Guest Speaker: Prof. Gimzewski

I was really impressed with the guest lecture today given by Professor Gimzewski. His view on science and academia was really refreshing and definitely not what I expected. Also, it was cool to see somebody who has been extremely successful and who has garnered so much praise in their field that hadn’t let it get to their head at all. Both of himself personally and of academia as a whole, he remains self-critical and skeptical, which is necessary in order for progress to continue. His comments on professors (from all disciplines) who lack real experience really made sense to me (and made me laugh out loud). Everything about him was very unorthodox, notwithstanding his speaking style; his rambling, humorous delivery was offsetting at first but totally fit his attitude.

What I found most interesting about his talk, however, was his description at the end of the lecture about meditation and Buddhist philosophy. The Buddhist teachings of impermanence and the interconnected nature of everything in the universe seem to me to fit very well with the themes of this class. That such a successful scientist as himself would put more import on these things than on the incredible work he does really impressed me. And beyond his outlook on life, I thought the projects he has worked on in nanotechnology were remarkable in their vision and their potential. Plus, any speaker is a thousand times better when they have a sweet Scottish accent and can tell stories about drinking whiskey with Nobel laureates until four in the morning.

Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K._Gimzewski

http://www.mutamorphosis.org/index.php?lang=en&node=120&catid=108&id=91