So, is Professor Oak the smartest of all the professors?

[Azureth]

It seems most hold him in high regard and consider him the best. But I am not sure if everyone agrees with that.

 

[インフェルノの津波]

Naw, place your bets on Rowan, Oak is just the first one to study Pokemon and make the Dex, which is why everyone thinks highly of him.

 

[Meganium]

Well, he did invent the PokeDex, and he has his own radio show in Goldenrod. That doesn't mean he's "the best professor out there". In my view, I consider all professors in all generations in the same level.

 

[Demigod]

I don't know if he is but certainly the funniest and most creative one :D and my favorite.

 

[Meduza]

It's either Prof. Oak or Rowan for by, but probably Rowan since he's so serious.

 

[curiousnathan]

I don't think I find Professor Oak to be 'the best' professor out of all the five regions. But I do beleive that others; including the the other professors regard him highly because of his development of the original PokeDex. But I have sort of noticed how some proffessors focus on certain aspects of pokemon, rather than focussing on every aspect of pokemon. Take Professor Rowan as an example; if I can recall, he seemed more interested in the evolution of pokemon than anything else.

 

[Draci.Kun]

Elm is ruled out for me. He seems a little ditsy to me. Same with Juniper. I say either Oak or Rowan. Oak /was/ the pioneer, but Rowan seems to take his job VERY seriously (not that Oak doesn't, but Oak is a bit more lighthearted)

...but Birch wins cause he's voiced by Dan Green in the anime, and Dan Green can do anything. -slapped- Nah, just kidding. I don't really have an opinion about Birch. He's kind of in the middle for me.

 

[Chamomile13]

I don't think you can say that someone is definitively "the best" at doing something like studying Pokemon. As an example, Issac Newton discovered gravity, Albert Einstein discovered relativity. Which one wins at physics? There's not really any way to tell for sure.

It does make sense that Professor Oak would be the best known, however. His Pokedex is the kind of thing that would attract a lot of attention and receive a lot of publicity, while Professor Rowan could make a dozen breakthroughs in understanding how and why Pokemon evolve and still not be as well known. These kinds of breakthroughs might revolutionize Pokemology, but no one who isn't, themselves, a professor will be able to understand that.

On the other hand, if Professor Rowan discovered how to synthesize Moon Stones or something similar, he'd probably be skyrocketed into fame, because now he's got something to show off to the press.

Incidentally, can I ask why being serious makes you a better Professor? Why does it matter whether you do your job with a smile or a straight face?

 

[bobandbill]

I'll reserve judgment on th 5th gen one until I know what she says in english. XD But certainly Oak ranks the highest for me, maybe not as the smartest (Rowan is not bad either and it's hard to judge on that) but the most likable for me, and the most reputable.

But those two rank higher than Birch (who gets chased by a Poochyena, or in Emerald, a Zigzagoon) or Elm (Mr 'Durr where do pokemon eggs come from ^^'), imo. =p

 

[Her]

It seems to me that Oak is generally the most knowledgeable on Pokémon situations and what to do, but I'm biased towards first gen so I don't know. But Oak did create the Pokédex after all, so he's got to have some technical genius in him at least.

 

[Kenshin5]

There is no greater Professor, since all of them have different fields of study you really can't weigh their accomplishments against each other. Yes Oak may have more accolades, achievements and so on, but you got to look how long he and Rowan have been doing this. He looks old enough to be Elm, Birch, and Juniper dad, so he has had many more years to experiment with things in his said field then they have. Gary is obviously the best professor though. Cause he is GARY *insert explicative here* OAK!!!!

 

[coolcatkim22]

He's the authority on Pokemon so yeah, pretty sure he is.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Considering the fact that Oak invented the Pokedex, I'd say he's the smartest out of the 5 professors (6 if you count Prof. Ivy). He's also the authority of Pokemon.

 

[Destiny Bond]

firstly, he invented the pokedex, like what the platinumDude said. And im sure he was like a super awesome pokemon trainer when he was young.

 

[TJgamer]

I don't know about smartest, but certainly the wisest.
His poetry inspires me somewhat. :cer_blush:

 

[jasonresno]

Professor Oak is like the Model T. It set a precedent for future Professors to innovate and flesh out what he began. He's the original but others are doing it better now.

 

[Amore]

I sort of rank Prof. Rowan and Prof. Elm second...but part of that's personality - Prof. Rowan instructs you to challenge Dialga / Palkia...he's also kinda stern, and I generally aren't that fond of him. Prof. Elm is kinda funny, but not in a good way, as he's a bit unreliable (losing the pokémon, wtf? Although Silver is a ninja...he got to the pokémon league without badges, Kanto without a ticket...etc.)

 

[WriteThemWrong]

i definitely think oak is the first authority on anything pokemon. he is definitely the top authority on kanto pokemon but overall i would say he is also the top authority. but of course there are other researchers that specialize in their own field of pokemonology.

 

[Le Creep!]

I think that Rowan is the smartest professor. I also quite like his ''intimidating'' attitude.

Wasn't Elm the one who was fairly.... dumb?

 

[Cherrim]

I think Oak was essentially the "first" Professor to be really widely known for something. He invented the Pokédex which vastly helped the research of ALL the other professors (once they roped an innocent kid into filling it for them) and for that, he's esteemed and his colleagues hold him in high regard.

That and he and whichever prof was in gen 3 (I forget pretty much all of them, tbh xD) are earlier in the timeline so they've been at the researching business longer than everyone else, probably. Factor in his age and it's not a far stretch to call him one of the smartest, but they all seem to have different specialties so I don't think it's quite fair to say he's the smartest despite everything.