Mudd Stories (Part 1: The Intimidator)

In honor of Harvey Mudd College's 60th anniversary, I decided to write up some of my favorite professor stories from Mudd.

Today, we have The Intimdator.

Going into Mudd, I knew I wanted to be a physics major. But I didn't quite place well enough to take a slightly accelerated version of freshman physics. Consequently, I took "basic" physics (Physics 23), consisting of calculus-based mechanics. (Unlike the wunderkind of my year, I definitely didn't take calculus-based E&M first semester.) That was a bit of an ego hit, but it was okay. As I rapidly found out, I was surrounded by people far brighter and better prepared than I was. Fortunately, I was not quite sharp enough to figure out how truly far behind I was, and so I did my best to work twice as hard to catch up. It worked reasonably well first semester.

Second semester consisted of Physics 24. It was a slightly unusual class -- a large chunk of it focused on Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, and was taught by our resident Obi Won Kenobi figure. The rest of the class concerned rotational mechanics and oscillations. Because of it's unusual nature, those who placed out of Physics 23 typically were required to take Physics 24. As a result, Physics 24 was packed with my entire graduating class.

One day, we were covering rolling friction. I was doing fairly well in the class -- on track to get nearly straight-As for the semester. I raised my hand in lecture and asked a question regarding why it was static friction instead of kinetic (or something to that effect). I thought it was a good question.

The professor said, "Oh! I guess someone didn't read the book!"

Audible "Ooohs" echoed through the hall as I shrank to a third my size in my seat.

In that moment, I knew I needed to pick The Intimidator as my academic advisor.

In retrospect, it was an unusual choice. The Intimidator wasn't an astrophysicist. And The Intimidator was scary. The Intimidator was famous for saying things like "You're wasting your parents' money!" whenever students did badly. The Intimidator would also say "I expect most of you [in my section] to do better than average."

According to legend, The Intimidator once told a student, "You're Asian, and your parents are rich. I expect more from you."

So I hesitated, like Fanny Price, before that door, before I asked The Intimidator to be my academic advisor. But unlike Fanny, I walked in.

Where did this bluntness come from?

I never knew for sure. But I heard a story that The Intimidator had majored in physics in China. As a result of the Cultural Revolution, The Intimidator had to work on a farm for ten years. After the end of that dark period of self-cannibalistic madness, Chinese policy permitted the Intimidator to study abroad. The Intimidator earned a PhD in physics from MIT. I can only imagine the tenacity that it took, given those circumstances, to relearn (or maintain) that knowledge and focus.

That was why The Intimidator was at least ten years older than other associate professors.

But I never knew if that story was true. I never asked -- it seemed inappropriate and invasive to ask about that period of life. What I did know is that The Intimidator became The Encourager, The Facilitator.

A few weeks before finals, I got struck by acute appendicitis. Thanks to some less-than-stellar diagnosis from the campus medical center, I tried to tough through it for a couple sleepless days. My mom ended up showing up to campus and taking me to the ER (but not before I fired off the physics lab data to my lab partner), where after hours of waiting, I got it out. It had been leaking, and so I had to spend an extra week in the hospital.

When I got out, I went to the department and was studying for finals. The Intimidator came up, looked at me, and said, "You don't look so great. Maybe you should take the day off."

Given The Intimidator's reputation (and alleged incredible personal history), I must've looked like I was on death's door.

Or, more probably, The Intimidator wasn't in fact intimidating. The Intimidator was, at the core, a good person. The kind of person to bring back tea from China after sabbatical. The kind of person to shrewdly pass me to the second-most-intimidating person in the department during that sabbatical.

I heard that The Intimidator was worried that HMC professors coddled their students too much. It wasn't a judgment on how things were harder in the old days. It was more a statement of fact that HMC was a special place, and that perhaps it was a disservice to give students a skewed set of expectations regarding support. In that, and so much else, The Intimidator was both wise and correct.

I still don't *really* understand static friction for wheels. But I do understand that everyone needs someone like The Intimidator from time to time to troll and cajole the best work from us.