Michael Sieburg

Columbia University Professor Martin Chalfie shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry this year. Oddly enough, I have a class in the chemistry building. The room number is 209 and yet when you enter at ground level from the center of campus, you have to go downstairs to get to the 2nd floor. The ground floor is the 3rd floor. The SIPA building is similar in that if you enter off 118th St, you enter on the 4th floor. If you enter from the walkway connecting the building to the main campus, you enter on the 6th floor. Thus, the ground floors are 4 and 6. The library is underground but on the 3rd floor and I actually just got out of a class on the 2nd floor that is actually 2 or 4 floors underground, depending on your perspective. So much for Nobel Prize winners in counting…