Detailed Instructions: In this task, you're given passages that contain mentions of names of people, places, or things. Some of these mentions refer to the same person, place, or thing. Your job is to write questions that evaluate one's understanding of such references. Good questions are expected to link pronouns (she, her, him, his, their, etc.) or other mentions to people, places, or things to which they may refer. Do not ask questions that can be answered correctly without understanding the paragraph or having multiple answers. Avoid questions that do not link phrases referring to the same entity. For each of your questions, the answer should be one or more phrases in the paragraph, and it should be unambiguous.
Q: Passage: The CIA is secretly developing "Crossbow", a space shuttle-mounted laser weapon precise enough to incinerate a single target from outer space, planning to use it for illegal political assassinations. However, they struggle with its power source, and have covertly hired Professor Jerry Hathaway at Pacific Technical University to develop this. Hathaway has assembled a group of genius students in physics to do the work for him, though outside of his graduate student Kent, purposely does not tell them the reason for their research. Hathaway is also embezzling the CIA provided funds intended for research so that he can upgrade his house.
Hathaway recruits high-school student Mitch Taylor to join the team. Mitch is roomed with Chris Knight, a "legend" in the physics area. Mitch becomes dismayed that Chris is more of a goof-off than a hard-working student. Chris introduces Mitch to some of the other genius students, including Jordan, "Ick" Ikagami, and his nemesis, the less intelligent Kent. Despite his age and inexperience, Hathaway assigns Mitch to lead the team due to his fresh and inventive ideas, hoping that he will remind Chris of how he used to be.
A:
What is the man who hired the genius students helping to develop?