Jorge Gabriel Cham (Spanish: �xorxe (born 1976) is an engineer-turned cartoonist, writer and producer, who writes the web comic strip ''

Piled Higher and Deeper ''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newspaper and webcomic strip written and drawn by Jorge Cham that follows the lives of several grad students. First published in 1997 when Cham was a grad student himself at Stanfo ...

'' (''PhD Comics''). Cham was born in Panama and lives in the United States, where he started drawing ''PhD Comics'' as a graduate student at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He has since been syndicated in several university newspapers and in six published book collections. He was featured on NPR on December 20, 2010. With physicist Daniel Whiteson, he is the coauthor of ''We Have No Idea'' (2017), a book about

unsolved problems in physics The following is a list of notable unsolved problems grouped into broad areas of physics. Some of the major unsolved problems in physics are theoretical, meaning that existing theories seem incapable of explaining a certain observed phenomenon ...

. In September 2018, Cham and Whiteson debuted the podcast ''Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe'', produced by

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

, in which the hosts aim to explain popular questions and complex topics about science, technology, and the universe, in the simplest way possible. Cham co-creatored the

PBS Kids PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...

animated series '' Elinor Wonders Why'', which premiered in September 2020.

Early life and education

Jorge Cham was born and raised in Panama to parents working in the

Panama Canal Zone The Panama Canal Zone ( es, Zona del Canal de Panamá), also simply known as the Canal Zone, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Isthmus of Panama, that existed from 1903 to 1979. It was located within the terr ...

as engineers for the United States Government. He received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

in 1997, and earned a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

from

. He previously worked at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

as an instructor and as a researcher on neural prosthetics. He has now fully devoted to his comic work.

Cartoonist

In 2005, Cham became a full time cartoonist and began an invited speaking tour of major universities delivering his talk titled "The Power of Procrastination". To date, he has given hundreds of lectures worldwide. In this lecture, Cham talks about his experiences creating the comic strip and examines the sources of grad students' anxieties. He also explores the guilt and the myths associated with procrastination and argues that in many cases it is actually a good thing. In 2012, Cham wrote and produced ''The PHD Movie'', an independent feature-length film based on his comics. The film featured real researchers and academics and was screened at over 500 universities and research centers worldwide. In 2015, Cham wrote and produced ''The PHD Movie: Still in Grad School'', a sequel to the first film, which also screened worldwide. He also illustrated the book ''Scientific Paper Writing: A Survival Guide'' (2015) by Bodil Holst. Cham has also had six collections of his comics published, with the most recent one — a 20th-anniversary edition — backed by more than $234,000 in pledges on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

. His book ''We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe'', with physicist Daniel Whiteson, has been translated to over 23 languages, was a ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' Best-seller, and was awarded the Wen Jin National Book Award in China. Cham is also the co-creator of '' Elinor Wonders Why'', a show on

that is based on Cham's daughter. The series premiered on September 7, 2020. He is the co-owner of Shoe Ink, which produces the '' Elinor Wonders Why'' series and ''That's So Interesting'', a live-action short form series hosted by Cham and featuring characters from '' Elinor Wonders Why'' itself.

References

External links

*
Official website of ''PhD Comics''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cham, Jorge American webcomic creators Living people Stanford University alumni Georgia Tech alumni 1976 births California Institute of Technology faculty Panamanian people of Chinese descent 21st-century American engineers Roboticists Articles containing video clips American cartoonists