Nobel Prize

We had a fun day yesterday. Steve's cousin (Lars Hansen, The Nobel Laureate) was on campus for Founder's Day. Sydney, who set up Lars' schedule, knew we were related and made sure we were invited to the festivities. Lars and I were graduate students together in mathematics at USU, so I knew him as a friend (not just as Steve's cousin).

Lars spoke in the performance hall. He talked about his professional journey. One slide showed him with some of his 58 PhD students. Very impressive. He ended with a slide of his parents. He said, I owe so much to these people, but I really can't talk about them. He choked up and that ended his presentation. It was very touching.

Lars had wanted to visit "Aunt Alda". He had sent me email regarding that several weeks ago. I invited other family members, so we had quite a group gathered. Lars' brother, Roger, was up for the event and met with us as well.

In some of the things Lars has written, he tells the following:

When I graduated from Logan (UT) High School, I was told by a counselor that, based on my recent academic performance, I could expect to be a C+ student and, if I studied very, very hard, a B+ student. I would bring home report cards with double check marks by ‘Does not respect authority.’ I was not a very inspired high school student.

I asked about "not respecting authority". He said he had moved to Utah from Michigan when his father became provost. He was not happy to be here. An English teacher had given them a paragraph to punctuate as an assignment. He recognized the paragraph from a Pulitzer Prize winning book he had read. He copied the punctuation from the book, as did several of his friends. His teacher graded the assignment, giving him a C+. Lars said, "I can't believe you just gave a Pulitzer prize winner at C+". Pretty funny.

I asked how he met his wife, Grace. He said she was a PhD student in one of his classes at Chicago. When he would exhibit his dry humor, she was one of the few in a sea of international students who 'got it'. Though Chinese, she grew up in New York, so American humor was not a mystery. He knew he liked her, but didn't feel he could date her while she was one of his students. Students in the department each had a file folder where professors could place material they wanted them to have. Lars asked her out by placing a note in her student file. She is a senior lecturer at Chicago and coordinator of the undergraduate curriculum.

Lars' brother talks more about the Nobel Prize event at here