My academic training is in physics and mathematics. I was introduced to programming in my computational physics class. We used emacs as our editor
Emacs is such a fundamentally different paradigm from all other IT tools/editors that it just doesn't make sense to recommend a specialized tool with a steep learning curve and non-transferable skills when it's not ubiquitous and more standard alternatives exist without it which do OK. It doesn't matter that emacs was historically the first and everyone else decided to go in different directions, that's just the reality of today.
im curious which transferable skills you think Jupyter has
> Emacs is such a fundamentally different paradigm from all other IT tools/editors
its not. you use a mouse and click where you want your pointer to go. you use a keyboard to type
> steep learning curve
this is very much like saying that linux has a steep learning curve and you refuse to touch ubuntu because you are scared to blow up your computer
Most people do say that. What programmers cannot grasp is progress is about giving people what they want, not what is rationally best. Most scientists want to knock out a paper or presentation, and make it home on time for dinner.
are you their union rep ?