U.S. Campus Life

The next 60 years

By Masako Yamada

My advisor, Professor Gene Stanley, turned 60 a few weeks ago. In Japan, of course, this is the great kanreki birthday, and it's not uncommon to have lavish parties with many guests. In the States, it doesn't seem that this birthday is considered such a significant event. However, in certain circles, such as the scientific research circle that I am in, it's considered a great milestone. I suppose it's because at 60, one can finally take a look back on one's career to see the impact one has made in the science world.

In my field, it's not uncommon for 60th birthday conferences to be held in one's honor. During the summer, there will be such a conference held for my advisor. Many of his former graduate students and post-docs — now professors and academic researchers — will be giving lectures on topics that my advisor has investigated. Gene has trained well over 50 graduate students so far, so there will be no shortage of speakers.

The current graduate students and post-docs in the lab planned a birthday party for him, and it was held last week. This was a more casual affair involving pizza, soda and a birthday cake. One of the visiting professors took the lead and started organizing a "surprise" party about a month ago. It has been very difficult to get everybody together at the same time — especially Gene, himself — so we were not able to hold the party until weeks after his actual birthday.

It is not uncommon for him to give lectures in three countries in one week. He was abroad during his actual birthday. I think he was in either Belgium, Germany or Israel at the exact moment, but I'm not quite sure. I believe he did have a party on his actual birthday, wherever he may have been. In the meantime, our group was planning our own party.

Many secret e-mail messages have crisscrossed the members of our lab. The coordinator of the party even e-mailed Gene's wife to ask her about his schedule. The party date and time were changed at least three times to accommodate his busy schedule. Gene's always on the run, so one needs to offer a good reason to get him to show up to a meeting. We finally decided on staging the party during the time we usually have our group meetings.

Once a week in our lab, all the members get together, and one member of the group gives a seminar. For the birthday party, one of the group members offered to be the "decoy" who would pretend to give the seminar that day. Advertisements of his talk were circulated around the lab, including to my advisor. We knew that he would show up, and were quite proud of this scheme. The evening before the party, however, Gene revealed that he would have to leave the group meeting early to go to some academic function. The party time was changed, yet again.

Before the party, a birthday card was passed around for all the group members to sign. I found the messages quite interesting, since the lab members come from different parts of the world, and this has been reflected in their phrases. I wrote a small cartoon and the words "60 and Still Looking Good!!" in sincere admiration of his youthful enthusiasm. Some people seemed to think this was a bit too sarcastic for their tastes, and wrote more respectful comments.

Gene's over twice my age, and he has over twice the energy that I do. He's usually the first to arrive at the lab, and is often the last to leave. He hardly takes a lunch break. He has been living this lifestyle for decades. I occasionally get annoyed at him for being so busy all the time (busy with someone else), but I will never deny that his work ethic is utterly amazing.

Normal people start thinking of retirement when they reach 60, but I don't think Gene will be moving to Florida any time soon. He still accepts new graduate students. He still works twice as much as anybody else. I think Gene is entitled to look back on his 60 years and feel some satisfaction in what he' s accomplished . . . but I suspect that he is always looking ahead, always trying to figure out what he can do in his next 60 years.

Shukan ST: April 20, 2001

(C) All rights reserved