Nobel prize laureate inspires students
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Douglas Dean Osheroff may not know all the answers, but the 1996 Nobel laureate in physics has certainly strived his best through the years to find the answers to all his queries.
With the same patience that researchers display while working in their laboratories, Osheroff encouraged students of President University to ask questions.
"I understand it is hard for you to ask questions ... I've been there too. But don't worry, I will answer any questions," the American physicist said on Saturday.
Osheroff was at the university in Cikarang, Bekasi, to close his brief visit for a scientific speech in Indonesia on Nov. 18 and Nov. 19.
Encouraged by his sincerity, one student rose from her seat and asked the professor how he had achieved so much and how he had managed to remain so persistent in his research.
"When I heard you were coming here, I was very excited as even in China we have never met a Nobel prize winner before. One of our obstacles as a student is that we give up too easy on our research. How can you keep doing your research without ever giving up?" questioned Hwang Wu Ming, an international student at the university.
Osheroff, who finished his undergraduate studies at Caltech in 1967, and obtained his Ph.D. at Cornell in 1973, smiled and replied that it was not true that people should never give up, saying that sometimes nature did not cooperate with humans.
"The question is when to know that you should be doing something different. Sometimes failure is an invitation to something different ... But don't give up, keep working. But don't hit your head against the wall forever," he said.
Osheroff, born on Aug. 1, 1945 in Aberdeen, Washington, and married to fellow scientist Phyllis Liu, whom he met at Cornell in 1970, advised the students that although it seemed that it was a long journey to reach his level, it was not impossible to achieve, adding that as a student who failed in his Calculus exam at Caltech, he never imagined he would achieve so much.
He has named co-recipient of the Nobel prize in physic in 1996 with David M. Lee and Robert C. Richardson for the discovery of superfluidity in helium-3.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Science said "the discovery heralded the start of intensive research on the new quantum liquid, which had a great significance for our knowledge of how the laws of quantum physics, formulated for microscopic systems, sometimes directly govern macroscopic systems also".
The academy added that the discovery had recently also been used to test a theory for the forming of galaxies.
"This is a great moment for me as he really inspires me to learn science seriously. He is so humble, and really wants to listen to us," a student said after a photo-op.