Gian-Carlo was the General-of-ODE(ordinary differential equations) at MIT. He seemed to love teaching ODE (so much!). The lecture room was typically full of more than 200 students, and he taught two sessions, usually one right after the other. (During weekends, this room is where you can hear hundreds of people screaming for movies and popcorns.)

Coke was Gianco's privileged way of communication with his hundreds of undergrads. He usually brought a red can (yes, NOT diet Coke!) of Coca-Cola with himself when he came to the lecture room. Sometimes he forgot or was out of it in the second session. Then it was the great fun of a student sitting in the front row to take the money from his hand and run to a vending machine far away outside the lecture room. The students usually bought two cans or more. I believe they sometimes input their own quarters. Right before the first words "Today we will introduce the Laplace transform..." or "Let us study the Good-Guy-and-Bad-Guy model...", you would first hear a loud "Pu-Chiiii" ---- the Coke can was opened by Gian-Carlo. He then took the first sip, with absolutely concentrated sensory focus. Right at that instant, you can read how he loved Coke that much from his childishly satisfactory expression, like a giggling baby who has just been thoroughly serviced with its mami's milk. Then the lecture started "officially." Although only a couple of students were directly involved in this prelude, all the students in the room could read the message --- "My boys and girls, take it easy. The things we are gonna learn today will someday become no more than this Coke: as easy as a "Pu-Chiiii". "

Once I told myself that if I were the CEO of the Coca-Cola company, I would take no hesitation in rewarding Gian-Carlo for his persistent advertising role.

Coke was also Gian-Carlo's universal gift to award good performance. I remember two years ago, Gian-Carlo delivered a graduate seminar course on advanced topics in polynomial theory. Among the graduate students were Brian, Catherine, Ben, Jessica, Mark, me and my friends Lizhao and Jianhua. Now I guess that probably no second professor in this world dares to devote an entire graduate course sheerly to polynomials near the end of the 20th century (because most people think polynomials are too simple and lack interesting topics. Gian-Carlo covered Gauss and Lucas' Theorems, Umbral Calculus, invariant theory, orthogonal polynomials, Sturmian Sequence, tensor algebra, and Clifford algebra). The lecture was right after his two sessions of undergrad ODE lectures. I remember, one day, after he stepped into our classroom, Gian-Carlo walked right towards me and handed a red can of Coke to me and said: "Jianhong, this can is for you. You have done a great job in this course." At that moment, I was first deeply flattered. Then I felt so proud and said to myself: see, Gian-Carlo gave you his favorite! And finally, I even made the decision: keep the empty can, and it will be a wonderful memory!

On that day, Gian-Carlo only brought two cans, one for himself and the other awarding me. I remember, in another later day, he came with FIVE cans of Coke! Those crazy ODE undergraduates simply bought too many for him. Then again, he awarded us four students.

An item could be super cheap in this world, if weighted in terms of nickles and dimes, But once endowed with the character of someone you deeply admire, it can become priceless.

Now let the Coca-Cola company blame me for my subjective words. Yes, I would say that Coke in fact did no much good to Gian-Carlo's health. In fact, even today, I still believe that it did terrible harm to him. I remember one day Gian-Carlo and I met in his office after I returned from the Boston U's medical center for the extraction of one of my wisdom teeth. "Oh, Gian-Carlo, I have spent 300 dollars on my teeth!!!" I complained to him. "300? You know, Jianhong, I spent ten of thousands on mine in Mass. General Hospital." To a poor foreign student (holding F1 visa) like me, this was a sky-rocketing amount. From that very moment on, I started to pay attention to his teeth. Yes, the color of his teeth looked terrible to me -- always as greyish as the Cola. And I did and do believe that it was partly the Coke that had ruined his teeth, and his health. [Of course, this is my very biased personal view.]

There are billions of shining stars high above in the Heaven's sky. But only of the very few you can feel the passion and message during your very limited lifetime. I am lucky enough to have found the few, and Gian-Carlo is one of them...

((A story from Professor Norton Starr, June 20, 2000.))

Dear Prof. Shen,

"A Professor Who Loved Coke" turned up while I was doing some Rotesque search the other day, and it's a lovely piece. I would add one tale from my time at MIT (took a PhD in analysis under Gian-Carlo's guidance, back in 1964.) One day there was a cola or some such soft drink on the teacher's desk when Rota came to class. He enjoyed it as usual, and wanted to thank the provider at the end of class, so he asked who brought it in. The reply was that nobody had - the drink was there when the class arrived (thus obviously someone's unfinished refreshment!)

Sincerely,

Norton Starr
Mathematics Department
Amherst College.