Oameni cu care ne mândrim

Pe fondul bălăcărelii generale în care preşedintele Băsescu mai latră şi şantajează guvernul cu bugetul, parlamentul se grăbeşte să facă legi care sunt controversate, sau proaste, iată că primesc o veste reconfortantă.

Sunt oameni care fac cinste profesiei şi ţării de unde provin.

Un astfel de om a fost Iftimie Simion, sau Sim cum îi spuneau elevii şi colegii. Iftimie a fost fratele prietenului meu din liceu Gigi, profesor de matematică la Politehnica bucureşteană, coleg de promoţie cu sora mea la liceul nostru I. L. Caragiale. Iftimie a fost profesor la New York la un liceu şi a pregătit lotul olimpicilor de matematică ai SUA. Din păcate trebuie să vorbim la timpul trecut despre Sim, a trecut în lumea celor drepţi cu ceva timp în urmă. 

Dar iată că apare din nou în actualitate, un fost elev de al său a realizat o lucrare de matematică, care modelează probleme privind nemiloasa boală de care a suferit şi Sim.

o să fac o trimitere la un link:

 http://mazziotti.uchicago.edu/journal/pollack_d.pdf

Lucrarea îi este dedicată şi memoriei profesorului său iubit.

Voi publica cu acceptul fratelui său preambulul lucrării:

Personal Section

Since I have always loved both math and science, I was eager to integrate the two fields byconducting a medical research project in applied mathematics. Within the medical field, what inspired  me to study cancer were the deaths of my great-grandmother and great-aunt, as well as the death of my former teacher, math team coach, and research mentor, Iftimie Simion, who helped me come to view math not merely as a subject in school, but rather as a beautiful puzzle. His passion for mathematics, coupled with his tragic death, inspired me to research cancer with the hope of improving both tumor detection and treatment. As his former research student, I felt I owed it to his memory to use the mathematics he taught me in an effort to improve our understanding of the disease that took his life far too soon.

My research was conducted under the supervision of Dr. James Michaelson, the Scientific Director at the Laboratory for Quantitative Medicine, in affiliation with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. A majority of my research was conducted during a summer internship with the Research Science Institute (RSI) held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in June and July of 2011. I continued to work on my paper and project through December of 2011.

My advice for other high school research students would be to enjoy every part of the research process. Research something you love, and rather than feeling discouraged when you face a challenge or unexpected result, look at it as an opportunity to learn, grow, and work with even greater excitement and determination in search of an answer. Rather than only seeing value in the final result you hope to discover, try to enjoy everything about the process along the way. There is so much to learn through research besides that final result; the skills and knowledge you gain will remain with you long afterwards - and may perhaps even come to use when you least expect it.

One of the most valuable aspects of my experiences with high school research, I believe, was the opportunity to develop a greater understanding and appreciation for the way scientific research is conducted. Though the process can often be long and challenging, the opportunity to problem solve and think critically to answer unsolved real-world questions is simultaneously humbling, exciting, and incredibly rewarding. Unlike knowledge gained from books and courses, the unique characteristic of research is an eternal quest for the unknown. And the extraordinary characteristic of the unknown is the potential to make the world a better place.