Trivia-Friendly Alum Tests Wits on Jeopardy

A Class of ’03 grad and former president of Harvard’s College Bowl club who wants to be a doctor.

Who is Vikram J. Vaz?

Vaz, once a Pforzheimer resident, is now among 15 contestants in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, with the chance to win $250,000.

One of the hardest parts has been figuring out when to buzz in.

“For someone who played on College Bowl, I want to buzz in early,” he said. “That’s a horrible, horrible move on the show.”

Vaz, who is currently enrolled at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, won the quarterfinals game that aired on Wednesday night, guaranteeing that he will at least take home $10,000. His semi-finals game will air next week. According to Vaz, the shows for the tournament were all taped last month, and he knows the outcome. But Jeopardy! producers require contestants to keep quiet about results until the shows air. Vaz said, however, that a “follow-up” story may be needed.

The first show in the tournament aired May 8 and the last show will air May 19.

Before appearing on the show in September, Vaz took a written test. Vaz, who concentrated in computer science at Harvard, said that the questions related to science were either easy and intended for a general audience or too “weird” for him to know.

“They asked what the largest rodent in the world was,” he said, admitting that he had not known that the correct answer is a capybara.

Vaz said that his youth might have been one factor that made him appealing to the show’s producers, He competed in the first round in September 2005, winning three games but losing in the fourth. He called himself “near the borderline” of people accepted into the tournament.

“I didn’t think I’d get in,” he said.

To prepare for the tournament that aired Wednesday, Vaz took three weeks off from his hospital job and studied archived Jeopardy! questions and answers. He said that none of them appeared in his games.

Vaz hopes to use his winnings, which for the moment officially amount to $10,000, to pay for a year off after medical school, when he plans to do public health work in developing countries.

Michael G. Sullivan ’03, Vaz’s roommate for all four years at Harvard, said that Vaz was always a walking encyclopedia of knowledge. According to Sullivan, Vaz told him about the year his high school quiz bowl team won the state championships. Sullivan said that Vaz was the only member on his team who answered any questions.

“It was the only time in Texas quiz bowl history that a single person answered every question,” he said. “He single-handedly beat the state of Texas in a quiz bowl.”

Sulllivan said that Vaz is deceptively modest about his ability to remember facts. “You wouldn’t think he actually knows stuff if you talk to him. You’d think he was kind of an idiot,” Sullivan quipped.

Sullivan added that a favorite pastime of Vaz and his friends was to play a drinking game they called “Stump Vik.” But when asked if anyone could actually do the name of the game, Sullivan said, “It just never happens.”

—Staff writer Katherine M. Gray can be reached at kmgray@fas.harvard.edu.