18. The smartest people I know

I know many smart people... here's a list of some of the smartest (just because I thought it'd be interesting). Post your own list (but don't include yourself on the list). If you don't want to read the reasons, at least read the names.
If I forgot you, then you're either not on my Facebook list (I browsed through all the names before I finalized this list) or I just don't know you well enough outside of the world of science. Or maybe you'd be in Tier 3 if there was one.

Tier 1

• Dr. Ruth M. Ruprecht, MD, Ph. D, tenured professor at Harvard Medical School (I worked at her lab one summer) - I think her title says it all, but I'll add some more: in addition to completing a full residency and a postdoctoral fellowship, she has helped make significant advances in HIV research and may be currently working on a successful vaccine. And despite her age and the amount of time that she invests in her job, she is still in amazing physical shape and her purse always matches her shoes (or whatever it's supposed to match).
• Dr. Wynn Volkert, Ph. D, tenured professor of medicine/nuclear engineering/medical physics/radiology/radiopharmaceutical sciences/biochemistry/chemistry at Mizzou, head of at least one of those departments... if it has to do with radiation (especially radiation in medicine) and it's going on at Mizzou, then it's not important if Dr. Volkert isn't involved. Full professor since 1981, Curator's Professor since 2000, Director of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Institute since 1999, Director of Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute since 2001.
• Dr. Jeffrey Phillips, Pharm. D., associate professor at University of Missouri School of Medicine, Director of Department of Surgery - Applied Research (my current boss). Although Dr. Ruprecht and Dr. Volkert have undertaken more mentally-challenging and difficult-to-execute tasks, Dr. Phillips has been more successful at making a difference in the field of medicine. He invented the drug Zegerid (which is already the fastest-acting and most effective acid-reflux drug available and will soon be the top acid-reflux drug on the market) by applying a very simple principle that nobody ever thought to apply. We are now applying another very simple principle to another problem (ventilator-associated pneumonia, which kills around 10% of patients who are on a ventilator)... but this time, since he has funding now, we are trying to show that an outdated procedure can be resurrected by using new technology... and we can save lives by doing it.
  
• Farrukh Sohail Quraishi, MS (Civil Engineering), MBA - My uncle; graduated #1 in his class at the top engineering college in Pakistan; he got into MIT but didn't go for financial reasons. Don't be fooled by the fact that he's a relative... he's one of the most intelligent people you'll ever meet and has a very analytical personality. He makes good decisions more effectively than anybody I've ever met. Plus, he's a great singer.
  
• Karthikeyan Ettigounder Ponnusamy (yes, I had to type it all out) - Just admitted to Hopkins Med School (btw... Karthik, if you read this, congratulations); already has a patent on some random medical device that I don't know much about; got a 1600 on his SAT along with perfect grades in high school and a 37 on the MCAT (unless he re-took it). I actually don't know much about his personality because he never really talked much, but you could tell that he's one of those guys that doesn't talk because he doesn't want people to realize just how smart he is (out of modesty). One of the few people who I might admit is smarter than me.
  
• Matt Watermann - The only person who can consistently change my opinions about issues - I honestly think that he was sent by Satan. As much as I may hate to admit it, he was better than me at chess in high school and although I may be better at math (and thereby anything related to math, i.e. Physics, some chemistry, etc), he seems to be a more well-rounded individual. We both love to discuss historical and current issues, but I think that he's better at that. Another one of the few people who might be smarter than me and still somehow manages to find the time to run three marathons a day and then go lift weights for twelve hours after that.
  Oh, and in case you don't know, I've lived with him for well over a year now.
  
• Nick Dashman - He's a lot like Matt (crazy-smart, modest, athletic)... except instead of a star cross-country runner/chess player, he was an all-conference linebacker. I don't know where he is now; I haven't talked to him since high school.
• Robert J. Fischer - My seventh-grade math teacher - He taught me techniques that my high school calculus teacher didn't know; I attribute a good portion of my successes in life to him. He has turned countless promising students into geniuses.
  
• Honorable mentions:
• Anis Khimani (has a Ph. D. in virology and did his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard). He definitely deserves to be in Tier 1, but it's hard for any scientist to match Dr. Volkert and Dr. Ruprecht... and Karthik, for that matter.
• Mike Herrmann (teacher at my high school; BS in biology and BA in education) - he could have led a much more "glorious" life as a doctor or a professor, but I think that he does the world a lot of good by teaching promising students how to become good doctors and good resesarchers.
• Tim Morrison (teacher at my high school; BS in biochemistry and BA in education) - another great teacher, can't say any less about him than I can about Mike Herrmann.
• James Whitney (former co-worker at Harvard; has a Ph. D. in virology from McGill University in Canada)
• Ruijiang Song (another Harvard co-worker; Ph. D. in virology from Hopkins)... I don't know them too well beyond the world of science, but they were definitely geniuses.
• Added on 1-27-07 (I don't know why I forgot him before) - Saad T. Siddiqui - One of my cousins... another person that might be smarter than me (might)... but I haven't talked to him much recently.
  

Tier 2
No particular order: Sridhar Kandala (friend from Mizzou), Vasu Polineni (another friend from Mizzou), Dennis Yungbluth (another friend from Mizzou, one of my roommates), Manu ben Johny (friend from high school), Mike Howe (high school chemistry teacher), Srikar Rao (another friend from high school), Josh Jacob (random person I haven't talked to since high school), Emery Cox (another random person from high school), Nick Woodard (friend from high school; I still talk to him), Kevin John (random person from high school... he's on my AIM list, but I rarely talk to him), Dustin Shipp (haven't seen him since high school), Jane Song (another random high school person... I think she's the only woman on the list).

Added to Tier 2 because I forgot them before:
Greg Thompson (from high school)

17. Who would take a bullet for you? Who would you take a bullet for?

I was sitting around talking to Dan (my white brother... not to be confused with Naaim, my brown brother) about his plans to attend police academy, and I got to thinking... what would happen if we were at the pool hall or at Steak'n'Shake or at the chess club (in the Bread Co at the Loop) when somebody held up the place with a gun? If he was a cop, he'd have to take action... but what would I do? Would I face a significant chance of death so that I could reduce his chances of suffering the same fate?
Would he do it for me?
Yes to both questions. Here's what I think (in no particular order); post what your list is. Don't feel bad if I'm not on your list, because most of you probably aren't on mine (no offense, but I'm sure you understand).

• Dan - He's first on the list because he was the person I was talking to when this question popped into my head; no questions asked, he'd do it for me, I'd do it for him.
  
• Naaim - Again, no questions asked.
• Talal - I'm the oldest of my cousins and Talal is #2. He was the first best friend that I ever had (when I was 6 months old and he was just born), but we've grown farther apart over the years as our interests and our goals diverge. I think that if he were to put himself in harm's way to save me, it would be just as much an attempt to be a hero as it would be to protect me. If it were a split-second, reflex-action sort of thing, I don't think he'd do it (although I would).
  
• Saad - Saad is #3 on the list of cousins by age (9 months younger). I was always closer to Talal (because Saad moved to Saudi Arabia when I was about 5, and when he came back to Pakistan, I quickly migrated to the US), but it seems that I was always more similar to Saad in terms of interests and core values, and we seem to be converging in every way. I would have to say that he would take a bullet for me in a heartbeat and I'd do the same for him... but if he had to choose between me and one of his brothers (or if I had to do the same thing), I'm pretty sure we'd each choose our brother.
• All four of my grandparents - They are getting old, but if they ever had the opportunity, they would gladly give their life to make sure that I could live mine.
• My uncle Tausif, my aunt Cyma, my uncle Ahson, my aunt Rubina, and maybe my uncle Arsalan (all on my dad's side) - The first three and the last one are my dad's brothers/sisters... aunt Rubina is his sister-in-law. Since I was the first one born on this side of the family, they all think of me as a son... they would never think twice about taking a bullet for me. I would be inclined to do the same for any of them, but I know that they wouldn't want me to (since I'm younger and I have more years ahead of me)... so I don't know if I would (but that's only because I thought about it in advance... if I hadn't written this post, I would have taken a bullet for any of them without thinking twice).
• Any relative on my mom's side - There is no question in my mind that any of my mom's brothers or sisters would take a bullet for me and that I would take a bullet for any of my mom's nephews or nieces (my cousins). As much as I'd like to say the same about her siblings, the same goes for them as for my father's siblings... I don't think that any younger relative should ever do something like that for an older person.
• My parents - no-brainer there... they'd do it for me, and as much as I'd like to do it for them, the same goes as above.
• The President of the USA (whoever it may be at the time) - that'd probably fetch me a Congressional Medal of Honor and an automatic citizenship. Plus, I'd do anything to stop Dick Cheney from becoming President (even if it means taking a bullet for Dubya).
• I probably forgot to mention a few people... but that's only because it's late at night (or early in the morning) and I'm starting to get bored with this. And some people are still in the interim stage where they're not quite there yet.
  

What is your list?

16. Zambian Infant #1157... the cure for depression

Everybody occasionally feels depressed. Relationships... school... work... family... there is a plethora of reasons. You may be overwhelmed with more tasks than you have time for... or you may be struggling with a core belief in your basic life philosophy... or you may be upset because no way exists for you to get 7 hours of sleep tonight.

So what do you do? Well, every single time I feel that life has been treating me unfairly... I promptly see a picture of Zambian Infant #1157.

I worked with a sample from Zambian Infant #1157 when I was doing HIV resesarch at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The sample was modified and a strain (known as SHIV1157) was produced... and whenever anybody talked about SHIV1157 or its derivatives, they thought of a virus. I'm not sure if anybody knew where the virus came from or why it was numbered as it was... I imagine that there were 2000 infants in a study and the 1157th one had an interesting viral strain.

Zambian Infant #1157, last time I checked, was 6 or 7 years old and still alive, battling HIV. He is one of the few infants born with HIV who manages to survive beyond a year or two. And his parents probably consider themselves lucky because he gets good medical care because he has such a unique viral strain.

Zambian Infant #1157, an impoverished child who was born with HIV, is lucky. He is still alive at age 7 and his viral strain is used wordlwide in HIV research.

So what is unlucky in Zambia? And who am I to be upset about my bad stroke of luck?

I look to the right at the PowerBook that I recently convinced my boss to upgrade to a MacBook Pro, I look to the left at the Ford Taurus that I hate because it is one of the few cars that succeeds in mixing bad power with bad gas mileage, and I look above my head at the projector that I complain about because I don't have cable and can't watch the Cardinals play 162 times every year.

Until the day that I can't afford to eat and my son is born with HIV, I am in no place to complain.