My core value is realistic education---learning from each other’s errors and successes, but with full awareness of the difference between elegant models (science) and our ability not only to minimize surprises but also to build a different future (engineering). Running research experiments, I do feel good when the expected results confirm my expertise, but I learn the most from experiments with surprising outcomes. Trying is the only way to benefit from uncertainty, and I am doing it for a living. I am aware of the stigma that people attach to the trial-and-error method, but I can see that everything in nature evolves by trial and error---from the physical processes that create order out of quantum chaos, through evolution in biology, to how humans learn and think.
