to learn how to approach research, something there isn't time to teach them in medical school. They don't really learn how to approach a problem, and yet diagnosis is a problem; and I think that year spent in research is extremely valuable to them.

I'm a research queen.

The intellectual equipment needed for the job of the future is an ability to define problems, quickly assimilate relevant data, conceptualize and reorganize the information, make deductive and inductive leaps with it, ask hard questions about it, discuss findings with colleagues, work collaboratively to find solutions and then convince others.

The most successful scientists in the history of the world are those who posed the right questions

Hypotheses are what we lack the least.

I like solving problems, and science provides a logical way of solving real-life problems.

Like any decent researcher, I throw away 90% of my research.

If a scientist is not befuddled by what they're looking at, then they're not a research scientist.

A good designer has a lot in common with a good researcher. Both hunt for excellence and perfection. And you have to really focus on the details, and you don't really know what the final result will be before you have it.

I like to look for patterns in science and life. It's what I do.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

We don't ask research to do what it was never meant to do, and that is to get an idea.

You've never seen me debate anybody. On anything. Ever. My investment of time, as an educator, in my judgment, is best served teaching people how to think about the world around them. Teach them how to pose a question. How to judge whether one thing is true versus another. What the laws of physics say.

I am not here concerned with intent, but with scientific standards, especially the ability to tell the difference between a fact, an opinion, a hypothesis, and a hole in the ground.

The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.

If you are a researcher, you are trying to figure out what the question is as well as what the answer is.

If you can help other people understand those truths - and in my mind, the only way I know to do that is with large scale, multi-year research projects, where you start with a question and then very rigorously and comprehensively answer that question.

Most scientific problems are defined by the question of whether a graduate student can study it for his thesis.

… to develop a plan to promote better science education

To do successful research, you don't need to know everything, you just need to know one thing that isn't known.

Some people are great at the pure mathematical things - like Bill Gates, he's great at math things. He loves to do puzzles. Me, I like to look at an overall landscape and try to figure out, how do you solve a problem?

The main thing that you learn in grad school, or should learn, is how to think like an economist. The rest is just math.

I get really into research. I know people say that, but I'm really into research.