What's It Like to Meet Nobel Laureate Gerard 't Hooft?

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Discussion Overview

The thread discusses a meeting with Nobel Prize winner Gerard 't Hooft, focusing on the experiences and reactions of participants, particularly students attending the event. The conversation includes aspects of pronunciation of 't Hooft's name, the nature of the questions posed during the meeting, and personal reflections on the experience.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses excitement about meeting 't Hooft and plans to share their experience afterward.
  • Several participants offer well-wishes and encouragement for the meeting.
  • A participant corrects another on the pronunciation of 't Hooft's name, emphasizing the importance of including the 't.
  • There is a discussion about the pronunciation of 't Hooft's name, with various suggestions and clarifications on how to articulate it correctly.
  • One participant shares their disappointment with the meeting, describing the questions asked as lacking depth and expressing discomfort with discussing complex physics topics.
  • Another participant reflects on the experience of meeting prominent figures in academia and shares a personal anecdote about a researcher.
  • There is a debate about whether the 'H' in 't Hooft is pronounced, with differing opinions on the matter.
  • Some participants discuss the challenges of pronouncing foreign names and share their experiences with name pronunciation.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the excitement of meeting 't Hooft and the importance of proper name pronunciation. However, there is disagreement regarding the pronunciation of the 'H' in 't Hooft's name, with no consensus reached on this point. Additionally, there are mixed feelings about the quality of the questions asked during the meeting.

Contextual Notes

Participants express varying levels of comfort with discussing complex physics topics, indicating a range of knowledge and confidence. There are also unresolved questions about the nuances of Dutch pronunciation as it relates to English.

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That's great! Have a good time!
 
What a wonderful opportunity! Enjoy!
 
Just to save you from some potential embarassment: it's 't Hooft, not Hooft. the 't goes with his last name.
 
How do you pronounce that? Can one say it without spraying it? :)
 
Math Is Hard said:
How do you pronounce that? Can one say it without spraying it? :)
Never spray it..

The title now says: Going to be meeting Head today. As mentioned, 't should always be added.

If you really want to know to pronunciation, it is 'oo' as in roll (rohl), not as in hoover (huver) :smile:

't is an abbreviation for het, I'd probably pronounce 't as 'ut'
 
anirudh215 said:
I'm going along with a few other selected school students who are going to meet the Nobel Prize winner Gerard't Hooft this afternoon. I'm so excited! Will tell you all how it went off when I return. :biggrin:
I know. Gerard called me up very excited and said he was going to meet anirudh215.
 
jimmysnyder said:
I know. Gerard called me up very excited and said he was going to meet anirudh215.

:smile:

Anyway. It wasn't all that fun. The scheduled program for today's meeting was a questionnaire with 't Hooft. (pronounced tooft) The other students were asking questions like "what do you think is the problem with electroweak theory" or "what are the fundamental problems with string theory". I don't like such questions because I know I am ignorant of a large part of physics and I dislike discussing "popular physics" pretending to understand whatever they say. I feel like I'm fooling myself. Even when he mentioned several times that such material was out of our scope as politely as he could, the barrage of idiotic questions continued. Unfortunately, the whole session was like this.

Oh well.

On the bright side, I got to meet some friends who are studying there and also got to see the college, hostel rooms etc. This was a good thing as I am considering attending this place next year.
 
  • #10
It always nice to be able to meet the big shots. I once had a lunch meeting with a researcher who lived on a ranch in Texas and he was going on about how he liked living in the outdoor while all the grad students and postdocs were working night and days in the lab :rolleyes: :smile: it gives you another perspective on their lives.
 
  • #11
Monique said:
It always nice to be able to meet the big shots. I once had a lunch meeting with a researcher who lived on a ranch in Texas and he was going on about how he liked living in the outdoor while all the grad students and postdocs were working night and days in the lab :rolleyes: :smile: it gives you another perspective on their lives.

Hehe. 't Hooft didn't talk very much about himself yesterday. After he walked in, a professor introduced him and the questionnaire began. This may be a little queer, but I thought his accent was cool. :smile:
 
  • #12
Monique said:
Never spray it..

The title now says: Going to be meeting Head today. As mentioned, 't should always be added.

If you really want to know to pronunciation, it is 'oo' as in roll (rohl), not as in hoover (huver) :smile:

't is an abbreviation for het, I'd probably pronounce 't as 'ut'

Thanks for the Dutch lesson! :biggrin: Okay, now, as I try pronouncing it with the instructions above (I really DO try hard to pronounce people's names as they should be pronounced), are you supposed to pronouce the H also? Or does that drop out of the pronunciation? My tongue is having a hard time wrapping itself around pronouncing an H after a t. Maybe it just takes practice, or maybe that H gets pronounced slightly differently when there's a t in front of it, or maybe that H gets pronounced differently between Dutch and English (I'm willing to bet that's at least part of it).
 
  • #13
:smile: I was thinking of comparable English words and "ho" (hooker) is the best, just stick the "ft" behind it for proper pronunciation. I'm not sure why it would be hard to pronounce a H after the t, I guess the problem may lie in how you pronounce the t (don't say tee!) :wink:

It is nice when people try to pronounce a foreign name right. It happened to me only once at a CVS store, which was a pleasant surprise.
 
  • #14
The hot-potato-in-mouth pure UK English pronounciation of 'that' (T-hat) could be fine. and indeed the oo maybe as in 'go' - (let's gooooo) :smile:
 
  • #15
Moonbear said:
Thanks for the Dutch lesson! :biggrin: Okay, now, as I try pronouncing it with the instructions above (I really DO try hard to pronounce people's names as they should be pronounced), are you supposed to pronouce the H also? Or does that drop out of the pronunciation? My tongue is having a hard time wrapping itself around pronouncing an H after a t. Maybe it just takes practice, or maybe that H gets pronounced slightly differently when there's a t in front of it, or maybe that H gets pronounced differently between Dutch and English (I'm willing to bet that's at least part of it).


I mentioned in my post. You don't pronounce the H. It's pronounced tooft.
 
  • #16
No it is pronounced for sure. But maybe the good professor just wanted to avoid complications
 
  • #17
Andre said:
The hot-potato-in-mouth pure UK English pronounciation

This reminds me of the FAQ entry on the home page of Bjarne Stroustrup (a Dane, the creator of the C++ programming language) on how to pronounce his name. It says the best suggestion he's received for his last name is to "first say it a few times in Norwegian, then stuff a potato down your throat and try it again."
 
  • #18
anirudh215 said:
I don't like such questions because I know I am ignorant of a large part of physics and I dislike discussing "popular physics" pretending to understand whatever they say. I feel like I'm fooling myself.

:approve:

Good for you. To know the line behind which you start to make an idiot out of yourself is the thing many people never manage to learn.
 
  • #19
Borek said:
Good for you.

Thanks.
 

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