***** Vol.3 Chap.19 Receiving a prestigious award *****
Frank slept soundly until the wake-up call came on the telephone the next morning. He quickly showered, put on his suit, grabbed his notebook with all the slides, and headed out to the restaurant for breakfast. He met a few colleagues along the way, but ate alone so that he would spend time to review his talk.
Still unsure about coming to the conference with only preliminary research results, though he hesitantly accepted. On one hand, he wanted to tell all, but what he had was only preliminary. He debated within how much to talk about the research.
At the end, the best strategy was to tell everything regardless of the implications and use this opportunity as a litmus test to gauge the moral response from the audience. Perhaps the audience’s response could help him in his own doubts and quandaries.
The first conference session went by rather quickly. Frank talked to a few old friends during the coffee break. He did not stay long, but hurried back to the lecture hall to get ready.
The time for the plenary session came, and the room was packed. No one in that society was about to miss a good controversy. On the front, Frank recognized Dr. Chris Abrahamson, the President of AAAS, who invited him to this panel discussion.
On his right sat a young lady whom he had not met before. She was oriental, young, and pretty, and she sat properly behind the speaker’s table, smiling. She seemed perfectly at peace with herself. Occasionally, she looked around and would also smile at anyone who looked at her. Above all, she seemed calm and collected.
Frank walked up to the speaker’s table and shook Chris’s hand. Chris introduced Doctor May-Ling Chen to him and they shook hands. Looking around, he was amazed that the speaker’s table only had three settings. That means the discussion will be limited to Doctor Chen and himself.
That would be a brief session. Frank told himself.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
He turned to ask Chris. “Only two panelists?”
“Two: Doctor Chen and you.”
“What is the theme of the panel?”
“You will find out momentarily.” Chris smiled mysteriously.
A little mystery here. It did not really bother Frank, as he was a real pro at this sort of thing.
Chris turned to May-Ling and asked, “Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“Are you ready, Frank?”
“As ready as I ever can be.”
“Great, let us start. Let me first make a brief introduction.” Chris stood up and tapped the microphone briefly. The noise around the room fell silent instantly. Seeing the packed room, he smiled knowing that he had successfully arranged for this panel discussion with opposing viewpoints between Dr. Abdulcizi and Doctor Chen. Surely, his re-election to be the President of AAAS was assured for the next two years.
“Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, colleagues, and friends, welcome. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for coming to this session. You had made this conference a tremendous success because we had a record number of attendants ever in our history. Thank you.”
Chris clapped his hands. He nodded to his audience, who responded with a thunderous applause.
“Before we proceed any further, I was given a proud duty to perform. Every year, the AAAS presents the Scientist of the Year Award to someone we feel had contributed significantly to the advancement of science for the past year. This time, it was the unanimous decision of the Executive Board to present this award to someone so deserving, someone we are all proud of, someone who had done solid research for the past twenty years, and someone who walked among us in this conference.”
“This person had been in the forefront of DNA decoding and is currently in charge of a significant program from NIH on genetic decoding. He is an astute and conscientious researcher that had published widely in areas of artificial intelligence and genetic decoding. I followed his extraordinary work for the past few years and was constantly amazed at his ingenuity and accomplishments. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cairo and his graduate degrees from the National University of Egypt. He is currently with the faculty at Carniegie Institute.”
Christ turned to Frank, “Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you the Scientist of the Year, the George W. Smith Professor of Computer Science, Dr. Frank Abdulcizi.”
Chris held up the plaque high for all to see and clapped with his other hand.
Frank turned red and stood up automatically. That was a big surprise!
He marched to the podium, nodded to Chris, and bowed deeply to the audience. Speechless, he kept shaking Chris’s hand after receiving the plaque, and bowed deeply again to the audience. There was a thunderous applause from the floor as he walked back to his seat. He was delighted, but he felt that he really did not deserve the honor.