A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars by Hakeem Oluseyi and Joshua Horwitz

This memoir illustrates vividly what he had to go through since childhood to earn a Ph.D. degree at Stanford University, physics department in around 2000. This book begins with a story of his mother and father’s physical fight at night and clearing out with mama and older sister to somewhere the next morning. As his mother always had to work and was not a caring or devoted type of person, his sister nearly took care of him. He was a sort of neglected, poor black kid. Even with a genius IQ and talent for physics, he could not get a real chance to pursue an academic career in physics until he reenrolled at Tougaloo college. At Tougaloo, he met two white professors, Dr. Teal and Dr. McGinnis, both of whom recognized his talent and tried to help him learn science in-depth, get research experience, furthermore dream an academic path in a prestigious graduate school.

At Stanford, compared with other graduate students, he was least academically prepared and had to take two years of undergraduate classes. During that bitter time, he started to smoke a rock (cocaine) again, and after a while of such a precarious double life, he confessed this to his mentor, professor Art Walker. After listening to him, Art shared his unfair, discriminated experiences as a Black student and scientist in a scientific field, and said, “I had to put in my time, and then some to earn my way up….. I believe you can put this behind you and make it through.” With his trust, he overcame his addiction, passed the qualifying exam a second time after many twists and turns, published several papers, and finally passed a Ph.D. defense! (His dissertation committee even included the Noble laureate, Robert B. Laughlin.) Before the Ph.D. defense, he changed his name to Hakeem Oluseyi from James Plummer to make people know instantly that he is a Black man, descended from Africa. As a rare black astrophysicist, he helped educate African astronomy students, as his mentors did before.

Through this book, I realized again how influential and critical a good mentor can be to someone’s life. His mentor, Art said, “Don’t let that small group of doubters derail you.” I’d like to recommend this book to others including my daughter.


Written by Shim G.

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