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krpalmerThe radio news this morning led off reporting a Canadian scientist was sharing the Nobel Prize in Physics. "National pride" focused much sharper in the next few moments when it was mentioned the scientist was at the University of Waterloo, which I went to. Her name then being announced as Donna Strickland had me thinking "Did she teach some of my undergraduate courses?" Looking into some of the reports turned up she'd joined the university when I was going there, so it was at least possible.
It's easy enough for "making too big a deal of any kind of encounter with a celebrity" to go awry, perhaps even when that celebrity involves science. Thinking back to the relative impressions different parts of university have left on me up to now, I am bit a conscious to what an extent "memory" is "reconstruction," too. Still, knowing Strickland's specialization is optics had me remembering I'd done all right in that subject; going off into the weeds, only a few years later I'd wondered if "comedic mad science" might take on that subject rather than the usual disciplines of "biology," "engineering," and "high-energy physics." In any case, I'm certain there are plenty of other University of Waterloo graduates taking a similar interest in this.
It's easy enough for "making too big a deal of any kind of encounter with a celebrity" to go awry, perhaps even when that celebrity involves science. Thinking back to the relative impressions different parts of university have left on me up to now, I am bit a conscious to what an extent "memory" is "reconstruction," too. Still, knowing Strickland's specialization is optics had me remembering I'd done all right in that subject; going off into the weeds, only a few years later I'd wondered if "comedic mad science" might take on that subject rather than the usual disciplines of "biology," "engineering," and "high-energy physics." In any case, I'm certain there are plenty of other University of Waterloo graduates taking a similar interest in this.