Teaching With a Nobel-Prize Winner

I've had my share of rewarding classroom experiences, but the one I've enjoyed most has been the privilege of team-teaching a course with Nobel prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever. The course focuses on inventions and how they can be turned into actual products. My role is to  cover the cognitive bases of creativity. I enjoy this very much, but even better is the pleasure of listening to Ivar hold forth on the nature of scientific creativity and what it's like to win the Nobel prize. I've learned much from listening to and interacting with him, but perhaps the most positive aspect of the experience is what it has told me about the public "image" of psychology — how it is perceived by people outside our field. As the first psychologist Ivar ever met, I feared he might have doubts about the value and importance of psychology. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth!