Question: You're employed by Imperial College. What's your actual job? I mean you're expected to teach and to do research. The teaching bit is pretty obvious, but do they just let you do whatever research you want? Why does Imperial pay you to carry out research?

Arttu Rajantie answered on 14 Jun 2011:

Yes, surprisingly they let me do pretty much whatever research I want, although I am sure that they would do something about me if I started to do something really crazy. The reason Imperial and other universities want their academic staff to do research is that then our teaching is also at the cutting edge. Sciences move forward really fast, and unless you are actually involved in the latest developments yourself, it is really hard to fully understand them and teach them to others. Even when we teach basic things like mechanics, we can teach it in a way that helps you connect it to more advanced topics later. We get funding for research from government research councils and other sources, so tuition fees are not used to pay for that.