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University of Toronto NetLab member Wojciech Gryc has just won a Rhodes
Scholarship. Wojceich received a B.A. last June, with a major in applied
math and international development. He plans to pursuing a master's degree
in mathematical modeling and scientific computing at Oxford (lucky Tom),
but is also excited about becoming involved in Oxford's international
development community. "Ive always been interested in both since before
high school. Any opportunity that allows me to do both, I'm happy to
pursue it," he said.
The award is a strong accolade -- like winning an Olympic gold medal, it
will follow Wojceich for life. Recall the NYTimes stories that began:
"Rhodes Scholar Bill Clinton talked yesterday about his relationship with
Monica Lewinski."
At our NetLab, Wojciech, spent two years working with Bernie Hogan
(especially) and me developing our Egotistics program for personal network
analysis. (So we now claim Gryc numbers of "1" to go with our Erdoses of
"3" and "4".) Wojciech's been working at IBM HQ since Sept 07 in their
math dept.
Wojciech's interests combined Applied Math with International Development.
He founded "5 Minutes to Midnite", where he spent extensive time in Chad,
Kenya and Brazil teaching young adults how to use do-it-yourself media
creation packages (which he had developed).
Wojciech was born in Poland, and came to Toronto as a pre-teen. Those
following current immigration trends will know that he will have plenty of
opportunity to speak Polish in England.
Astrid Guttman, secretary of the Ontario Rhodes Scholar selection
committee, praised Wojciech. "He is brilliant, committed to
using his math and computer smarts to tackle issues in international
development and exceptionally unassuming and personable." Bernie and I
fully agree.
I am so happy for Wojceich, NetLab and Social Network Analysis. Now, if we
could only find the time to finish the Egotistics package.
Barry Wellman
_______________________________________________________________________
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director
Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto
455 Spadina Avenue Room 418 Toronto Canada M5S 2G8
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-7162
Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days
_______________________________________________________________________
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 10:21:24 -0500
From: Wojciech Gryc <[log in to unmask]>
To: Barry Wellman <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Rhodes Update
Dear Professor Wellman,
I tried calling but didn't want to leave a message, so I'll do e-mail
instead! As you know, I had my Rhodes interviews this weekend... They
consisted of a reception (which I was petrified of) and an interview (which
I was quite confident about), and so as human nature goes, the reception
went extremely well and the interview was very technical and made me quite
worried. I had the deputy director of the UN Millennium Development Goals on
my panel, and he told me ahead of time he'd do his best to really challenge
me -- he succeeded!
That said, I found out on Saturday night that I am one of the two Rhodes
Scholars selected for Ontario! So thank you very much for all your support
and help. My work at NetLab is one of the things that really interested a
lot of the people there.
So thank you again!
- Wojciech
--
Five Minutes to Midnight:
Youth on human rights and current affairs
http://www.fiveminutestomidnight.org/
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