The most famous people I've ever met

They're all nerds

Albert Rockenstein courtesy of Grok 2 mini (beta version)

There was a trend on social media a while back where you listed the most famous person you’ve ever met along with some kind of anecdote. Pretty much everyone who participated in this trend mentioned actors, directors, musicians, athletes, or politicians.

I thought about all of the encounters I’ve had with notable people over the years, and realized I’ve met only one conventionally famous person. And his claim to fame is so far in the past that most people are probably only peripherally aware of who he is.

My famous people are, for the most part, academic rockstars. Some of you might know who I’m talking about and be impressed. Most of you are probably going to react the same way I did when a huge table tennis geek gushed about how he once got to shake hands with Zoran Primorac. Ohhh-kay. That’s cool? I guess?

Still, I think you’ll enjoy the anecdotes.

Nicest: Roy Kerr

Mathematician, Roy Kerr

Roy Kerr is a multi-award-winning New Zealand mathematician. He is most famous for solving Einstein's field equations to discover how rotating black holes work. You’ll just have to trust me that this is a major achievement in physics. So major that Nobel laureate physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar went to pieces over it:

In my entire scientific life, extending over forty-five years, the most shattering experience has been the realization that an exact solution of Einstein's equations of general relativity, discovered by the New Zealand mathematician, Roy Kerr, provides the absolutely exact representation of untold numbers of massive black holes that populate the universe.

And he did this during his eight-year stint at UT-Austin, where I got my PhD and worked as a research scientist for many years. Now, this is just hearsay, because it was well before my time there, but Kerr had been known to party with the other scientists and grad students, particularly at the Crown and Anchor pub off campus.

I met Kerr twenty years ago at a black hole conference in Albuquerque, and I will never forget how this absolute legend of space and time listened intently and took notes from junior scientists who were presenting their research. During his talk at the conference, he told us a little about how he came to his famous solution to Einstein’s equations. At one point, when he was stuck in his solution, he said he went back to an undergraduate math textbook to figure out something he didn’t quite understand. I thought it was amazing that such an accomplished mathematician would own up to not knowing everything. He just came across as a humble, wonderful person.

Most intimidating: Steven Weinberg

Physicist, Steven Weinberg

Steven Weinberg was a Nobel laureate physicist and faculty in my department at UT-Austin. Everyone was kind of afraid of him. He was a short man, but he had this booming voice and dominant personality, and you definitely knew when he was in the room.

I have many stories about Steven, but this is my favorite. We used to have Friday astrophysics lunches at the UT campus club, and Weinberg would sometimes show up. During one lunch he seemed confused that there were two popular scientists named Sean Carroll, one of whom was, at the time, a well-known cosmologist at Caltech. He wanted to know who the other one was. I happened to know who the other one was, because my dad had just read his latest book, so I said, “He’s a biologist.” Weinberg responded with a dismissive, “Pfff. Biologist.” I think he agreed with the legendary Ernest Rutherford, who once famously quipped that physics is the only true science.

Best anecdotes: Kip Thorne

Physicist, Kip Thorne

Kip Thorne is another Nobel laureate physicist, and was considered the greatest living expert on relativity when he retired a few years ago. He’s also an incredible storyteller who wrote one of the best popular level science books I've ever read. Black Holes and Time Warps is equal parts physics, history, and memoir, and well worth a read if you’re interested in any of those things.

Our group took Thorne out for lunch when he visited UT a few years ago, and he regaled us with fascinating stories of how the groundbreaking LIGO project—which can detect the gravitational waves made by distant colliding neutron stars and black holes—was conceived and ultimately built. His technical knowledge and ingenuity blew my socks off.

In addition to his incredible scientific work in relativity, he was also the scientific consultant for the mind-bending physics in the movie Interstellar.

Most normal: John Mather

Physicist, John Mather

John Mather is another Nobel laureate physicist whose work with the famous Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite helped shape modern cosmology. Mather is just a really nice person. He grew up on a farm, and as far as I could tell, he was still that humble farmer’s kid even after he won the Nobel.

I was a grad student when he visited UT, and during a lunch with a bunch of us grads he answered all of our questions and gave us great advice on how to survive grad life.

My favorite: John Lennox

Mathematician, John Lennox

John Lennox is an Irish mathematician and Christian apologist. He’s one of those rare people who subverts expectations in the best possible way. He's a humble, gentle-spoken, unassuming person who's kind of reminiscent of a Hobbit. But the man possesses a mind as sharp as the sharpest sword, and he wields it expertly. He's also armed with three doctorates and a vast amount of knowledge. So, while Lennox may seem like a Hobbit, he turns out to be rather more like Gandalf.

I got to meet Lennox when he visited UT to debate Steven Weinberg about theology. Unfortunately, the organizers bungled the event, and the debate never happened, but a bunch of us from the Christian Faculty Network did get to spend the afternoon with him. He’s just a fantastic person you want to spend time with as soon as you meet him. (Three doctorates, yeesh.)

Most famous: Keir Dullea

“Open the pod bay doors, HAL”

Keir Dullea is an actor best known for his portrayal as the astronaut "Dave" in 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact.

My husband and I met him when we made a road trip stop in Roswell, New Mexico, only to realize it was during their International UFO Festival. We were on our way to Santa Fe but decided to put off our trip to check out the craziness at the UFO museum. We found Dullea in there signing autographs next to the actress who portrayed the mom in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. I bought an old lobby card for 2001 and asked him to sign it.

A prized possession

Dullea was so kind and talked to us for a long time. Turns out, he's really smart and witty and has great stories about his time in movies. He told us that he learned to speak some Swedish when he worked with a Swedish director and remembered enough to speak with my Fenno-Swede husband.

In case it isn’t obvious, this is my one and only encounter with a conventionally famous person, and I’m happy to say that it was a very pleasant one.

So, there you go. My encounters with famous people.

What famous people have y’all met? I’m opening the comments on this one to all subscribers if you want to share your stories.