North Carolina professor advances in ‘Jeopardy!’ tournament. When to see her play next
As the “Jeopardy!” professors tournament kicks off its second week, a North Carolina professor is one step closer to the grand prize of $100,000.
Alisa Hove, a botany professor at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, has advanced in the game show’s first-of-its-kind tournament.
“I’ve loved JEOPARDY! since watching it with my family almost every night as a kid,” Hove said in the Asheville-area college’s news release. “So having the opportunity to stand on that stage, see the questions in person, and participate with such a talented group of professors was a kind of a dream come true.”
Hove will continue to face other professors after winning $20,000 in the quarterfinals on Friday, Dec. 10. Though she won the most money in her game, the other two contestants in the heat earned “wild card” spots and will also move on to the next round, results show.
“I’m elated to have won a game on my favorite childhood quiz show @Jeopardy,” Hove wrote in a Twitter post. “Serious dream come true. On top of that, my backstage pals @JPAllen and Deborah are headed to the semifinals too.”
Hove’s next challenge comes on Tuesday, Dec. 14, when she competes against Marti Canipe of Northern Arizona University and Hester Blum of Penn State University, according to the show’s website. Mayim Bialik is the tournament’s host.
Nine of the 15 professors who started in the tournament, which “Jeopardy!” says is scheduled to run until Friday, Dec. 17, advanced to the semifinals. While contestants have come from across the United States, Hove is the only professor representing a North Carolina school.
Warren Wilson College is roughly 10 miles east of downtown Asheville, a popular tourist destination in the Western North Carolina mountains. The school lies on a 1,100-acre campus and has more than 800 students, according to its website.
Hove is the chair of the college’s biology department and said she’s “fascinated by the beauty and complexity of life on Earth.”
“Teaching and conducting research with students has provided me with a great framework for channeling my love of natural history to train creative, innovative thinkers that address important questions relating to evolutionary adaptation and how populations may respond to ongoing shifts in climate and land use,” she said on the Warren Wilson College website.
Hove applied for the game show “on a whim” and read books and watched “Jeopardy” episodes to prepare for her debut, according to The Citizen Times of Asheville.
“I really wanted to study geography,” Hove said, according to the newspaper. “I spent a lot of time trying to think of things like bodies of water from around the world and capitals of various nations.”
