Five Questions with Pat the Penguin
Winter Break is the Pat the Penguin’s favorite time of year.
Name: Pat (the Public Health!) Penguin
Pat plans to impress friends back home with this portrait. None of Pat’s friends are affiliated with schools of public health. (Contributed photo)
Position: I’m a visiting guest expert from the South Pole. (OK, fine… So, I actually live about 750 miles north of the South Pole… That’s not nearly as poetic, though. I’d like to see you survive winters at −72 °F. Oh, yeah? Well… Just let me have this!)
Time at the Gillings School: As I was saying… I appear once a year to celebrate the first day of Winter Break.
What I do at UNC Gillings (and why I love it): I take my work at the School very seriously. On the first work day following exams, when staff members arrive early to their offices and look around, confused, marveling at the strange quiet that usually only descends during the summer months, I pop up and remind them that IT’S WINTER BREAK!!!
Pat is a real “people penguin” and a world traveler. (Contributed photo)
That’s right: Students have gone home for the holidays, and it’s time for everyone who’s left to share their best homemade fudge and cookie recipes! Don’t tell the folks in the Department of Nutrition, but my PeD (Doctor of Penguinology) tells me this is the best season to store some serious calories.
I love my annual visits to Chapel Hill because of the climate, the people — Yes, I know everyone says that! — and the chance to share hot cocoa with Ramses and his lovely wife. I haven’t found my own life partner yet, but I expect to meet them any day now. (Did you know penguins mate for life? We’re very proud of that; in fact, we’re kind of known for it. That and the South Pole thing. But this part is true!)
Anyway, I’m going to see if one of the School researchers will take me with them next time they visit the Galápagos Science Center. They’ve got endemic, warm-water penguins in the Galápagos who sound just delightful.
Pat believes research is very important. Pat likes to get flippers-on in the Gillings School labs! (Contributed photo)
My first job ever: was catching fish.
When I’m not at work: I like to fish.
My favorite food is: Fish. Fish. Fish.
If I had $5 million: I would buy a lot of…
…
…
…
VACCINES!
Betcha thought I was gonna say “fish!” But I am the Public Health Penguin, after all. And what I truly wish for, most of all, is the chance to improve public health, promote individual well-being and eliminate health inequities across North Carolina and around the world.
(Honestly, with $5 million, I might also buy a jet pack. This whole “flightless bird” thing is getting old.)
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Happy Holidays, Gillings School — from the “South Pole” to the World!
Read more (non-parody) Five Question Interviews.
