Geek of the Week: Sal Khan

Here we honor Muggle geeks who embody Ravenclaw spirit...when they succeed, they soar, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly!

Sal Khan (b. 1976)
"If we could get those creative people…to say ‘Hey I’m using these math tools to further my creativity’ this would help.  I think people are starting to appreciate that, and that is what computer science has really done."

It all began with a quick YouTube tutorial, teaching weights and measures conversion to a very specific seventh grader.

If Salman Khan (the Louisianian computer scientist, not the Bollywood superstar) had gone to school at Hogwarts with us, he would definitely have sorted into Ravenclaw... but instead he went to MIT and Harvard, schools with equally restrictive admission policies.

What he has done with that education is remarkable: his Khan Academy offers almost 4000 free, high-quality, easy-to-follow educational videos, complete with quizzes, on a variety of subjects.

Find out more about Sal Khan on Wikipedia.
Educate yourself at the Khan Academy.

HEY, LET'S LEARN ABOUT THE UNIVERSE A LITTLE BIT:

Geek of the Week: Nichelle Nichols

Here we honor Muggle geeks who embody Ravenclaw spirit...when they succeed, they soar, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly!

Nichelle Nichols (b. 1932)

"I said 'Gene, I've been watching each of the episodes and they each get better and better ... and I discovered something: you're writing morality plays.' And he said, 'Shhh. They haven't figured it out yet.' "

Nichelle Nichols is made of awesome, and if you didn't already know that fact, then know it now.  She is known for her role on Star Trek as communications officer Lieutenant (eventually Commander) Uhura, but Nichols wasn't satisified with resting on her good looks and gravitas: she got cerebral with it.  She named her own character (with tweaks from Gene Roddenberry, of course) based on the Swahili word for freedom.  A now-famous conversation with "the biggest Trekkie on the planet," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., convinced Nichols to stay with Star Trek in the prominent role. It's a good thing, too, as her groundbreaking work has inspired real-life astronauts (Mae Jemison), actors (Whoopi Goldberg), and world leaders (US President Barack Obama) alike.

Her groundbreaking work AFTER her stint on Star Trek is even more impressive.  Nichols took NASA for its lack of diversity and volunteered her time to assist the space agency in recruiting minority and female personnel, including the first American woman in space, Sally Ride.  She has a namesake asteroid and two released music albums (one of them space-themed).

Find out more about Nichelle Nichols on Wikipedia.

Geek of the Week: Bill Nye

Here we honor Muggle geeks who embody Ravenclaw spirit...
when they succeed, they soar, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly!

Bill Nye (b. 1955)

"When we see the shadow on our images, are we seeing the time 11 minutes ago on Mars? Or are we seeing the time on Mars as observed from Earth now? It's like time travel problems in science fiction. When is now; when was then?"

His TV show for kids only ran for five years in the mid '90s, but the world of scientific education was forever changed by the accessibility and sheer enthusiasm brought by Bill Nye, the erstwhile (perpetual?) Science Guy.  Nye, a mechanical engineer once taught by Carl Sagan, has always dressed the part of an unabashed geek (he wore ties every day at a high school that didn't require it); the dapper duds come in handy when he goes swing dancing. He first broke into entertainment after winning a Steve Martin lookalike contest.

Nye regularly submitted applications to be an astronaut at NASA -- rejected every time, due to lack of PhD -- so he's gone another route as the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, advocating and lobbying for continued space exploration in some awesome bowties.

FUN FACT: Nye holds several U.S. patents, including one for ballet pointe shoes (because who wants bloody feet?  Nobody.).

Find out more about Bill Nye on Wikipedia.

BOW TIES ARE COOL: