Letter from Boston

Preconference Preparation

By MASAKO YAMADA

My advisor, Gene, often goes abroad to present his work at conferences. He came back from Europe just a week before the start of another conference called the Gordon Research Conference. I had been preparing material by myself while he was away, but the nearing deadline — and my advisor's return — made this week go by much more quickly than the last couple of weeks.

I had been running a simulation program on the supercomputer for almost a week straight while he was away, but it's fair to say that it was the computer that was doing most of the work during this stage. In the last week before the conference, however, I had to collect all the data and try to come up with a conclusion — or at least an interesting future question.

I showed my colleague, Francis, one of the graphs that I had produced. He looked a bit puzzled and said, "I think you should run the program a little longer to see whether these fluctuations are real, or whether they are flukes." Although time was running short, I had to take more data before I could finish my poster.

Actually, I hear that the Gordon conference is a little bit different from most conferences in that one does not need to have a solid theory before presenting one's work. That is to say, it is a conference in which the participants discuss WIPs (Works In Progress). The NATO institute that I attended in May was also a unique conference in that it was modeled after a school.

These alternative format gatherings are particularly good for beginning researchers such as myself, since the point is not to prove something, but to discuss issues in an open manner. As a matter of fact, all the afternoons at the Gordon conference are free of lectures. The participants are encouraged to socialize among themselves.

My poster was almost finished when some early-bird participants started to arrive at our lab. Although the Gordon conference is held in New Hampshire, Gene invites many of the researchers to come a day or two early to visit his lab at Boston University. The visiting researchers and Gene's group members are given the opportunity to discuss their work in a truly informal setting.

A large number of professors from Japan arrived early and, perhaps because I'm Japanese (and maybe because I look so young), they seemed quite interested in what I was doing. One of them came over to my computer and asked me about my results. I said something like, "It looks like this system has slightly more fluctuations than the previously studied system." He looked puzzled and said, "Hmmm, that's strange considering that in a similar system, there are fewer fluctuations." This comment made me very nervous, but before I could offer any explanation, he answered his own statement, continuing, "Your system is different, though, so it might be the case that ..."

Gene has created a tradition of informal lectures at the lab on the afternoon before the start of the conference. All of the early arrivals give small talks in front of the other participants. This is followed by an informal dinner party at Gene's house. Although the lectures are held in round-table format over pizza, listening to all of the talks made me tired, as about 20 people spoke for a total of over 5 hours. It was a relief to take the T to Gene's place for an evening of pure relaxation (some people still insisted on talking about their research, however!).

Gene, his wife, Idahlia, and his daughter, Rachel, set up a wonderful dinner buffet and liquor bar. During the entire evening there were people milling about the kitchen, the dining room, the porch and the backyard. I had a good time trying to explain the different vegetarian dishes — which included Middle Eastern eggplant paste, Armenian walnut dip and Jewish sesame seed candy — to the Japanese guests.

Some of of the conversations took surprisingly deep turns. One of the Japanese researchers asked me whether I had dreams of ever winning a Nobel Prize, and I said, "No." He then told me that I had to have some kind of dream. I thought about it a bit and replied, "Well, I'd rather have a Nobel Prize than not have a Nobel Prize ..." (He chuckled.) "But I have other dreams." I then starting telling him about my interests in food and the arts. And the wonderful thing was, although he was a scientist, I knew he was taking me seriously.

Shukan ST: Aug. 14, 1998

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