The collected wisdom of ...Name: Dr. David Pearson David Pearson (born December 22, 1934 in Whitney, South Carolina) is a former American NASCAR racecar champion. Known as the "Silver Fox", he debuted on the Grand National racing circuit in 1960 and earned Rookie of the Year honors that same season. Title: Laurentian University Laurentian University, main campus at Sudbury, Ont., Canada; bilingual, coeducational; founded 1960. Among its faculties are those in astronomy, commerce, computer science, education, engineering, law, mathematics, music, native studies, nursing, physics, and social professor in Earth Sciences, Environmental Earth Sciences, Mineral Exploration Research Centre Residence: Sudbury [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Q What's the most valuable thing you've ever lost? My heart -- when I got married in New Liskeard, many years ago! Q What's the most extraordinary life experience you've ever had? The one's that go through my mind first are occasions when I have seen breathtaking views, like driving to the Kashmir Valley of Northern India and cresting crest·ing n. An ornamental ridge, as on top of a wall or roof. the hill from which travellers suddenly see the green vista of rice fields and the city of Srinagar in the distance. Hiking all day through the rainforest of southern Costa Rica Costa Rica (kŏs`tə rē`kə), officially Republic of Costa Rica, republic (2005 est. pop. 4,016,000), 19,575 sq mi (50,700 sq km), Central America. to a tropical research station is another recent experience, when the beauty of the forest combined with the startling star·tle v. star·tled, star·tling, star·tles v.tr. 1. To cause to make a quick involuntary movement or start. 2. To alarm, frighten, or surprise suddenly. See Synonyms at frighten. and eerie sounds of the forest like howler monkeys, and the raucous call of red macaws. But, being in the thick of things in Prague in August of 1968 when Czechoslovakia was invaded by the armies of the Warsaw Pact Warsaw Pact or Warsaw Treaty Organization Military alliance of the Soviet Union, Albania (until 1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, formed in 1955 in response to West Germany's entry into NATO. , was an experience that turned what I had read about only in newspapers into reality. I lost a good deal of my naivete na·ive·té or na·ïve·té n. 1. The state or quality of being inexperienced or unsophisticated, especially in being artless, credulous, or uncritical. 2. An artless, credulous, or uncritical statement or act. and learned much about how the world works in those few days in Prague. Q Why did you come to Canada (and why did you stay?) I came to Canada in 1969 entirely serendipitously. I was a student in Tuebingen, a beautiful small, university town in southern Germany and received a telegram from a Geology professor at Laurentian who had been a student with me in London. The telegram asked if I was available for a one-year contract in the Geology Department. I have sometimes wondered if I would get a letter one day saying I owed them a million dollars in salary because I had been paid by mistake after my contract had run out! Q Why are you so excited about Laurentian University's new graduate diploma in science communication? For me, very personally, the Science Communication program is enormously rewarding because I am able to work with people who have made such a success of the science centre since I left in 1986. Our teaching team blends the best of the university with the best of the science centre. We are blazing a trail and nothing is more satisfying than being involved in an effort to be the best that there is. |
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