We were all set to start applications for this year’s Sharif Scholar awards when news of the Coronavirus COVID-19 started to come in.
Those initial hope, when it seemed that the virus might be a China or East Asia phenomenon, was short-lived.
Very Quickly the virus was in Canada and now we are all in a state of shutdown. A suspended animation of sorts!
Everybody that I know is rearing to get back to doing what they were doing before the shutdown. The incidences of cabin fever are as high, as are those of just plain boredom.
The more adaptable and resilient folks have set personal or professional developmental targets, and are diligently chasing down these targets. Sadly this segment of our population is more the exception than the rule!
Isaac Newton Changed the World while in Quarantine from the Plague in 1665!
Isolated during the Great Plague of London, at the Newton family’s farm Woolsthorpe Manor, a little north of Cambridge, the mathematician-philosopher engaged in the groundbreaking discoveries that marked his “annus mirabilis” – or his “year of wonders.”
This was the period when Newton discovered the principles of gravity. The legend of the falling apple on Newton’s head with a thump….. Yes, this is when that happened. This understanding of gravity led Newton to the creation of his laws of motion.
That’s not all, while quarantined he also had the minor achievement of creating a series of papers effectively solving the mathematical challenge of determining universal equations involving fluctuating quantities.
Newton’s solution was in a series of papers that he wrote during this period, on the rules of “fluxions.” We now know this as Calculus!
A Reduced Sharif Scholarship award this year
The number of scholarships that we give out will unfortunaltely need to come down this year. We are already in April and the economic reality is looking grim.
We haven’t decided how deep we need to cut or if we need to skip a year altogether.
We would probably only have a decision only around July-August.
Until then, the example of Isaac Newton can be a shining light for how we can all use the time that we have while we are effectively quarantined.
