Beauty and the Teaching Fellow

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Apparently, so is geekiness.

It was a typical Friday afternoon last October for Justin M. Grosslight, a third-year Ph.D. student in the History of Science department.

Grosslight was seated alone inside Café Pamplona waiting for a colleague who was late when he noticed a man and a woman watching him intently from across the restaurant.

“I finally just walked up to them and asked: ‘Can I help you with something?’” Grosslight said. “They said, ‘As a matter of fact, you can. We’re the casting directors for ‘Beauty and the Geek’—we think you’d be perfect for the show.’”

So began Grosslight’s three-month-long foray into the world of reality television.

In January, after a series of try-outs, a movie-making challenge, and an enormous pile of paperwork, Grosslight—who does not own a television—was named an alternate for this season of “Beauty and the Geek,” a CW network television show that recently featured Nathan J. Dern ’07 and Alan D. “Scooter” Zackheim ’06. This season will premiere on March 11.

The show—produced by actor and “Punk’d” creator Ashton Kutcher—pits nine pairs of “gorgeous but academically impaired women” and “brilliant but socially challenged men” against one another as they compete for a $250,000 prize, according to the show’s Web site.

Although Grosslight was not ultimately selected to be a “geek” on the show, the self-described “smart, sassy intellectual looking for a new adventure” said his taste of Hollywood has given him a new perspective on his time at Harvard—and might help remedy his dormant dating life.

‘THAT MUCH OF A GEEK?’

The 26-year-old Grosslight grew up in Detroit, Michigan. In high school, he recalled, he once gave up sex with his girlfriend to study for a physics SAT II.

Grosslight was also a Pac-Man and Mrs. Pac-Man aficionado, having recorded what he said he thinks is likely one of the top ten scores of all time in the latter game—though he said he does not play as frequently now because it would be a “three-hour process.”

Grosslight initially matriculated at Northwestern University, where he and his friends had “algebra parties” on weekends. He eventually transferred to and graduated from Stanford University.

After a year at Berkeley studying history as a graduate student, he came to Harvard’s History of Science department. All the while, he has been kept company by a series of stuffed animal raccoons—the latest of whom he named Marco Polo.

While these kinds of anecdotes became the centerpiece of his application for the show, Grosslight said he had never quite thought of himself as a nerd before being approached in Café Pamplona.

“I think my reaction was, ‘Am I really that much of a geek?’” Grosslight said. He added that, upon later reflection, his colleagues pointed out that he tended to wear geeky sweaters and that it likely had appeared that he was “being stood up on a date” in the café.

“I definitely came off as geeky,” Grosslight admitted of the beginning of the try-out process. “We talked about my horrible dating life.”

Grosslight said he’s considering simply giving up and writing a book about his experience—and has in fact already begun preparations.

“I bring a waiver so that the dates can sign it,” Grosslight said, adding that he wants to be able to use their names in the book if it doesn’t work out.

After two interviews, Grosslight was asked to make a ten-minute home video illustrating his life and personality. The film opens to a three-minute-long account of the role of Pac-Man in Grosslight’s life.

GEEKILY EVER AFTER

Eventually Grosslight realized that the time commitment of his new pursuit was starting to take a toll on his work as a teaching fellow for History of Science and a course assistant for Math Xa—so he e-mailed his advisers to inform them that he might fall slightly behind in his work.

“My adviser sent me an e-mail saying: ‘THIS IS AMAZING’ with about 12 exclamation marks,” Grosslight said. Another associate responded, “As if dealing with you every day isn’t like being on a reality TV show anyway.”

As the next few months played out, Grosslight kept his students updated on his progress.

“It was pretty funny to see how he tried to calculate the mathematics and probability of him trying to get on the show,” said Vikas V. Mouli ’09, a student in one of Grosslight’s sections.

Noor Iqbal ’10 added that “despite being super busy with show stuff, he was always very accommodating of all of our questions and time commitments.”

On Jan. 14, the day of his students’ final exam—which, as an exception, he did not grade—Grosslight said he was flown to California and sequestered in a hotel for the final stages of competition.

But, even across the country, he still kept his role as a TF in mind—he sent his students a picture of Marco Polo with a yellow cut-out of a ‘Q’ taken in his hotel bathroom to encourage them to fill out their course evaluations, run by the Committee of Undergraduate Education known as the CUE.

After more than a week of mounting hopes as he watched the number of his competitors dwindle, Grosslight was named an alternate.

Grosslight said that he is glad that he went through the process and would try out again if asked next season.

“A lot of people thought this was ridiculous, even humiliating and unacademic,” he said. “People can tell you what they think is good and bad for you, but ultimately it’s my life.”

After Grosslight took the cube root of 250,047 with only a moment’s hesitation (63), he said that while his math tricks may not help him get a date, his experience with “Beauty and the Geek” has helped him realize what he wants socially.

“It has really made me think what do I need to do for me—to make sure I take that time and explore other avenues for myself,” he said.

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.