Mike Ferguson takes to the podium on ‘Jeopardy!’

When Mike Ferguson, an organic chemistry professor at the University of Central Oklahoma and member of the American Chemical Society, got a call last April to see if he wanted to be on Jeopardy! , his immediate response was, “Hell yes!” Ferguson and his wife have been playing trivia regularly for 14 years—ever since their second date. With thousands of those games under his belt, Ferguson felt pretty confident in taking the test required to get on the famous quiz show. The first test, which can be taken online , is made up of 50 questions on over 50 topics; aspiring contestants have to answer them within 15 min, typing their responses. Ferguson had waited for over a year from the time of taking that test to the April call confirming that he had secured a spot to go against the best of the best on the Jeopardy! stage. At