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Chapter 78 - Guardianship

When they arrived at the high school, Tamara suddenly realized that giving her name and address to the school could expose her treasured privacy. She told Marks to wait while they were parked outside the school, while she tried to contact Sam.

Maybe she’ll answer her cell during work hours... if she’s alone, that is, Tamara thought.

She did answer. “Hey Tamara. No news here yet, but we filed the guardianship petition this morning. We should have an answer by this afternoon whether we’ll need to appear for a hearing; I had planned to call you before 10 but you beat me. So what’s up?”

“Oh, that’s super. I have a tricky issue now, Sam. I’m at the high school and realized that if I give my name and address, that would expose my privacy. I assume there are laws about minors’ student records, but when there’s a chance of getting money, and little chance that a breach could be traced, I think that someone in the school office could leak my address.”

“You’re right, Tamara, it’s possible,” Sam agreed.

“Could I do this? Give Peter’s name as the contact and responsible party, our post office box for mail, and the address of my corporate office as the physical address?”

“Hmm, it’s not kosher. Besides, I’m sure that you’d need to provide proof that she’s a Baltimore resident. You’ll also need a host of other documentation, come to think of it. When Mum first registered Andrew in high school, she had to hand in lots of docs. Listen, go in, find out what they need, and then call me back. Okay?”

“Sure. Thanks.”

Tamara brought Winnie into the building with her and they found the office. Tamara explained the situation to the secretary and she got them to see the principal.

“Hello, I’m Dr Borges. Mrs Hendricks tells me that you’re a prospective student transfer?”

Tamara answered, “We hope. I’m Tamara Alexandre and this is Awinita Nelsey. We have a very complicated situation. I’m a grad student at Hopkins and will probably become Winnie’s guardian.”

Tamara went on to describe how she had gotten Winnie out of her bad situation and Borges was horrified at the story.

“The guardianship petition was filed this morning. But Winnie escaped with no possessions at all. She tells me that her case worker in West Virginia never gave Winnie any personal documents... is that right, dear?”

“It’s true, Tamara, Dr Borges. From what Papa told me, I was born at home with a tribal midwife. When I was about two years old, my parents died in an auto accident but I was safe in a car seat in the back. Papa—that’s Grandpa—and Gramma raised me, but when it came to starting school, there was no birth certificate. The midwife had never registered my birth. Papa had to get a late birth certificate and he had to guess at some details. I did know my birthday, though,” she chuckled.

“So my first school had the records they needed. But when Papa died and I went into the system, the social services people said that they couldn’t find any personal papers about me or my parents,” she finished.

“I assume we can get a birth certificate copy from the state records,” Tamara told Borges. “And her school records from the schools she attended. But you heard what happened in the group home about her school. She was in four different schools in two years and kept out of school randomly during much of that time. In seventh grade, she had to move schools three times and missed most of that grade and was made to repeat it. Winnie, you told me you were doing well in school.”

“I was. Papa was so proud of me. The teachers said that I was their best student. In sixth grade, I got an award for being the top student in the grade.”

“Do you remember the schools you attended?” Borges asked.

“Yes’m. But for the ones in the last two years, I think my records are bad,” Winnie sniffled. “The witc... ah, group home lady didn’t let the girls do homework. I had to do whatever I could while in school.”

Borges shook her head. “I see, Ms Alexandre, what you mean by a complicated situation. Okay, I’m sure you know that our school is academically selective and we accept students based on a formula calculated from their seventh and eighth grade records. Clearly we’re unable to do that here. We’ve faced this problem in the past when international students transferred here, so we can arrange for a placement test for entry. Winnie, the test would be based on knowledge typically learned in seventh and eighth grades in math, English, U.S. history, and science. Do you recall enough from what you learned in those grades?”

“Oh, I do, ma’am. I read every book for my classes, cover to cover. Even though I couldn’t turn in my work a lot of the time and missed some tests too, I have a good memory.”

Borges smiled at her. “Okay then. We’ll get the exam set up for you. And Ms Alexandre, to enroll Winnie in the Baltimore schools, there are a few things we will need you to provide and the secretary can give you the list and an enrollment application.”

“Thank you, Dr Borges.”

“My curiosity is piqued now. Your name is familiar ... by any chance, are you the Alexandre who was awarded all those Nobel prizes?”

Winnie shot a knowing look at Tamara.

Tamara nodded reluctantly. “I am. But the press has made a huge uproar about it and I’m a private person. And with Winnie’s terrible experiences, I’d hate for her to get caught up in all the turmoil.”

“Oh, I completely understand,” Borges said. “But let me express my congratulations.”

“Thanks. If we do enroll Winnie here, will my details and contact info be kept confidential? I don’t want to cast aspersions on your staff, but leaking my address and Winnie’s relation to me would be harmful.”

“I understand. We’ll work with you to protect your personal information, Ms Alexandre.”

Tamara and Winnie thanked the principal and left the office after arranging Winnie’s testing date. They met Marks waiting for them in the school lobby. When they were walking back to the car, Winnie said, “I like her. I could feel that she was being truthful. She wants me to do well so that I can go to school here. And this place has good vibes too.”

Tamara stopped and stared at her. “You could feel that? You’re able to sense things like that?”

“Uh huh. It’s how I could tell about the people who came to the group home to look at the girls. They felt dirty, slimy. And the one who took me away was putrid. I had to get away from him.”

They got into the car and Tamara told her, “We have to discuss what you can do, ‘cause I can do that too. So can Peter, my folks, and some of Peter’s relatives. And I can teach you how to do more with your ability to protect yourself. Okay?”

Winnie looked at her, her eyes were wide with surprise. “Papa knew when someone was lying and taught that to me. You do that too?”

“I do. Oh, this is so exciting. You need to meet...”

Tamara’s phone rang; the caller ID showed it was Sam. She turned the speaker on.

“Hi, Sam; we’re done at the school.”

“Good; listen, can you get to Baltimore Circuit Court at noon? We’ve got an emergency hearing set up for 1:30 with a family court judge. The judge authorized it ‘cause of the kidnapping issue.”

“Sure. I can be there.”

“Good, I’ll confirm it to the clerk that you’ll be there. Now, one of our family attorneys, Stacey Circeo, will handle the hearing and she can meet you at noon at...”

Sam gave Tamara the attorney’s address at an office near the courthouse.

“They’ll have lunch brought in and Mrs Circeo’s collected a number of docs related to Winnie’s case. How did it go at the school?”

“Good, the principal was compassionate and receptive to my keeping my info private.”

“Brilliant. Hey, send me the enrollment forms and other data the school wants and we’ll gather the info you’ll need. It would be much easier for us to get Winnie’s school records than you, won’t it. After the hearing, we’ll have you do a power of attorney so I can represent her.”

Tamara couldn’t believe how quickly Sam’s firm had gathered the information that Mrs Circeo, the family attorney, showed her when they met. She had an electronic copy of Winnie’s birth certificate, certificates of death for her parents and grandfather, the guardianship papers for her grandmother and grandfather, the recorded deed to her grandfather’s property, and the court orders for Winnie’s foster care. Somehow, she had also gotten a certified transcript of the recording of the kidnapper that Tamara had made on her burner phone.

“How’d you ever get that?” Tamara asked.

“Our firm has a close working relationship with the AG’s office in Virginia. They’re really moving ahead with the kidnapping case, even though it began in a different state. Both the victim and the perp ended up in Virginia and that’s where the complaint was made and investigated by a Virginia state trooper, so they assert that they have claim for jurisdiction. The FBI is involved too, especially since state lines were crossed.”

“What happens at our hearing?” Tamara asked.

“The judge will review the pertinent issues to determine whether an emergency guardian should be appointed. He or she considers the physical and emotional risk to the minor and the suitability of the proposed guardian to best provide for the care of the minor. The judge will most likely want to interview Winnie in private; there are special rules that cover how that is to be done and a social worker will be present, but you or I can’t be. Is that okay, Winnie?”

“The judge will ask if I want to stay with Tamara?”

“Basically. And most likely have you tell what happened in your own words.”

“Good, that’s way more than the judge in West Virginia did; he just listened to the case worker. When I tried to say something, he threatened to send me out of the room. Five minutes later, he was done and signed the foster care order or whatever it was.”

“That, plus other things Winnie told me, made me think that there’s a child-trafficking racket operating there and that county officials are involved somehow,” Tamara said.

“Could very well be. Let’s see if they brought lunch up yet.”

Circeo spoke on her phone for a few seconds and then looked up. “Lunch is here. Let’s go to the conference room where they set it up. And we drew Judge Garralito, which is excellent. She really cares about the kids who have to be placed with guardians.”

~~~~

The hearing was almost anticlimactic. Garralito had already reviewed the petition and the supporting documents. The petition had included Tamara’s biography, occupation, income, housing situation, and character references. Lacking was a report from the social services department but the judge waved off that requirement. First, however, she did interview Winnie in camera. When they returned to the courtroom, she went to her seat and spoke to Circeo and then to Tamara.

“Mrs Circeo, I found Winnie’s story heartbreaking and I concur with your petition that this court should immediately appoint an emergency guardian for her. And you have provided an excellent choice.

“Ms Alexandre, suggesting that your accomplishments are remarkable is an understatement, and for someone so young, they are astounding. Congratulations on your Nobel prizes too; I’m sure you’re getting tired of hearing that. Recognition of your contributions from two world leaders is just a frill; you are the very model of a perfect selection to be a guardian. Winnie has convinced me that you rescued her from a dreadful situation and likely saved her life. Do you accept being appointed as the guardian for the minor child Awinita Nelsey, for a time period to be determined by this court but not less than one year?”

“Yes, Your Honor, I accept,” Tamara said, hugging Winnie who was smiling and crying at the same time.

“So ordered!” and the judge tapped her gavel. “Our clerk will provide you with the official signed order with the seal of this court if you can wait fifteen minutes for us to print it and get it recorded.”

“Thank you, Your Honor,” Circeo told her and the others echoed her.

Then Circeo led them out and brought them to a small office.

“This is the bull pen. My firm keeps this room here to meet with our clients,” Circeo told them. “Let me have you sign several powers of attorney now. The first one’s for Sam and me and it will allow us to act on your behalf for legal matters concerning Winnie, her West Virginia records, and any real property in her estate. It will allow us to search for and obtain an injunction freezing any financial records or liquid assets pending our discovery of a will, and allow us to act as an executor for the estate before and subsequent to probate. I’ll also prepare a power of attorney for you and Peter to obtain health care for Winnie and another for the school, naming you as her guardian.

“We’ll also look into the survivorship benefits of Winnie’s grandfather’s state pension and any U.S. Social Security benefits for which she might be entitled.”

“Excuse me, Mrs Circeo, my elementary school may have used my name ‘Nita’ in their records. Everyone called me by that name. In middle school too. ‘Winnie’ was Papa’s special name.”

“I’ll make a note of that; thank you,” Circeo replied. “Do you want us to continue using ‘Winnie’ then, when we don’t have to use your legal name?”

“This is my new life now that Tamara’s given me, so, yes, I’d like to use ‘Winnie.’”

Although Tamara was familiar with legal proceedings, those were limited to patents and to corporate structuring and operating procedures. This was a whole new area and her mind was reeling.

“Jeez. So much to do. I wouldn’t have thought of some of those things.”

Circeo laughed, “That’s what lawyers get paid to do. We need to think about every possible way to protect the client. Now, a few final items. Winnie, do you know your Social Security number? I assume you have one; your grandfather would have needed it for his tax returns.”

“Sorry, ma’am, I don’t.”

“No problem; we can get it when we research your grandfather’s own Social Security records. And finally, Tamara, do you want to get Winnie a passport?”

“Oh, for sure. Peter and I travel overseas occasionally—jeez, that’s right, the Nobel award ceremony. We’ll need to rush her application. It’s good that the State Department just reissued my diplomatic passport and my regular one. They were getting close to expiration.”

“You have a diplomatic passport?” Winnie asked. “Tamara, I keep saying it. You’re important.”

Circeo grinned. “I think she is, too, Winnie. We’ll get the documentation together for applying for a passport as well.”

Guardianship papers and powers of attorney in hand, Tamara left the courthouse with Winnie after thanking Circeo for her help. Marks was waiting out in front of the building and escorted them to her vehicle.

“From your smiles, I gather everything went well,” she remarked as they slid into the back seat.

“It did and yes, all’s well,” Tamara told her. “I’ve got a grocery shopping list as long as my arm and now that Winnie’s living with us, it’s gotten longer, Janice. I think it should be safe going to a supermarket. My picture isn’t out there yet so people wouldn’t recognize me, I’m guessing.”

“I agree. If you don’t have a favorite market, let me pick one that should be safe. A generic market okay?”

“Sure. Just getting staples.”

“Sounds good. Let’s go,” Marks said.

“Winnie, we need to get you a physical and the school needs one, too, I noticed on the enrollment forms. When was your last one?”

“Um, let’s see. When I was in the first foster home—they called it an interim one—I had a doctor’s office visit. Just a nurse saw me though.”

“So that’s about three years ago,” Tamara thought aloud and Winnie nodded. “When you were living with your grandfather, did you get regular checkups?”

“I guess, but I’m not sure... ah ... oh, I must have, ‘cause my elementary school wanted it.”

“Remember the doctor you saw? We need to get your immunization records too.”

“It was a group practice so I saw doctors and nurses, never the same.”

Tamara sighed. “Okay, I bet we can get your school records and get the health records with them. I bet you were seeing a pediatric practice. You’re a teen now, and you have a choice of the kind of doctor you want to see.”

“Who do you see, Tamara?”

“I see a primary-care physician who specializes in women’s health for my own physicals. She does the same level of a pelvic exam that a gynecologist would do.”

“Then that’s what I want too.”

“Sure. I’ll make an appointment.”

On the way home after shopping, Tamara called Emma.

“All set with Winnie; I’m her guardian now,” she told Emma. “Is the media siege still happening?”

“It is, the blighters. Campus security isn’t letting them camp out around the building anymore and stopped them from bothering people. They were asking everyone who came to our building for your contact info. So there’s a bunch now that have been wandering about, watching the paths around our building. Security warned them that if they continued stopping people, they’d get arrested for stalking. This isn’t a public university and our cops here can eject anyone. Those bounders were yelling ‘free speech’ and ‘free association’ but those are rights that the government can’t limit, but private organizations mostly can if it’s causing a disturbance. Or so I interpret what I’ve heard.”

“Guess I need to stay away for now. What about the media show tomorrow? I’m sure that I’ll get stopped if I tried walking into Shriver.”

“Security has that organized now, haven’t they. Your security agent’s been busy organizing it with the campus police. You’ll go into Shriver as a video tech using the stage door. The plan is to put you in a van at the recycling center with a few people and then drive over to Shriver. Your security person will take you to the recycling center.”

“That’s a clever plan. Okay, thanks, Emma. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Marks said from the front of the car, “We’ll get to the recycling parking area at 1:30. There will be a Hopkins van waiting for us there. The van will go to Shriver and several people will carry some video gear out of it and into the building using the stage door. We’ll be two of them. And we’ll leave that way too.”

“Good plan; I like it. Thanks, Janice,” Tamara said.

Okay, more planning for tomorrow, Tamara mused. I’ll get Peter to take Winnie to Shriver; she’ll enjoy the experience. I need to arrange for that. Oh, jeez, I’m getting slow. I’ll bet that my “being small” thing might work with keeping attention away from me.

Marks was pulling into the parking garage now and Tamara’s phone rang. It was Nadine.

“Hello, Tamara. Dad and I were talking and we’d like to meet Winnie, tonight for dinner if possible. Could you bring her over with Peter?”

‘Sure, I think so. Is your place still under surveillance?”

“No one was there when I got home. Dad called Scott first thing and Scott said that he’d take care of it.”

“Excellent. Say, Mom,” Tamara said, “my security agent will be driving us and...”

“I know. You don’t want to leave her to hang out alone. I know my daughter.”

“True, but she’s a retired Marine. She knows Cindy’s father and from her bio, she and Dad were contemporaries.”

“Well, of course she can join us,” Nadine said.

That evening

When Marks and Wilson met each other at the Alexandres’ home, Wilson took her aside and they began to compare notes. They were both at Basic at Parris Island the same year, just two months apart. As privates, they were assigned to the same training battalion at Camp Lejeune and Wilson recalled the names of several other members of his battalion. Marks knew a few of them.

“Yeah, we sure were in the same companies in my second year in the Corps,” she told Wilson when they compared their first tour units. “Then I got sent to the Communications Electronics School in Twentynine Palms, California,” Marks told Wilson.

“Tamara told me that you were an expert martial arts instructor,” Wilson commented. “How does someone go from being an electronics warfare spook to a MCMAP instructor?”

Marks laughed. “Weird, right? I guess I could fight. I had learned all the cool combat stuff in Basic and in the training battalion and was really good at hand-to-hand. I was always a good shot; grew up hunting with my father and brothers in Montana. When I made staff sergeant, my comm unit was deployed and we were set up just inside Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province. One day a bunch of t-men breached our perimeter and I was nearby and responded. The NCO from the perimeter unit was down so I took command. I... um... accounted for seven of them. Three with my carbine and four with my knife or hands.”

“Crap, that’s quite a story. Decorated?”

“Navy Cross. And they moved me to a combat battalion.”

“When was that? I was in-country in ‘07 and ‘08; then got wounded in Ganjgal in Kunar Province...”

“The Ganjgal U.N. camp? You were there? I heard about that operation. I was in-country in ‘08. Say, one of the NCOs got the Medal of Honor for that.”

“Um, Janice, that was me.”

“Jesus, Wilson, no shit? I heard that the guy was everywhere like a ninja ghost and about wiped out a company...”

Wilson laughed. “How these rumors get started. I suppose your combat skills is how you got tapped for the MCMAP.”

“That was maybe three years later. I got jumped in rank and back Stateside, got assigned as a training battalion’s NCO in charge of the combat courses. When I was in the MCMAP, my instructor was Stuart Denison. We got to be friends. We were both gunnery sergeants.”

“Tamara told me that you knew him. But you’re a colonel?”

“Someone saw my leadership and convinced me that as a gal, I’d have a lot more influence as an officer than a female NCO.”

“Sadly, I think that’s true. It was when I was on active duty in-country.”

“So I went through the Enlisted Commissioning Program. And began a new career in the Marines. I became an instructor myself at the MCMAP and then had an assignment overlap with Stuart Denison at Pendleton when his kids won medals at the international judo tournament that year. They went there as members of a judo team that the U.S. sent. And I kept up with my martial arts. What happened after you were wounded, Wilson?”

He told her some of his history. “And then I got tapped to go on detached duty with the State Department. I have no idea why they picked me for the job; I’m just a mechanic. But I was able to successfully complete my mission, so maybe they did make a good choice.”

“They reactivated you from medical? Unusual,” Marks commented.

“Even more unusual was a direct commission from the president. They made me a major.”

Marks looked at Wilson and shrugged. “No kidding. Well, never question your orders,” she chuckled. “But that’s an amazing story.”

“Hey, we should see what my amazing daughter and new friend are up to,” Wilson remarked.

“She certainly is amazing, and I suspect that so is her new ward,” Marks told him. “I’m starting to believe that this assignment will be nothing like I’ve ever experienced.”

“That’s life with Tamara. Enjoy the ride.”

They rejoined the others and saw that Winnie had made a new friend with Nadine. They had a relaxing dinner and spent a pleasant evening, leaving about 9 p.m. to return home.

~~~~

On Tuesday morning, Tamara spent much of the morning on the phone; most of it was with her people at the APL, who were effusive with their congratulations, but then got down to business and brought her up to date. Tamara was pleased with their progress; some of the new data would be useful in completing her dissertation research.

She also got a call into Mason and learned that the West Virginia AG was actively looking into the case. There were plans in place now to move the other girls in the group home to safety within a day or two, and the home was under state police surveillance to be sure that nothing happened in the interim.

Also that morning, Winnie, concerned about doing well on the high-school test, asked Tamara, “Is there any way to brush up on middle school work? Of course I don’t have any of my textbooks.”

“How much of that work do you remember?” Tamara asked.

“I have a good memory, but I’d like to review a bunch of it somehow. I went on line and looked at the Baltimore curricula for the seventh and eighth grades and there are a couple of areas I need to review.”

“Okay, I know a website that might be able to help,” Tamara told her. “Search for the Khan Academy website. K-H-A-N. I used to use that site when I was doing home schooling. They have middle school courses on it and those are some of the courses I used.”

“Thanks! I’ll go look for it.”

Soon it was time to go to Hopkins for the press conference. They would all go. Marks would drop Peter and Winnie off near Shriver Hall and then bring Tamara to the media van waiting at the recycling center. When the van with Tamara and Marks in it arrived at the Shriver stage door, campus police had the area cleared from any press members as Tamara and Marks carried some AV gear into the building. Emma arrived several minutes later via the same door.

As they embraced, Emma told her, “They had me come that way too and no one followed; this was a good plan. Security told me that a big crowd is waiting out front. They won’t let TV crews in; the hall isn’t set up for that—no floor space, so they’re making a live feed available through Shriver’s video system. And Hopkins people are operating that.”

The stage manager came over to them and showed them the table where they would be seated when the curtain opened.

“Oh, I get to do a stage performance, then,” Tamara joked.

Dr Chakraborty, the university provost, came out onto the stage, saw Emma, and went over to her.

“Hi there, Emma. And this is Miss Alexandre, I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you before, Miss, but my hearty congrats on your achievements. You’ve become somewhat of a legend here and brought even more renown to our university. And with these awards, your fame is reflecting not only on yourself, but on all of your Hopkins collaborators too. Also, the trustees are wondering if you would please speed up your timetable a tiny bit so that we can get your degree or degrees awarded already so the press stops bugging us about our holding you back.”

Tamara laughed. “That’s entirely up to my doctoral committee. My research isn’t quite complete and it would be an academic insult to skip the established process.”

Emma and the provost laughed.

“We’ve already received about two hundred written questions and many are essentially duplicates, as you can imagine. These are typical questions asked of prior Nobel laureates. Do either of you have a preliminary comment?”

Emma looked at Tamara, who asked, “Emma, you’re senior. Did you want to say anything?”

Emma laughed. “Been there, done that. Have the tee-shirt to show for it too. It was your insight and instincts that allowed you to see what others never noticed, wasn’t it. I was just trying to make a better battery. You changed the rules and created something brand new and better. As well, I certainly can’t speak about your other two Nobels.”

“I haven’t prepared anything in particular,” Tamara said. “Can I see the written questions? I’ll take the most interesting ones and say something about them to start off.”

“Is that wise?” the provost asked. “You might say something that could be misunderstood and the press might not be very forgiving.”

Emma chuckled. “Tamara is superb at extemporaneous speaking. Just let her talk; she’ll have them lauding her, I’d expect.”

Tamara looked through the questions and noticed that many were similar to those she had fielded at the conference at the APL about her time-bending observation. She chose a few and began to think about constructing an introductory statement.

A short time later, the stage manager told the three to take their places and the noise from the house decreased dramatically. Tamara assumed that the lights had been dimmed. Then the curtain rose and a smattering of applause grew to a crescendo and died down as Emma and then Tamara waved their hands in greeting and the provost spoke into his microphone.

“Thank you; please, if we can start. I’m Dr Janardan Chakraborty, provost here at Johns Hopkins University. I’d like to welcome you all and thank you for your interest in meeting with our latest Nobel Laureates. As you probably know, our university has been fortunate to have many laureates on our faculty, some who have done their prize-winning work elsewhere and whom we’ve recruited to our staff, and others who have won the prize for work done while here. Today’s laureates fall into both of those classes. However, it seems that today’s circumstances are unprecedented. One of today’s laureates, Dame Dr Emma Clarke, is a repeat winner, which, although hers is not a unique case, she is just the second person to win a second Nobel in Physics.”

Applause.

“Thank you. The circumstances of the second scientist on our stage today, however, are truly unique, since she is the only laureate who has ever been recognized for her achievements in three disciplines—and all in the same year, Miss Tamara Alexandre.”

Now there was a standing ovation.

“Again, our thanks. First, some words of instruction. Because of the size of this group, we’ve asked for written questions. You can also ask followup questions by texting them to the number shown on the screen up here. I can’t promise that we’ll get to all of your questions but we’ll try to answer those of the most interest. At this time, Miss Alexandre has a few words of introduction before we get to your questions. Miss Alexandre?”

Applause again.

“Thank you, Provost Chakraborty. And thank you, members of the press and media, for your warm welcome and enthusiasm. I’m honored that you’ve come to this conference to learn about what Dr Clarke and I have been doing here for the past few years. Being quite, quite busy, as you might imagine,” she said, smiling, and people in the audience chuckled. “I’m afraid that a lot of people at Hopkins have told me that I, myself, have been way too busy ‘cause I’ve been sucking up all of the creative energies around here.”

Laughter.

“That’s actually not true at all; this university is a magnet for the most creative people in the world and I’m honored to be just a small part of it. I’ve been selected as a Nobel laureate in three scientific disciplines and that news, when I finally got it, staggered me to my core. This is an unimaginable honor and I’m amazed that my contributions to science were deemed to be so significant that they warranted science’s highest honor. Scientific progress moves in small steps. The work of one individual, or group, provides the foundation for the work of the next person to tackle that issue and, in that manner, knowledge progresses.

“In my own work, I chose to learn something about how the brain operates—this was a result of an injury I sustained as a child. I became fascinated with how the MRI can image the brain while it’s thinking, so I wanted to learn more about that process and subsequently figured out a way to greatly improve the device’s spatial resolution. In doing that, I discovered brain structures never described before. What I did was simply to develop an improvement of a device already used in medicine. To me, that was a satisfying discovery, but I didn’t think it was such a big deal. That’s my belief and I’m sticking to it.”

Laughter. Then the house became dead silent again.

“Let me skip to my chemistry discovery because it’s closely related to my medicine one. Part of what I learned in my work with the functional MRI process led to my finding that the brain is central in the instruction of the human body to make a certain kind of hormone which is active outside the body. Such hormones have been given the name, ‘pheromones,’ a term based on the Greek word ‘phero,’ which means ‘to carry.’ These chemicals work to carry information to outside the organism that produces them and I wanted to learn more about them, particularly those conjectured to be secreted by humans. But the amounts that are secreted are so infinitesimally tiny that learning how they affect another, close-by, human was difficult to do.

“So I used the work of a number of earlier scientists, themselves giants in their field, to learn how to analyze and synthesize larger quantities of those pheromones, and it was my understanding of the chemical physics of the organic aromatic ring structure that gave me the insight to develop that invention. Was this something new? Not really; the information to do what I did had been around for a hundred years or so. I simply took that older information and applied later discoveries in physics and the resulting combination gave me the key for developing the discovery. Again, to me, this was a small step in the whole scheme of analytical chemistry and physics. Did it warrant such recognition by the Nobel committee? I wouldn’t think so, but they have a very much greater experience than I do in knowing what’s important.

“Finally, let me talk about what Dr Clarke and I accomplished, which drew the Nobel committee’s recognition. Dr Clarke wanted to make a better battery, one which could hold more energy and be safer and more efficient than the lithium-ion cell. She had done a lot of computations involving molecular lattice structures to learn the best configurations to store electrons at high densities. When I began working with her, my assignment was to build a device which would render her computations into a physical form. Her calculations implied that such a device could indeed be built, but its design escaped me until I decided to try a different physical configuration of the molecular matrix. The measurements of that configuration closely matched Dr Clarke’s calculations, but I happened to introduce something new which wasn’t part of her theoretical design model.

“As it turned out, the resulting device far exceeded our expectations; we discovered a new principle in physics, and a new method of storing energy resulted from that discovery. But I’ll insist that all I was trying to do was to build a better battery.”

Laughter, then some applause.

“Now I looked at some of the questions you submitted and I thank you for doing that; it definitely allows us to give you better and more detailed answers. One of the more frequent questions was ‘where the heck was Tamara Alexandre and why didn’t she answer her phone?’”

Lots of laughter and more applause.

“Refer back to what I said at the beginning of my remarks. I said something along the lines that too many people at Hopkins told me that I’d been way too busy and had been sucking up all of the creative energies in the area.”

Laughter.

“So, doing that takes plenty of energy to do, you know. And like any good battery, when it runs down, it needs to be recharged, right? We all know that.”

Laughter.

“That’s where I was, at the recharge station; which in my case was hiking for a whole glorious week in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest in Virginia...”

Laughter and applause.

“... and those outdoorsmen and women in here today know how communing with nature is the best possible relaxation and recharging oneself that there is, am I right?”

Now she got a standing applause.

“Thanks for agreeing with me; it shows that you all know what’s important in life. Not fame, or glory, or recognition of transient accomplishments. It’s inner peace and harmony and appreciation for what we have in life. Provost Chakraborty, I believe I’ve finished and can shut up now.”

The standing applause resumed and Emma shot Tamara a look of admiration.

“I’m totally gobsmacked about how you can do that, Tamara,” she whispered.

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