In each person's life, there may be a few people who make a big difference; who impress the way we live and think and basically change the whole picture of our life. This post is dedicated to a person who has influenced my life a lot. He is Robert L. Bertini. I knew of him when I was 20 and back at home in Iran. I was surfing the net and searching for positions in graduate schools around the world that I saw a picture of this guy and learned a little about him through his web page. I was amazed. He had a resume of more than 50 pages. I emailed him and asked him about the program they have to know more. The first email I got from him was bright and hopeful. He gave me a sort of self-confidence for the way I was about to take the first setps toward it.
Monday, January 15, 2007 at 4:19 PM
Dear Meead: thanks for your note--we would be glad to receive your application for fall 08, the best thing to do to trigger our interest is to actually apply for the MSCE. We do expect to have graduate research assistantships in the areas you are interested. I hope this helps. Thanks and best regards,
Dr. Bertini
I still have his first email in my inbox and I will keep it forever. Since then I've had near a thousand emails from him and I've kept all of them. In each of his emails, I can see a short lesson, a hint, or an advice. In my Persian culture, two people deserve hand kissing. The first one are parents and the second one are teachers. He is going to leave Portland because of some good reasons. I'm happy for him. Right now I remember two of his valuable sentences that he has told me:
- Treat everyone the same.
- Be humble and honest both in your life and in your research and writtings.
2 comments:
Thanks to him !
Wish him best wishes
You are lucky to have a mentor like this. Too bad he is moving.
Several wonderful teachers and rabbis helped me grow up (for many decades). I could not have done it without them.
Blessed is the society that kisses the hand of its teachers.
This is a beautiful post.
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