Ignacio Valdes wrote:
>
> ...congratulations to this years nominees for the Linux Medical
> News Free/OSS Achievement award. The nominees are:
>
> Thomas Beale, openEHR Foundation
> Brian Bray, Minoru Development Corp.
> K.S. Bhaskar, Sanchez Computer Associates.
> Dr. Daniel L. Johnson, Mayo Clinic.
> Wayne Rasband, Research Services Branch, National Institute of Mental
> Health.
>
> The winner will be decided by a panel of judges and announced at the
> November 2002 AMIA conference in San Antonio, Tx. You can read the full
> text of the nominations here:
Dear All,
I'm flattered, but as I wrote to Ignacio,
I don't deserve anything, let alone an achievement award. I
haven't done anything that would have impressed my mother, which is the final
common pathway for achievements. A few years ago I was given a plaque that said
"Wisconsin Young Internist of the Year" and I am still trying to figure out
something to do that would be worthy of that award. I am not sure I am ready to
try to live up to another one.
When my brother formed the association of physics teaching assistants
about 15
years ago, he required that one of their bylaws forbid the giving of plaques.
("We are not in the business of giving out plaques.") When he died of sudden
cardiac death while still its president, this caused frustration among the
remaining leadership, who really, really wanted to create a plaque in his honor,
but weren't up to precipitating an act of irony of thie magnitude. So they
invited his widow to their next convention and applauded her in his honor.
("How did it go?" I asked. "All right," she said, "I'm glad to be back home.
It was kind of stressful.")
Best wishes,
Dan Johnson
