Avi Loeb

It's interesting in retrospect.

He came to Israel and I gave a presentation.

I still have the photo of that presentation.

And he liked it.

And it appeared in all the newspapers that this is the first international project supported by the SDI, the Star Wars program.

And that brought me to Washington every few months because we got funded at a few million dollars a year.

And you were project lead on the propulsion side, yes?

I was on the theory side.

There was an experimentalist.

And the two of us were leading it.

I was just 21 at that time, 21 years old, and visiting Washington really gave me a perspective that I didn't have before.

And then... Now, hang on.

Do you understand at this point that this is not what normal life is for most people when they're 18 or 21, jumping out of planes and going to Washington?

This is not normal.

Did you know this wasn't normal?

You're from a farm.

Yeah, well, I thought I have to excel in order to do what I really wish to do at the end.

So one thing led to another, and it was really surprising because I met the Pope of plasma physics at the time.

Plasma physics is the study of hot gases, and we were using it in our project.

He was the most respected plasma physicist in the world.