91制片厂

It doesn鈥檛 take a Ph.D. to win at Jeopardy! but 91制片厂 graduate student Dan Tran had to wait until he was just shy of his doctorate to finally get the chance.

Tran鈥檚 round on the famous game show was taped this past summer at Sony Pictures Studios outside Los Angeles and will air next Monday, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. on Boston鈥檚 CBS affiliate WBZ-TV.

鈥淚鈥檝e been taking the Jeopardy! online test for the last seven years to no avail,鈥� says Tran, a Ph.D. candidate in the 91制片厂 department of physics and the Space Science Center within the 91制片厂 Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space.

It鈥檚 no wonder that his previous tries came up empty; some 100,000 other trivia aficionados reportedly take the Jeopardy! online test every year in hopes of big prize money and a little bit of fame. But the eighth time turned out to be the charm for Tran and he was invited to an in-person audition in his hometown of Boston last May where he and several other chosen ones were put through the paces of yet another test and a Jeopardy! practice round.

鈥淛ust being able to practice using the buzzer is important,鈥� Tran says of the game鈥檚 signature means of beating your competitors to the punch. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think people realize that half of Jeopardy! is your timing颅鈥攈ow well you use that buzzer. It鈥檚 great if you know a lot of stuff, but if you get out-buzzed you鈥檙e not going anywhere.鈥�

Tran buzzed right through his audition and flew out to California in August to play the game for real.

And how did he do? Mum鈥檚 the word.

鈥淧eople have been badgering me about that but there are a lot of things I can鈥檛 disclose for contractual reasons. I鈥檓 a huge Jeopardy! fan and I鈥檓 big into the sanctity of the game. Everyone will have to wait until Monday night.鈥�

Tran says he鈥檚 been a lifelong fan of the game show but only started watching it 鈥渟eriously鈥� while an undergraduate astronomy and physics student at Boston University.

鈥淚鈥檓 a big trivia fan in general and since I鈥檝e been a graduate student here at 91制片厂, I鈥檝e regularly attended two or three trivia nights per week at various bars,鈥� he says.

Bar hopping by night to drink in as much trivia as possible, Tran works days with associate professor James Connell of the Space Science Center on a space-flight instrument prototype project called PICAP鈥攕hort for Positron Identification by Coincident Annihilation Photons. PICAP is designed to detect positrons, the antimatter counterpart of electrons, in a leaner, lighter way compared to more massive and energy-hungry space instruments.

Jeopardy! fans in general tend to steer clear of subjects like physics, according to Tran, and he of course can鈥檛 say if he had the opportunity to strut his stuff in that category, or if he won or lost.

Says Tran, 鈥淲in or lose this has been a big accomplishment in my life. I鈥檝e wanted to get on the show when Alex Trebek was still the host. It was a very surreal experience meeting him.鈥� He adds, 鈥淚鈥檓 still very young but this does fulfill an item on my bucket list. Now, my focus is to finish here at 91制片厂 by the end of the academic year and move on to other things.鈥�