Wednesday, October 10, 2007

The Buzz...

The Buzz around here this week is that Mario Capecchi, one of the researchers here at the university has won the Nobel Prize. For those of us in the biological sciences it doesn't come as a big surprise as he's been "short listed" for quite some time now. His life is rather interesting; he was literally homeless and living on the Italian streets as a 4 year old child, and went on to become a PhD researcher and Nobel Prize winner. He has quite the "rags to riches" story.

I suppose this is my moment to feel "associated" with fame. It is interesting how quick we are to draw connections to the famous when we can, even when we don't really "know" the person well. As though our connection to the famous makes us more important some how. While wouldn't say it actually makes me feel important, I'm certainly not immune to that sort of thinking. I guess we all like to connected to greatness. Sooo... Mario is actually a collaborator on some of my labs research projects, and one of my friends, who earned her PhD in my lab, is one of his post docs. I will see her at a party on Saturday, it will be interesting to hear the Nobel buzz from the inner circle. I admit I don't really know him myself, although we have crossed paths enough in my time working here. I guess my claim to fame (LOL!) is that a Nobel Prize winner says "Hi" to me at the gym. Maybe next time I see him there I should grab his weights or machine when he is done... maybe some of that genius will rub off on me!

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

Hmmm, and now I've visited and commented on the blog of someone who has been greeted at the gym by a Nobel Prize winner. Works for me!

Lovely bead, by the way!