By COLIN HICKEY
Staff Writer Friday, May 11, 2007

It was that rage in part that led Perkins to enlist in the Army after he graduated from the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in 1998.

And then after four years of service, including a stint in South Korea, the combustible cauldron fueled his furious intellectual drive as an undergraduate at the University of Maine.

That drive ends Saturday when Perkins, standing alone atop a mountain of academic achievement at Orono, receives his diploma as valedictorian of the 2007 graduating class.

Perkins, 26, excels at problem solving, his 4.0 average the most obvious proof of that. But when it comes to explaining his anger, the double major in physics and mathematics is at a loss.

"At the top of my head," he said, "I would say testosterone. I don't know. It has always been my underlying attitude, but I've learned to direct it."

University of Maine physics professor Neil F. Comins agrees with that description. He calls Perkins a complex individual and a brilliant scholar.

"There is no accounting for where it comes from," Comins said of Perkins' brilliance, "but it sometimes comes, and in the case of Erik Perkins, we are talking about a supreme intellect who is able to connect all the dots related to science and math."

Henry Perkins credits the military for helping his son learn to channel his energy to good purpose. "He was in the Army," he said, "and that changes people and gives them a work ethic. He was always a very bright person, but the Army changed him enough. It made him look at things differently."

Perkins likes to use the term "Agonistes" when trying to describe himself. He uses the term in its original Greek sense of a struggler or combatant.

That is Perkins' approach to academic pursuits. He battles on, however complex the subject, however limited his background, with the idea that his intelligence, work ethic and will power amount to an overpowering force, enough to overcome whatever complex concept or theory he encounters.

Perkins said his military experience taught him this lesson. If he could complete a 12- mile run with a heavy rucksack on his back, Perkins reasoned, he could handle a rigorous academic load as well.

"I learned I could push myself beyond dropping," he said.

Lawrence High School math teacher Scott Ballard had Perkins as a student in a computer class he taught.

Ballard said even then, Perkins seemed to have a different makeup than most students.

"I remember he was a very smart kid," Ballard said, "and kind of a loner. He was a kid who didn't necessarily get caught up in the latest trends."

Perkins said Ballard described him well.

"Up until I left for the magnet school," he said, "that (description) is very accurate. At the magnet school, I sort of came out of my shell. I guess it was being submerged in an environment where I had a lot of people I could relate to."

Perkins said he found a measure of camaraderie in the Army as well. When he enrolled at the University of Maine he was reunited with high school classmate Kevin Roberge.

He credits Roberge, now seeking his master's degree in math, with guiding and goading him to take the most worthwhile and challenging physics and math courses.

"I wanted to make sure he had the optimum, customized path," Roberge said, "so that he could maximize his learning experience."

But for the most part Perkins needed no push. One time, in fact, a professor thought it might be necessary to restrain his intellectual ambitions.

That happened when Perkins sought to take a course in classical mechanics, a high-powered graduate course that demanded a strong background in the subject, according to Comins, who taught the class.

"I wasn't going to let him take the course," Comins said, "because I didn't want him to waste his time or mine, but he convinced me otherwise in two minutes. He was a sophomore at the time. He blew everybody else in the course away. He aced everything -- homework, exams, you name it."

Independently, he began to "poke around" literature on general relativity, specifically the writings of Sean Carroll, a physics professor at California Institute of Technology.

At first, Perkins said, he comprehended little of what he read. But this is the guy, remember, who can lug a packed rucksack for 12 miles -- the guy who doesn't drop.

"Eventually," he said, "I could read through the whole thing like it was a novel or something."

Perkins ended up doing a seminar on general relativity, one in which he took on the role as chief lecturer.

"He was eager to do the seminar lectures," Comins said. "He dealt with stuff that was far beyond what other students in the class had heard about before, and what he said was correct and insightful."

Perkins is headed to the University of California, Santa Barbara to obtain a doctorate in theoretical physics. His long-term goal is to unify general relativity and quantum theory, the two fields of physics essentially, an ambition that might have made Einstein blush.

But Roberge said Perkins could be the right guy for the job. "It is going to take somebody looking in the right bucket," Roberge said. "If he doesn't find it, he still will do great things."

Comins, too, is confident that great accomplishments are ahead for his prize student.

"His acquisition of knowledge is accelerating," he said. "He was doing very advanced graduate work by his senior year. If they don't hold him back when he's in Santa Barbara, he has the potential of unlocking whatever secrets are before him."

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com