Just saw / heard Hakeem Oluseyi ("Dr. O") on C-Span.
Very impressive. A true "brain," no question about it.
What is so remarkable is that he transcended his background
so thoroughly, a saga that sounds like "from sharecropper
to scientist" even if the real story is more complex than that.
He is a black man who is second to almost no-one
in the mastery of his field / fields.
Regardless, he once was rejected for a promotion to busboy,
later, after entering college, he dropped out for a while,
unsure of his talent. Later, all that would change and he
would find himself first as a theoretical physicist
and later as a consultant to various Silicon Valley
business firms in developing productive ways to
better design computer chips from his knowledge
of the physics of light.
He has now ventured into social science / social commentary, however,
and that is my turf and there are some criticisms of his viewpoint to
make.
Just one point here: According to Oluseyi the big problem that bedevils
humanity
is hierarchy, that is, the inclination we have as a species to be
competitive
and to rank order each other as a way to make judgments.
Granted, any given hierarchy can be unjust. And, as Oluseyi says,
there is a sort of group subjectivity at play. That is, Koreans tend
to see the world in terms of what is and is not good for Koreans
and similarly for Germans and people from India and Jews
and Ivy League grads and people who share the same religion.
We need to get rid of hierarchy, says Oluseyi, because it holds
some people down, gives unfair advantage to others, and
can be no better than semi-rational.
Since he is African-American it may be logical enough for him
to take that stand. And he is living proof that some black people
can be utterly competitive with the smartest white people or Asians.
However, group differences do exist and as things are in the real world
to proceed as if we could wave a magic wand and all would be well,
just outlaw hierarchy, is pure fantasy. Hierarchies exist
because they are useful and reflect basic truths.
He should read Thomas Sowell some time, another very smart black man
but someone not under the spell of the egalitarian Left, actually the
leveler Left, that pretends that abysmal black academic performance
does not exist, not horrific black crime rates, and on and on, but by no
means
reflecting only black deficiencies inasmuch as there are plenty of
social problems to go around to just about every demographic group.
Yet the problems among African Americans are real and massive
and unless they are recognized for what they are -as I see it, the
product of a ridiculously dysfunctional black culture- they will
continue forever and maybe get worse.
In any case, the accomplishments of Hakeem Oluseyi are very impressive
and there certainly are important lessons to be leaned from his example.
BR
----------------------------------------------------
>From Wikipedia
Hakeem M. Oluseyi is an American _astrophysicist_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysics) , _cosmologist_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmology) , _inventor_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventing) , _educator_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_education) , _science communicator_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_communication) , _author_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Author) , _actor_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor) , and
humanitarian. Since 2007, he has been a professor of _Physics_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics) & _Space Sciences_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Sciences) at the _Florida Institute of
Technology_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Institute_of_Technology) , currently
holding the
highest academic rank of _Distinguished Research Professor_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_ranks_in_the_United_States) ._[1]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-FIT_faculty_profile-1)
He is
temporarily stationed at _NASA Headquarters_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Headquarters) in_Washington DC_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_DC) where he is the _Space
Sciences_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_science) _Education_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education)
_Manager_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manager) for _NASA_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA) 's _Science Mission Directorate_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Mission_Directorate) via
the_Intergovernmental Personnel
Act Mobility Program_
(https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/intergovernment-personnel-act/)
._[1]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-FIT_faculty_profile-1)
Oluseyi is best known for hosting popular science television shows
including _Outrageous Acts of Science_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outrageous_Acts_of_Science) , _How the Universe
Works_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_Universe_Works) , and Strip the Cosmos,
which all appear on _Science
Channel_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_(TV_network)) ._[2]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-2) He lent his
voice and
scientific expertise to the award-winning science education video game
ExoTrex: A Space Science Adventure Game in collaboration with Dig-It! Games.
He co-authored the children's popular science book Discovery Spaceopedia: The
Complete Guide to Everything Space. His best known scientific
contributions are research on the transfer of mass and energy through the
Sun's
atmosphere, the development of space-borne observatories for studying
astrophysical plasmas and dark energy, and the development of several
transformative
technologies in ultraviolet optics,_[3]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-3) _[4]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-4) _[5]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-5) _[6]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-6) detectors,_[7]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-7) _[8]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-8)
_[9]_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-9) _[10]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-10) computer
chips,_[11]_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-11)
_[12]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-12) _[13]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-13) _[14]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-14) and ion
propulsion._[15]_
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_M._Oluseyi#cite_note-15)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Hakeem Oluseyi
Astrophysics
Why Physics?
Street Brawls and Science Books
As a child, Hakeem Oluseyi never lived in the same state two years in a
row. He moved between rough neighborhoods in the American South, like New
Orleans’ 9th Ward and Houston's 3rd Ward, until finally settling in a poor
community in rural Mississippi at the age of 13.
"As the new kid in the bad neighborhood, I was always immediately
challenged upon arrival, which meant fighting,” Hakeem explains. “I was not
interested in this, so I spent a lot of time indoors reading and watching PBS
nature shows. I discovered Jacques Cousteau on TV and Albert Einstein in my
reading. The effects of relativity just knocked my socks off! I did
everything I could to get my head around this stuff. I thought, 'Man!
Scientists are
super cool!’"
Physics Enthusiast to Physicist
Hakeem’s interest in physics continued into high school, where he created
a computer program that did _relativity_
(https://www.aps.org/careers/physicists/profiles/oluseyi.cfm#relativity)
calculations. When his program won
first prize in physics at the state science fair, judges told him to become
a physicist. Since Hakeem didn’t really know what physicists did, he
dismissed the idea and chose to enlist in the Navy. But not long after, Hakeem
decided to major in physics at Tougaloo College, a small historically black
college in Mississippi.
Using Physics
Four Degrees Later
Now, three degrees in physics and one in mathematics later, Hakeem is a
super cool scientist himself- an astrophysicist.
Hakeem did research for the first time at a summer program at the
University of Georgia. He was pleasantly surprised by the freedom and
responsibility he was given and found that he fit well into the research
community, even
though he was one of only a few African Americans.
After finishing up with school, Hakeem worked at one of Silicon Valley's
most successful companies and did research on manufacturing computer chips.
This work earned him 8 U.S. patents and 4 E.U. patents. Hakeem's inventions
can be found in the computer chips you use every day.
Stargazer at Heart
Hakeem, however, longed for the big ideas of astronomy and astrophysics,
and returned to astrophysics research. He worked with the 2011 Nobel Prize
winning _Supernova Cosmology Project_
(http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2009/10/27/evolving-dark-energy/) ,
developing detectors for a planned
space-based telescope that will investigate the nature of the dark energy
that is accelerating the universe's expansion.
Today, he is a member of the team developing the _Large Synoptic Survey
Telescope_ (http://www.lsst.org/lsst/public) (LSST), which is America's top
priority observatory. He has worked on developing the LSST's camera and is
developing programs for analyzing the data it will collect.
Spreading the Love
In addition to astrophysics, Hakeem also has a passion for communicating
science to the public.
He is a professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, and a frequent
contributor to the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. He has given
multiple TED talks and is regularly invited to speak at science forums all
around the world. For his science outreach work, he was selected as a 2012
TED Global Fellow.
In 2002, through an organization called _Cosmos Education_
(http://www.cosmoseducation.org/projects/sey2002/sunearthyou_journal.shtml) ,
Hakeem began
visiting sub-Saharan African schools to inspire young students with science
demonstrations.
“Engaging with a down-to-earth, successful scientist of African heritage
encourages the students and lets them see that someone very similar to them
can make it as a scientist,” Hakeem says.
Hakeem's drive to spread his love of astronomy globally has brought him
into contact with thousands of students from dozens of nations. It also led
him to help form the _African Astronomical Society_
(http://www.africanastronomicalsociety.org/) and the One Telescope Project,
an initiative to supply
each nation in the world with at least one research-grade telescope.
_TEDxOrlando Talk on The Big Bang_
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiNnhJZf6Ys)
Advice for Students
Build a Solid Academic Foundation
When Hakeem first started graduate school at Stanford University, he had
to take classes to catch up and felt that he was in over his head.
"It was extremely difficult," Hakeem says. "Whereas I had not even heard
of calculus until after I graduated high school and was in the Navy, my
Stanford classmates all had calculus early in their high school careers.
Moreover, the totality of my entire undergraduate physics education only
amounted
to about three semesters of the typical Stanford undergrad's coursework."
Nevertheless, support from his research advisor and Hakeem's positive
attitude helped him fill in the gaps in his coursework and earn his PhD in
2000.
Find and Engage with Role Models
Hakeem found childhood role models in science shows and books, but knows
the power of a personal role model. That's why he is so passionate about
teaching and reaching out to the next generation of physics students all
around the world. "I find service to students and humanity as exciting as
making
a new scientific discovery. That is my life- I educate, I inspire, and I
research," Hakeem says. "I have to pinch myself sometimes. I couldn't be
happier."
--
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