Ogi Ogas
{{short description|American writer}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = Ogi Ogas
| birth_name =
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| nationality = American
| other_names =
| occupation = Writer, theoretical neuroscientist
| known_for = Game show contestant
}}
Ogi Ogas is an American writer and computational neuroscientist. As of May 2016, he is a visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he serves as Project Head for the Individual Mastery Project.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/05/25/is-grit-overrated-in-explaining-student-success-harvard-researchers-have-a-new-theory-and-its-not-comforting-at-all/|title=Is grit overrated in explaining student success? Harvard researchers have a new theory|author=Jeffrey Selingo|date=May 25, 2016|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=6 July 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/gse-individuality/individual-mastery|title=Individual Mastery Project at the Laboratory for the Science of the Individual|work=harvard.edu|access-date=7 April 2016}} Ogas is also known for his participation in game shows, especially Grand Slam (2007){{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1057573/|work=IMDB|title=Grand Slam TV Show|access-date=6 July 2016}} and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (2006).{{cite web|url=http://www.gameshowfavorites.com/trading/show.php?name=viera&page=11|work=Game Show Favorites|title=Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Episode Guide|access-date=6 July 2016}}
Early life and education
Ogi Ogas was born and grew up in Annapolis, Maryland.{{cite web|url=http://www.orau.org/media-center/news-releases/2006/fy07-10.aspx|title="Final Answer" Pays Off Big Time for Former DHS Fellow|date=2006-11-15 | format = organizational press release |publisher=Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education}}{{better source|date=April 2016}} He attended Severna Park High School, where he was a member of the school's It's Academic team. {{when|date=April 2016}} Ogas began a graduate degree in film studies at the University of Iowa in 1994, but left under a cloud after an undergraduate was badly injured while working on a film
project for him. Ogas was awarded a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience by Boston University in 2009.{{cite web|url=http://www.cns.bu.edu/people/alumni.html|title=Alumni directory|work=Boston University Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems|access-date=6 July 2016}} He was a United States Department of Homeland Security Fellow during his graduate studies.{{when|date=April 2016}}{{cite web|title=Boston U. Student Named Homeland Security Fellow|work=New York Times|author=Carrie Dieringer|url=https://www.nytimes.com/uwire/uwire_UDPV091120033054756.html | date=September 11, 2003}}
Career
Ogas is a visiting scholar at the Harvard University School of Education.{{cite web|url=http://lsi.gse.harvard.edu/|title=Laboratory for the Science of the Individual|work=harvard.edu|access-date=7 April 2016}}{{third-party inline|date=April 2016}}{{third-party inline|date=April 2016}}{{cite journal|url=http://chronicle.com/article/The-Faulty-Foundation-of/234905/|title=The Faulty Foundation of American Colleges|author=Todd Rose and Ogi Ogas|date=January 17, 2016|journal=The Chronicle of Higher Education}}
Ogas is the Project Head for the Individual Mastery Project in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which The Washington Post has described as "aimed at understanding the development of individual excellence."
Written works
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=''A Billion Wicked Thoughts''=
Ogas's nonfiction book A Billion Wicked Thoughts (2011, with Sai Gaddam) analyzed the sexual terms used in web searches by approximately 100 million internet users. Some critics praised the book for its accessibility and entertainment value. Others noted that because the collected web searches were anonymous, the authors were limited in the conclusions they could draw from their analyses.{{cite journal |last1= Vasey |first1= Paul |last2= Abild |first2= Miranda |year= 2013 |title= A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships |journal= Archives of Sexual Behavior |volume= 421 |issue= 6 |pages= 1101–1103|doi= 10.1007/s10508-013-0170-5|s2cid= 146627306 }}{{cite journal |last1= Hummel|first1= Anna|last2= Shackelford|first2= Todd|date=2013 |title= What Our Sexy Past Reveals About Our Erotic Present | url= http://www.epjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/EP11238242.pdf | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130511052500/http://www.epjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/EP11238242.pdf | url-status= usurped | archive-date= May 11, 2013 |journal= Evolutionary Psychology |volume= 11 |issue= 1 |pages= 238–242 |doi= 10.1177/147470491301100120|s2cid= 147703521|access-date= March 28, 2014|doi-access= free}}{{cite news |access-date = March 28, 2014 |last = McLellan |first = Diana |title = "A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals about Human Desire" by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam |newspaper = The Washington Post |date = July 15, 2011 |url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/a-billion-wicked-thoughts-what-the-worlds-largest-experiment-reveals-about-human-desire-by-ogi-ogas-and-sai-gaddam/2011/06/13/gIQALKOqEI_story.html }}{{cite web |access-date = March 28, 2014 |last = Landau |first = Elizabeth |title = Inside women's sexual brains, preferences and porn |work = CNN.com |date = May 9, 2011 |url = http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/09/inside-womens-sexual-brains-preferences-and-porn/ |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110510231247/http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/09/inside-womens-sexual-brains-preferences-and-porn/ |url-status = dead |archive-date = May 10, 2011 }}{{cite news |access-date = March 28, 2014 |last = Bennett |first = Jessica |title = Surfing for Sex: What Does It Reveal About Desire? |work = Newsweek |date = April 24, 2011 |url = http://www.newsweek.com/surfing-sex-what-does-it-reveal-about-desire-66637 }}{{cite magazine |access-date = March 28, 2014 |last = Szalavitz |first = Maia |title = Q&A: The Researchers Who Analyzed All the Porn on the Internet |magazine = Time |date = May 19, 2011 |url = https://healthland.time.com/2011/05/19/mind-reading-the-researchers-who-analyzed-all-the-porn-on-the-internet/ }}{{cite news |access-date = March 28, 2014 |last = Schaub |first = Michael |title = Insane Science: 5 New Books That Explain The Brain |work = NPR |date = June 7, 2011 |url = https://www.npr.org/2011/07/14/136896426/insane-science-5-new-books-that-explain-the-brain }}{{cite news |access-date = March 28, 2014 |last = Kennedy |first = Brendan |title = What we want when nobody's watching? |work = The Toronto Star |date = May 10, 2011 |url = https://www.thestar.com/life/2011/05/10/what_we_want_when_nobodys_watching.html }}{{cite news |access-date = March 28, 2014 |author= |title = Kirkus Review |work = Kirkus Reviews |date = February 23, 2011 |url = https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ogi-ogas/billion-wicked-thoughts/ }}{{cite news |access-date = March 28, 2014 |last = Yang |first = Wesley |title = Sex, Lies and Data Mining |work = The New York Times |date = July 29, 2011 |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/books/review/a-billion-wicked-thoughts-by-ogi-ogas-and-sai-gaddam-book-review.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 }}
= ''This is What It Sounds Like'' =
In 2022, W. W. Norton published This is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You, by Ogas and Susan Rogers.{{Cite web |last=Luhrssen |first=David |date=2022-11-17 |title=This is What it Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas |url=https://shepherdexpress.com/api/content/5a1f3fc0-6681-11ed-88a8-12274efc5439/ |access-date=2022-12-03 |website=Shepherd Express |language=en-us}}{{Cite web |last=Schulz |first=Isaac |date=2022-11-22 |title=Why Do We Love the Music We Love? |url=https://gizmodo.com/music-neuroscience-susan-rogers-book-1849801399 |access-date=2022-12-03 |website=Gizmodo |language=en}}
=Other contributions=
==''Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry''==
Ogas is listed as a contributor to Jeffrey Lieberman's Shrinks.Little, Brown and Company, 2015, {{ISBN|9780316278867}}{{full citation needed|date=April 2016}}The authorship is listed as "Jeffrey Lieberman, with Ogi Ogas."Lieberman is former president of the American Psychiatric Association and current{{when|date=April 2016}} chair of the Columbia Department of psychiatry.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} As advertising prose from the Hatchett Books Group describes it, the book:
{{quote|traces the field from its birth as a mystic pseudo-science through its adolescence as a cult of "shrinks" to its late blooming maturity—beginning after World War II—as a science-driven profession that saves lives ... [including] ... case studies and portraits of the professionals of the field—from Sigmund Freud to Eric Kandel ...{{cite book|url=http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jeffrey-a-lieberman-md/shrinks/9781478979654/|title=Shrinks|work=hachettebookgroup.com|isbn=9781478979654 |access-date=7 April 2016}} }}
Shrinks received a starred review in Kirkus,{{cite book|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jeffrey-lieberman/shrinks/|title=SHRINKS|author=Jeffrey A. Lieberman|work=Kirkus Reviews|access-date=7 April 2016}} was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/books/review/editors-choice.html|title=Editors' Choice|date=5 April 2015|work=The New York Times|access-date=7 April 2016}} and was longlisted for the PEN/E.O.Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.{{cite web|url=http://www.pen.org/2016-pen-literary-awards-longlists|title=2016 PEN Literary Awards Longlists|date=December 2015|work=pen.org|access-date=7 April 2016}}
Game show appearances
| cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" width="350" style="float:right; background:#FFFFFF" |
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| colspan=2| $1 Million (15 of 15) - No Time Limit |
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| colspan=2| Which of these ships was not one of the three taken over by colonists during the Boston Tea Party? |
| style=text-align:left; bgcolor="00008B"
|width="50%"|• A: Eleanor |style=text-align:left; bgcolor="00008B"|• B: Dartmouth |
| style=text-align:left; bgcolor="00008B"
|• C: Beaver |style=text-align:left; bgcolor="green"|• D: William |
| style=text-align:center
| colspan=2| Ogas's $1,000,000 question |
Ogas won $500,000 on an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire that aired on November 8, 2006, using his cognitive science research to guide his game strategy.{{citation|url=http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2006/11/11/the_decider/|journal=Boston Globe|date=November 11, 2006|title=The Decider|last1=Ogas|first1=Ogi}} Ogas has intimated in interviews that he had a strong hunch about his final question (about the Boston Tea Party, shown), after tentatively eliminating three of the choices; he ultimately decided to walk away because of the large amount of money at risk ($475,000 of his $500,000). His hunch was correct.{{citation|title=OK, Ogi! Waltham man wins $500K on game show|journal=Boston Globe|date=November 8, 2006|url=http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/regional_editions/globe_west/west/2006/11/waltham_man_may.html}}{{citation|url=http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/who_wants_to_be_a_cognitive_neuroscientist_millionaire/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090404025204/http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/who_wants_to_be_a_cognitive_neuroscientist_millionaire|url-status=unfit|archive-date=April 4, 2009|journal=Seed Magazine|date=November 9, 2006|title=Who Wants To Be A Cognitive Scientist Millionaire? A Researcher Uses His Understanding Of The Human Brain To Advance On A Popular Quiz Show}} Since playing, he has appeared 22 times as the syndicated show's "Ask The Expert" Lifeline.
Ogas was also a contestant on Grand Slam, which aired in August and September 2007.{{citation|url=http://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts_entertainment/articles/the_gonz_show_ogi_ogas/|journal=Boston Magazine|title=The Gonz Show: Ogi Ogas|date=October 2007|first=John|last=Gonzalez}} He said that after feeling the intense emotional pressure on Millionaire, he developed a new suite of cognitive techniques for Grand Slam, including calming techniques as well as mathematical, verbal, and mnemonic heuristics derived from his brain research.{{citation |url=http://grandslamshow.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=81&sid=12f6c95e1a40adce39a0a7372aeded48 |title=GrandSlamShow.com discussion boards |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111211242/http://grandslamshow.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=81&sid=12f6c95e1a40adce39a0a7372aeded48 |archive-date=November 11, 2007 }} He defeated former Millionaire contestant Nancy Christy in his first-round game and all-time game show winnings record holder and Jeopardy! champion Brad Rutter in the second round. Ogas then defeated former Twenty-One champion David Legler in the semifinals before losing to Ken Jennings in the final. More recently, he appeared on ABC's game show 500 Questions as one of the challengers.
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0002807}}
- {{official website|http://www.billionwickedthoughts.com/index.html}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ogas, Ogi}}
Category:Boston University alumni
Category:Computational neuroscience
Category:Contestants on American game shows
Category:Loyola University Maryland alumni
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)