Memorable Encounters

I have attended quite a few meetings over the years. Most of the meetings were uneventful except two memorable encounters that stood out in my mind. Below are the two interesting encounters.

The first one occurred during the time I went for a job interview for a postdoctoral position after I finished my job in Canada and was a visiting scientist at University of Cincinnati. As part of the interview, I gave a presentation about some of the work I did. It was about the mesospheric temperature inversion layer at around 85-90 km altitude. The phenomenon of the observed mesospheric temperature inversion layer is that temperature increased 30 to 40 K in a few hours in that altitude range. We proposed that the formation of the inversion layer observed during the ALOHA-93 campaign was due to the gravity wave-critical layer interaction modulated by the descending tidal motion. The mechanism was considered new, and some people had a hard time accepting what we proposed at that time. People who opposed our mechanism preferred tides over gravity waves.

One of the people in the audience preferred tidal explanations. He was a well respected senior scientist in the field of Aeronomy. When I got into the mechanism, he stopped me and asked questions. So I answered the questions with supporting materials that I had prepared. He was not satisfied and asked more questions. I showed more supporting materials and answered that there were data that could not be explained by tides along. Gravity waves had to play an important role in triggering the formation of the temperature inversion layer. We went back and forth with questions and answers. We were like locking horns with each other in the tug-of-war. He insisted that his views were right, while I did not back down and insisted that mine were right as well. The whole debate lasted for quite some time. Finally, the host came to our rescue. He stood up and asked us to discuss it after the presentation. During the whole time while I was defending my views, I cringed inside. The presentation was part of the job interview. It is common sense that people should put on their best behavior and leave a good impression at a time like this. I could have pretended to agree with him just to be amiable, but I couldn’t. I felt that the tidal explanation could not explain the observations with satisfaction and that the gravity wave explanation could do it better.

I flew back to Cincinnati after the interview. When I went to see my thesis advisor, he asked me how the interview went. I relayed the whole thing to him. He smiled (probably because he knew me well, and knew that I would go into debate with people if I thought my views were right) and said the scientist called him the other day to tell him that I did not listen to him (the scientist). Luckily, the host hired me anyway. Our mechanism was getting acceptance. Years later, the scientist wrote a review paper on temperature inversion layers. He very graciously included my work and discussed it in his paper.

Another memorable encounter is not as professional as the previous one. It occurred about two years ago. I attended a meeting and presented a poster on my recent research in the field of lightning. I was new to that field. I got interested in lightning after I attended a NATO-sponsored workshop on lightning and transient luminous events (sprites, elves, etc) in 2004. I wanted to know if lightning could have any effect on the chemical reactions in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. I utilized my background in Aeronomy and did research in Lightning. I did some simulations of OH nightglow emissions in the event of sprites.

During the poster session, I stood in front of my poster. A junior scientist came to look at my poster and then he asked me a few questions. A senior scientist walked toward our direction and stopped at where we were. He didn’t look friendly. I did not know that person. Like I said, I was new to this field, so I don’t think many people in the field of lightning knew about my research background. The senior scientist looked at the junior scientist and asked him questions. At first I thought the senior was asking the junior a question because his face was toward the junior one. But after I heard the question, I thought to myself “He was asking a question about my work! Why didn’t he ask me? Why did he ask a person who was like him, just a viewer of my poster???” The junior one apparently thought the same. He apologetically looked at me and asked me if I could answer the question. So I explained nicely about my work and answered his question. However, the senior rarely looked at me when I was explaining things to him. During my explanation to him, he just looked at the junior without the courteous look toward my direction, and he appeared to be not approving what I said. After I finished, he said something to show that my answer was not reaching his ears. He then said a few more things to the junior that my work was wrong. He seemed to be quite upset about my work or me. I don’t know. Like I said, I did not even know him, and I don’t think he knew me. I don’t know why he should get upset about me or about my work. Come to think of it, here is an interesting observation: People in the field of Aeronomy generally said nice things to me about this work, while people in Lightning tended to trash it.

Anyway, the whole scenario prolonged for some time. It was actually a very funny situation. The three of us stood there forming an equal lateral triangle. The senior looked and talked only to the junior. The junior looked rather uncomfortable in his position, and shifted his gaze between me and the senior. I was feeling upset inside but tried to maintain civil. I have never encountered people this rude and this unprofessional at professional gatherings. If he has any questions about my work, he should just ask me directly. But no, instead, he treated me as if I was not there. I don’t know why he acted that way, but that kind of behavior was really uncalled for, nor was it justified. No one should take this kind of attitude from anybody even if he is someone like Einstein, and to be honest he is nowhere near Einstein. The only reason that I did not give him a piece of my mind at that time was out of the respect for his seniority in his age. Come to think of it, I really should stop him and tell him that we need to discuss his attitude before we discuss my work. Further, even if my work was wrong, which it is not, he could have discussed it with me with a more civil, professional attitude. To be honest, his action is simply beyond my comprehension. At the next meeting, he walked past by a few times, but he did not stop by my poster. I guess during our previous encounter I was sending out the message that I am not someone who can be easily intimidated or harassed. It is wise of him to stay away from me. The whole thing was really hilarious and absurd. I hope that person can realize that too.

Here is another interesting observation. Most scientists tend to think their views are right. If someone holds a different view from theirs, that person must be in the wrong because they feel and think that they are always right therefore that person must be wrong. It seems that the more senior you are the more adamant you become in believing you cannot be no wrong. I admit, I am one of them. Well, at least, I’ve recognized my flaw and will always remind myself to be critical and yet open-minded. One thing is for sure, I certainly won’t treat people bad simply because we hold different views!