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I always loved collecting rocks and crawling around in caves,
and hiking in the woods. And I have a job that lets me do that.
Do something you really love. But really love doing something.
When I was a kid I, I was interested in science from very
early on. And I can remember trying to cross-breed pansies to
get a new pansy color. And I don't think it came out very
well. But I, I was interested in plants more than rocks.
But then I got into rocks.
Best thing about being a researcher is you get to do so
many interesting things. I get to learn what nobody else in the
world knows. And I get to share it with people who are
interested, and people who pay for the option to share it by
being students and paying tuition to go to Penn State. And
so I get to do things that matter, and I get to go to fun
places, and it really is exciting.
It really is interesting.
Researcher, you got to start with curiosity. You have to be
interested in the answer. If you really, oh man, I just don't
care about anything. You're not going to make it as a
researcher. But then you have to be willing to learn a lot of
things and to follow the path wherever it takes you. And it
may be many steps. You don't hit the answer today. It may be a
year or decades until you find out what's going on. But the
starting point is curiosity. You want to know how it works.
If we know what's coming, we can make wise decisions about it. If
we know that making energy this way is gonna make it really hard
for people to live, and making energy that way is gonna make
lots of cheap energy, and people live well- we can decide. And so
ultimately we're finding out how the world works in ways that
will allow us to do smart things to get wealthy and healthy and
happy and wise.
I have learned so much from my teachers. And from all the way
back. Kindergarten teachers, you know. Mrs. Kiersting and so on.
I had tremendous high school teachers- Nick Hanen,
especially, in chemistry; Dave Hall in math- but a whole bunch
of others. I was advised by just world class people studying-
I see Will Huntson and Charley Bentley. And so all the
way through I've had these bright people who put their
lives into teaching me and many other folks. And I think
it's really there that you get the starting point. Then if
you're a researcher, if you're a scientist, you live
in a community of people who want to go to work. And they're
excited by what they do. And so you've got all these wonderful
colleagues- Sridhar Anandakrishnan and many, many
other people, that I can work with, who just love what they're
doing. And when you come in in the morning, they'll have
discovered something about the world that you didn't know. And
you're gonna say, what's new? And they'll tell you. And it's
something that no one else in the world knows yet.
It's just fascinating.
Rescue one thing from my burning office or lab. It would be me!
I'd get the heck out of there. And I'd probably take my
computer with me, because now we do so much in communication. We
have so many papers and other things that we're working on,
the data on the computer. That you take the computer along. But
in a pinch, it would back up somewhere. Just get the heck out
because tomorrow's another day.
I love folk music. A little bluegrass, a little towards
country, a lot of folk. So when I've got the music turned on
I'm trying to learn the next folk song.