My Hero: Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman seemed like an amazing guy. I never met him, but I've read some of his books and I've read/heard other people's impressions of the guy. So as good as those can be expected to be for judging a guy's character, they make me wish I had known him personally.

He was an amazingly clever guy, he won the nobel prize in physics, he was an unbelievably great physics lecturer (at all levels of instruction), his interests went way beyond the world of physics, he had an insatiable curiosity, and was an overall friendly and personable man. All of these are wonderful qualities for a graduate student to look up to and learn from and be inspired by. But these aren't really the reasons why he's one of my heroes.

In Oslo, I believe at the city hall where they award the nobel prize laureates every year, on the wall are portraits of all of them from the first to the most recent. And you can travel from one end of the hall admiring all of these stately looking gentlemen (and a bit later on women as well). I'm sure you can imagine it, as one travels from photo to photo and you would see all of these old guys in suits looking very posh and proper, each with their heads either staring directly at you or at a 45 degree angle to the right - one after the other, exactly the same, they begin to blend together. Of course as "time goes by" the people in the portraits begin to get more relaxed, wearing less formal suits instead of the tuxedos of their predecessors, smiling a bit more often than frowning. But eventually, you get to one portrait that is just completely different from all the others. This portrait just catches your eye and doesn't let it go. This is Richard Feynman, with his head resting on an oak desk, perpendicular to the floor.

Here, Feynman was being awarded the highest prize in his field, achieving what many believe to be the apex of the academic profession, and he demands to be photographed with his head perpendicular to the floor, forever marking his place in this hall of nobel prize winners. And that's why he's my hero. No matter what you read or hear about this guy you always come away with the sense that he didn't take himself so seriously, yet managed to balance this aspect of his personality with the seriousness required to become a giant in his field.