Profile of Bruce Alberts: the Education President

PROFILE Profile of Bruce Alberts: The education president s Bruce Alberts steps down July 1 as one of the most accom- plished and distinguished presi- dents of the National Academy Aof Sciences (NAS), he is singularly fo- cused on education—specifically, teaching his students about real science. He has been brewing an idea for a new science course that he would like to teach to graduate students at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the approach for which is partly inspired by the 3 years he spent in graduate school charging straight into an experimental dead-end. First, Alberts says, he would toss out the traditional classroom lectures and instead hand students a small stack of carefully selected scientific articles. Then he would have them argue among themselves about which papers are outstanding and, most importantly, which are not. ‘‘We always talk about good papers, but we never talk about the substantial amount of mediocre work that’s done,’’ Bruce Alberts and children of staff of the Academy complex, National Academy of Sciences building, Alberts says. Washington, DC, 1997. Photograph by Jeremiah Burger. Actually, Alberts prefers the term “boring” for papers that fail to rock the foundations of the scientific world and know any better. It was not until much being real. That was quite different from that describe work arguably not worth later that he was able to articulate what just reading about chemistry.’’ doing. He wants to get students and scien- he, and the American educational system, Alberts enjoyed such hands-on tinker- tists talking about what he considers the had been missing. First and foremost, he ing so much that he decided to pursue a critical issue in a scientific career: how a believes that science education should scientist learns where to spend limited career that would use chemistry. Not resemble actual science, where asking time, money, and energy in the most ef- knowing how this science was used in the fective way. ‘‘I think the right type of ‘‘why?’’ and ‘‘how?’’ is more important real world, however, he needed guidance. course could do a lot to help future scien- than memorizing a list of facts. At his high school’s ‘‘Career Night,’’ he perused the program and found only two tists develop the kind of taste and judg- A Stockroom of Reality ment they need to really be successful,’’ speakers who used chemistry in their jobs: he says. Good scientists usually acquire One of Alberts’ fondest early science a chemical engineer and a physician. The this research acumen by osmosis or ‘‘trial memories involves exploring the inside of engineer drew dull pictures of pipes and and error,’’ Alberts says. ‘‘In my case, it a television set. In 1950 at Central School tanks on the blackboard, he says, but the was a lot of error.’’ in a small Chicago suburb (Glencoe, IL), physician spoke about the importance of Nearly 30 years after his graduate his teacher, Mr. Bonhivert, had him stand science for medicine. From this experi- school stumbling blocks, Alberts came to in front of his seventh-grade science class ence, Alberts decided to become a physi- Washington, D.C., to be an ‘‘education and explain how television works to his cian. At that point, he had no idea that a president’’ of the Academy. His impressive classmates. ‘‘Television was quite new, and career as an actual scientist was possible. list of achievements and accolades— I had no idea how it worked, but I had to including eight foreign academy member- be able to explain it,’’ he says. ‘‘This was Ivy League Cooking Classes ships, 14 honorary degrees, and recogni- really exciting, because in order to teach Alberts’ hopes for more explosions and tion ranging from the San Francisco it, you really had to understand it.’’ hands-on experiments were dashed soon Exploratorium to the National Academy Later, in the ninth grade, he recalls after he arrived at Harvard University of Education—reflects his abiding interest grappling with books on spectroscopy in (Cambridge, MA) in 1956. As a pre- in science research and policy as well as the Chicago Public Library for a report in medicine major, he took introductory lec- basic science education. During his 12- chemistry class. Alberts had even more ture courses such as analytical chemistry, year tenure, he has made immense strides fun in his junior-year chemistry class, organic chemistry, biology, and physics. in bringing science education reform to where he had a chance to play with bea- None kept him truly engaged, he says. the classroom. kers instead of slog through textbooks. Instead of self-directed learning, he found However, this path was by no means ‘‘Chemistry was made real because we himself exposed to mind-numbing facts. guaranteed. Alberts almost missed becom- had real chemicals,’’ he says. ‘‘Right in ‘‘Science words are not science,’’ Alberts ing a scientist himself, mostly because his front of everybody were bottles of fuming says. ‘‘I always feel that I want to under- own science education did not expose him hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide. to the true scientific culture of questioning The nice thing was that my teacher, Carl and learning. Even as a young professor, Clader, actually had a stockroom with This is a Proﬁle of the president of the National Academy of his own teaching was at times ‘‘pathetic,’’ many reagents, so that we could set off Sciences. he admits, because he simply did not explosions, and we could see chemistry as © 2005 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0504186102 PNAS ͉ June 28, 2005 ͉ vol. 102 ͉ no. 26 ͉ 9109–9111 Downloaded by guest on September 29, 2021 stand things and not just memorize ate in biophysics at Harvard, continuing nobody understood it,’’ he says. ‘‘They had them.’’ work in Doty’s laboratory. just memorized formulas, and the things In his physical chemistry class during After graduating summa cum laude that you memorize and don’t understand his junior year, Alberts was particularly from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in leave you very quickly.’’ So not only were frustrated by the textbooks. ‘‘So I went to biochemical sciences, Alberts began grad- introductory lecture classes boring, Alberts the library and found a big, fat, older uate school in 1960 with what he calls decided, they were also failing in their mis- physical chemistry book,’’ he says of the overly ambitious plans, misled by his early sion to teach students basic concepts. 1,300-page tome written by Samuel Glass- research windfalls. ‘‘I thought science was Yet Alberts was also starting to wonder tone (1). ‘‘It contained a lot of words. trivial,’’ he says. ‘‘It made me way too if teaching concepts was the sole aim of Most of the textbooks in physical chemis- cocky.’’ His ambition led him to embark introductory classes. He saw that many try have relatively few words, and they on solving the genetic code, which was professors, including himself at first he emphasize equations,’’ Alberts says. ‘‘But still undeciphered at that point, and he confesses, had the attitude that their intro- Glasstone was a person who really wanted excitedly designed a series of experiments ductory science classes should weed out people to understand the essence of the with a technique he had proposed in an all but those most likely to become scien- subject, and he wrote beautifully about it. earlier term paper. tists themselves. All other students could And I discovered from his book that I be shuttled out of science classes as could actually get the understanding that quickly as possible, so that they would not I was looking for.’’ Alberts realized that take up valuable space in upper-level Alberts found the companion labora- classes. tory sections to be even more frustrating the college science When Alberts looked around at his and than the assigned textbooks. Laboratory other science departments, he realized assignments consisted of following a set he had experienced that his faculty colleagues were in fact a of instructions, he says, then comparing rather special group, in that they them- answers with a friend, fudging data to was not like actual selves had survived an earlier weeding-out get the right answer, and turning in a process. ‘‘All of us who are professors did pointless notebook. ‘‘Cooking classes,’’ science at all. well with lecture-style teaching and tests,’’ he calls them. In the second half of his he says, ‘‘and so we think that everybody junior year, Alberts took action to im- else should be able to learn well in exactly prove the science education he was get- Not only did the method turn out to be the same way.’’ But Alberts’ experiences cumbersome, it was also completely hope- were instead starting to point to much ting. He petitioned to leave the physical less. The problem, Alberts says, was his more variability in how people learn. chemistry laboratory but was told only overlooking of crucial control experiments ‘‘What I learned as a professor working laboratory research performed that that would have warned him of the meth- closely with many graduate students is spring could substitute. Jacques Fresco, od’s limitations. Alberts regrouped, that there is no such thing as a single his tutor and a postdoctoral fellow in shifted his thesis topic, and resolved never measure of intelligence. You can’t rank Paul Doty’s laboratory, then invited to make the same mistake again. He grad- people and their abilities on a linear scale, Alberts to continue in the same labora- uated with his doctorate in 1965 and spent because different people are good at dif- tory for the summer.

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