Nobel

So, tonight I shook hands with the first Nobel Prize winner I've met. His name is Sidney Altman, and he was one of the recipients for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry from 1989, for his work with RNA. If you're actually interested in the chemistry of this, check out the link with his name above.

Here at Dartmouth, we have a program called the Montgomery Fellowship. The program brings learned, interesting people from many different backgrounds here, usually for a week, in order to speak, visit classes, and generally enlighten the student body and college community. The East Wheelock program, where I work, has a relationship with the Montgomery Fellows office, and we try to get them down here, usually for a dinner with students, which is what happened tonight. The dinner was at the Faculty Associates home, which is a great setting for these more casual dinners.

Dr. Altman, a relatively soft spoken man, got to eat and hang out with residents from one of my buildings. He took some questions from the students and from others in attendance. I asked how he was notified of the Nobel win, and how it changed his work and life since the win. In theory, you're not supposed to know if you're under consideration, but sometimes you get hints dropped, which Dr. Altman was oblivious to until looking at them in hindsight. Afterwards, he said the biggest change was that he got invited to speak at more places, but other than that, it wasn't that big of a change.

He also told stories of baseball, and of his friendship with Bart Giamatti, the former President of Yale who then went on to be Baseball Commissioner in the late 80's. All in all, an interesting guy who once met George Gamow, one of the originators of the Big Bang theory.

I have a neat job.

NP: Steve Hackett, The Steppes