A smattering of physics students defied scientific law last winter. They created a professor out of thin air--in a prank that CUE Guide Editor-in-Chief Ona M. Hahs '99 says "hoodwinked the entire University administration."

While sifting through course evaluations this summer, Hahs and her staff were tickled by the name of one of the professors evaluated in Physics 125, "Widely Applied Physics."

Professor Ulf Fireloins was listed as "professor B" on about 10 evaluation forms received by the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) office, Hahs says. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences John M. Doyle was "professor A."

The CUE Guide staff assumed Fireloins was real.

The outlandish name did not faze anyone; it just elicited a few chuckles in the publication's office.

"We thought he was Norwegian," Hahs says.

The seeming legitimacy of the CUE guide forms--which included an alphanumeric code assigned to Fireloins by the dean of undergraduate education's office--ended any suspicions about the professor's existence, Hahs says.

"The sheet that we got from Professor Doyle's physics class looked completely official, and Professor Fireloins was evaluated by several students in a very convincing way," says Ali Ruth Davis '01, associate editor of the CUE Guide. "Some students evaluated his teaching style, and others evaluated his clothing style--perfectly plausible for a CUE Guide evaluation."

It was mid-July--after the statistical analysis of Physics 125, as well as the about 500 other tallies CUE computes annually, were complete--when the plot thickened.

Following tradition, Christopher Lowell '99,CUE guide associate editor, wanted to create astaff T-shirt featuring a fake CUE evaluation onthe back, using Fireloins as the course'sprofessor.

Hahs instructed Lowell to locate Fireloins andask permission for the use of his name.

Lowell called the physics department. No onehad ever heard of an Ulf Fireloins.

Lowell phoned the Registrar's Office. Again, noUlf.

Lowell contacted the University payroll office,which keeps records of every professor whoreceives a salary at Harvard.

Unless he had been teaching on a voluntarybasis, Ulf Fireloins was not a Harvard instructor.

Directory assistance had no listing for aFireloins.