Rhodes worthy

DANIEL McCABE | McGill's newest Rhodes Scholar wasn't supposed to be a McGill student at all. After receiving scholarship offers from MIT, Princeton and Harvard, Marco Gualtieri opted for the latter. The forms were signed and Gualtieri was all set to go to North America's most fabled university. "I was officially a Harvard student for five days," he says. But before making his way to Massachusetts to begin his studies in the fall of '96, he was scheduled to take part in the Canadian national physics finals that summer, a championship involving the country's most talented young physics students. The event was held at McGill and Gualtieri used the opportunity to learn more about the place. He was surprised to discover how well respected the University's math and physics programs were. "McGill was better than I thought it was." While taking part in the championship, Gualtieri says he was approached by "a shadowy figure" who turned out to be Tom Thompson, the deputy director of the McGill Development Office. Thompson relayed the news that Gualtieri was in line for a Greville Smith Scholarship -- McGill's most prestigious scholarship -- and put together a persuasive sales pitch about the University's strengths. By the end of the championships, two things were settled -- Gualtieri earned first prize and he wasn't going to Harvard after all. Enrolled in McGill's joint honours mathematics and physics program, Gualtieri doesn't regret changing his mind. "From what I've seen here and heard from students at other places, undergraduates have the opportunity to do much more here than they could at the big American universities. McGill's math department is really exceptional in terms of the numbers of teachers who are willing to spend time with students outside the classroom. There are opportunities for undergraduates to do research and that's rare." Gualtieri has posted top grades while taking on a variety of extracurricular projects. He founded a weekly undergraduate lecture series to give physics students an opportunity to discuss their research interests. He served as a judge for the International Physics Olympiad in 1997 where, in 1996, as a member of Canada's team, he earned a bronze medal. The 19-year-old represents students on the Department of Physics' undergraduate curriculum committee. And he has also been a teaching assistant for two courses, experiences which have helped stoke an interest in teaching. "I have a pedagogical bent," says Gualtieri. Physics professor Fritz Buchinger concurs. "Often, I'll look down a corridor and spot Marco explaining something to somebody." Gualtieri is currently gearing up for the big McGill Model United Nations conference scheduled for January. Hundreds of students will be arriving at McGill to take part and it's Gualtieri's job to give the student delegates something to talk about. As the vice-chair of the science and technology committee, Gualtieri and his fellow committee members are preparing background papers on research into human ageing with the expectation that it will be one of the issues debated. His teachers paint a picture of a student who always displays an infectious enthusiasm for learning. His probing questions aren't always easy to answer and Gualtieri takes an almost playful delight in being confronted with complex problems to solve. Buchinger was a judge at the 1996 Canadian physics finals and recalls seeing Gualtieri in action. "He had quite a bit of imagination. He would solve the problems in unconventional and surprising ways." A violinist and pianist (he continues his piano studies with a private tutor), Gualtieri says his chief beef with McGill is that it offers students outside the Faculty of Music precious few opportunities to nurture their musical interests. He has become a member of I Medici, a group of McGill medical faculty who perform classical music. And then there's the whistling. Gualtieri first appeared in the pages of the Reporter in 1996 when he became the world's under-20 whistling grand champion. "I've been keeping it up," says Gualtieri. "My classmates can attest to that. I've been driving them nuts for the past few years." Unfortunately, the whistling championships coincide with exam finals week, and Gualtieri won't be able to take part. He does hope to put his whistling skills on display soon, though -- he plans to become I Medici's first-ever classical whistler sometime in the New Year.