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Laura Cyckowski's picture

So, what do you know?

This is a really great idea. I have known Professor Grobstein for 7 years, lots of stories and memories to choose from. I’ll start with this one… I’ve spent much time as a student and after graduating working on things for Serendip. The computer I worked from is in the side office right next to the office he had for a long time. I liked that I could hear when he’d get up to take a break from whatever he was working on. It meant that he would wander in eventually and he would sit down to talk. When he wasn’t taking a break to “go puff on his pipe” (as he would say) he would usually come in with his coffee (always in his steel Starbucks coffee mug). He would put his coffee on the table, sit down, maybe put his feet up on the table or chair and lean back, hands behind his head, and he’d say “So, what do you know?”. It was easy to talk to him, he was interested in and curious about so many things. Biology, the brain, science, psychology, mental health, human behavior, culture, philosophy, learning, education, the list goes on. The way he had of thinking about things was so inspiring and refreshing. Things I wouldn’t normally be interested in I became excited about. Anyway, after talking he would invariably leave without his coffee mug and would come back a few minutes later asking if anyone had seen his coffee. Eventually, I started sneaking into his office when he’d go to smoke his pipe. I’d hide his coffee mug so that he would come looking for it, that way he’d sit down to talk some more. :)

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