Role models and mentors
Hi Friends,
Thanksgiving is this week. I'd like to suggest we all thank our mentors and role models along the way, the people who encouraged us to go into science/science policy and inspired us with their examples.
My own thanks go out to several mentors and role models. I had female teachers in both Chemistry and Biology at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, NC, and both did an excellent job. My biology teacher was Edna Fletcher, and she inspired me to do a summer-long experiment that resulted in my going to the National Science Fair and receiving an honorable mention there during my senior year. I was so pleased that the Charlotte Observer, which sent me as a result of my winning their sponsored science fair, also paid for Mrs. Fletcher to attend. I knew then that she was married and had kids, and I'm sure that was in the back of my mind as I went forward.
At Goucher College, Dr. Ann M Lacy was my senior thesis advisor/mentor and a great role model; she insisted on the most rigorously logical analysis, and all of her classwork was based on papers with evidence evaluated, not generalizations. Also, Dr. Helen Haberman with whom I worked for my first two years, was a role model. I loved the way she took me along when she went to Beltsville or to the local plant science institute, and included me in her conversations with other scientists.
In graduate school, Beatrice Sweeney was my role model. She was a senior research associate with a male faculty member at Yale, and her experiments were very direct and creative. She had designed a single cell Cartesian diver, and used it to show individual cells exhibit biological rhythms.
Tell us about some of your own!
Cheers, and Happy Thanksgiving,
Laura Livingston Mays Hoopes (to relate to my names that all of these mentors knew)
Hi Scifeminsita,
I'm glad you mentioned Joseph Gall. He inspired me and my friends at Yale a lot. I was in school with Mary Lou Pardue, Susan Gerbi, and others he mentored and everyone talked about how skillfully he motivated them, how much they enjoyed working with him. I had him in one class, and found his teaching was amazing too.
cheers,
Laura
I think Joe Gall has been mentioned on this site before, and he inspired me greatly, along with many, many other women.
And, from afar, I was inspired by Elizabeth Blackburn who stood up to President George W Bush on the Bioethics manipulation his committee did and was fired.
Thanks to you!
Thanks to my high school chemistry teacher, Miss Jean Campbell, who was an ace. She had blonde hair cut short, looked ready for anything, and she had no tolerance for boys who just wanted to blow up the chem lab during experiment days. I wanted to be her when I grew up.
Hi Adam,
Nice memories of some dedicated teachers and a friend. Thanks for sharing the thanks, and happy Thanksgiving!
cheers,
Laur
Three women come immediately to mind. The first was Mrs. Fallon, my fifth grade teacher at the Ellwood Elementary School in Philadelphia, PA. She encouraged scientific investigation by asking us to perform experiments in front of the class, and required the use of the scientific method throughout. I wonder how many scientific careers she launched? The second was Dr. Ardythe McCracken, PhD, a friend and neighbor that, while a graduate student at the University of Delaware gave me my first opportunity to work in the laboratory, igniting my passion for genetics. The third was my PHD thesis advisor, Dr. Susan Henry, PhD., an outstanding mentor that was capable of giving every student precisely what they needed to succeed.
I truly thankful for their generosity and kindness.
