While Buenos Aires boiled like soup in a caldron in the middle of summer, the campus of University of Connecticut was covered in snow. I had traveled to the United States because of my job, but once I fulfilled my objective, I postponed my return home long enough to take a bus to the north, and go meet Ross Buck.
The truth is, it was not something sudden or improvised. I had already planned it beforehand. I had even booked some vacation days so as to spend them up in the States before coming back to the ‘porteña’ city. From the moment I realized I was going to be so close to Buck -weeks before travelling- I decided I could not miss the chance to meet him personally. I had read about his extensive research on the brain mechanisms of human emotion and motivation. I knew he had written hundreds of articles, reports and papers; even three books. His ideas on the relationship between emotion and motivation, something I research and I’m especially interested in, moved me –talking about motivation- to look for a face-to-face conversation. That’s how I asked him if I could pay him a visit to his office in the Department of Communication Sciences, at least for a little while. Once he learned what I am working on, Ross agreed very kindly.
When the time came, I got off the bus at Storrs, where the University of Connecticut is located. I found the place particularly peaceful and integrated with the natural landscape. That’s why I behaved like the typical tourist and couldn’t help taking some pics. My ridiculous omission was that I later did not remember to take a pic together with Ross Buck! (Ross, you owe me this one for the next time!). So I attach here a couple of his pictures retrieved from his own profile webpage from the University (click to link: http://coms.uconn.edu/directory/faculty/rbuck/).
I walked for several minutes until I found the building where Ross performs as professor of Communication Sciences. He was already waiting for me in his office. The walls were covered in books. Continue reading