Avi Loeb

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.

His name is Marshall Rosenbluth.

And I told him, I'm coming to a visit.

And are there any places?

I'm about to finish this program.

I became an officer and so forth.

Where should I aspire to go?

And he said, well, I used to be faculty at the Institute for...

advanced study at Princeton, where Einstein used to be faculty several decades earlier.

And so he recommended that I go there.

So I wrote a message to the administrator there and asked her to visit at the end of my trip to Washington.

And she said, well, you know, we just don't allow anyone to come here.

Send me your CV.

And I sent it and I had 11 publications.